Few were surprised that a UN-sponsored summit failed to jumpstart settlement talks on the Cyprus conflict last week, but Turkey sees the meeting as a “turning point” in reshuffling the cards and upping the ante on the long-divided Mediterranean island.
The most intriguing aspect of the April 27-29 meeting in Geneva was perhaps the attitude of Britain amid signals that it might readjust its Cyprus policy in a way more favorable to the Turkish side. Britain, along with Turkey and Greece, is a guarantor state of Cyprus, which has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkey’s military intervention in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
