Embracing Cyprus

When Archbishop Makarios was toppled as President of Cyprus in a 1974 coup, and Turkish forces invaded the island, few saw Cyprus as part of the incipient drive to create a new Europe. Yet, as Pauline Green reveals here, behind the rhetoric of the politicians there is a growing view among Greek and Turkish Cypriots that the solution to Cyprus' problems lies within the gift of Europe. And yet the problems remain knotty - not least because of the highly sensitive and little-discussed role of the British military bases on the island, whose security and intelligence-gathering functions are so crucial to UK and US interests in the region. The author's analysis should interest those concerned not only with the future of Cyprus, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean, but also with the fate of the European Union itself.