Our View: Division seems to suit both sides in Cyprus

Another anniversary of the Turkish invasion was marked on Thursday – the 49^th – with the traditional memorial service at the Makedonitissa military cemetery, church service for politicians, and the gathering at the presidential palace addressed by the president.

There was also the endless stream of announcements with the familiar rhetoric about vindication, liberation, reunification, UN resolutions, Turkish barbarity, Turkish intransigence, the desire for return, the red lines, and the rest of the empty slogans we have been hearing from our politicians for half a century.

Across the dividing line, there was the visit of the Turkish president who was the guest of honour at the annual military parade. Before the parade, he attended the opening ceremony for the new terminal of the Ercan (Tymbou) airport, which will have a capacity for ten million passengers a year, it was reported.

Kyrenia, a small fishing town of a few thousand people in 1974, is now a big and thriving town that has expanded in all directions. There are also plans of modernising Famagusta port and development of the fenced-off part of Varosha, while big developments have been carried out in Trikomo, Boghazi and Karpasia by foreign businessmen. On Tuesday an agreement was signed between the ‘TRNC’ and Turkey for the creation of an undersea power cable that would bring electricity from the mainland to the north.

Over these 49 years the north has steadily become a part of Turkey, while the Greek Cypriots seem content to have maintained ownership of the Cyprus Republic, the safeguarding of which is the only success they can talk about. For the political establishment, which does not want to share power with the Turkish Cypriots, this is a major achievement, even if it means sacrificing 40 per cent of the territory originally under the control of the Republic. Admittedly, this territory has been under the control of the occupation regime for much longer than it ever had been under the control of the Republic.

It may sound harsh, but the reality is that too many Greek Cypriots are content with the status quo, for a variety of reasons. If there was big public support for reunification under a federation there would have been more pressure on politicians to reach an agreement, but there never has been, which would suggest that most people are quite happy to live with division. This is why our politicians have spurned opportunities for a settlement without suffering any political cost; it may have boosted their popularity.

The Turkish Cypriots, meanwhile, realise that a settlement would be key to their survival as a community – the only way of avoiding becoming a miniscule Turkish province – but they also value the sense of security offered by Turkey.

Is it any wonder that next year we will be marking half a century since the island’s division?