A divided Cyprus remembers

Cyprus is part of the European Union but its problems are very much tied to the Middle East. July 20 marked 35 years since the Turkish invasion, the result of which was the division of Cyprus between the Greek Christian south and the Turkish controlled, and largely Muslim, north. Cyprus remains the only country in the EU to be divided and occupied by foreign forces. The Turks call it an “intervention.” The government of then Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit felt the Turkish population of the island was threatened by a coup mounted a few days earlier by a group of Greek Cypriots favoring “Enosis,” or uniting the island with Greece. The war that followed tore the island apart and produced staggering results. Nearly 5,000 people were killed from a population of some 775,000. Almost 200,000 were displaced and 37 percent of the country was occupied by the Turks. If the