Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
18 Cyprus: Building Bridges in the
Borderlands of the New Europe
Julie Scott and Layik Topcan
Introduction
meaning and mission of the European Union,
which was born out of conflict and the need to
'[eliminate] . . . the age-old opposition of France
and Germany'. The first year of enlargement
saw considerable efforts within the Commission
to promote cooperation and rapprochement
between the two sides in the Cyprus conflict, to
create favourable conditions for settlement, and
to prepare the ground for the eventual entry of
the north into the European Union as part of a
united federal Cyprus.
Tourism has a central, yet contradictory
role to play in these processes. With the natural
tourism assets of the north largely undeveloped
due to the political and economic embargoes of
the past three decades, tourism offers an avenue
for stimulating economic activity and raising
income levels which lag a long way behind
those of the more prosperous south. This need is
generally regarded as a prerequisite to obtaining
a workable settlement on the island.
Moreover, the opening up of the north pre-
sents an opportunity to develop complementary
tourism products to the south that could widen
the appeal of the island as a whole and promote
collaborative marketing and business ventures
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots (see Sönmez
and Apostolopoulos, 2000). On the other hand,
achieving these aims requires that Cyprus' most
controversial and politically charged issues
be confronted head-on. Control of movement
over and within borders, access to the physical
After years of division in Cyprus, a referendum
held in April, 2004, on the United Nations-
brokered peace plan (the Annan Plan), followed
one week later by the accession of the Republic
of Cyprus to the European Union, produced
dramatic but ambiguous changes on the island.
The failure, after 30 years of negotiation, to
reach a political settlement between the Greek
Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north
before the scheduled accession date of 1 May,
meant that the southern two-thirds of the
island, constituting the de facto territory of the
internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus,
entered the European Union unaccompanied
by the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC:
declared unilaterally in 1983). The Green Line -
the militarized border marking the cessation of
hostilities in 1974, which runs across the island
and continues to divide its capital, Nicosia - now
defined the outer edge of the European Union,
and the limits of the acquis communautaire.
Nevertheless, this latest European border
remains highly contested, creating a fluid and
uncertain borderland which has become the
focus for on-going attempts to construct both
the new Cyprus and the new Europe. Indeed,
as the Commissioner for European Enlarge-
ment, Olli Rehn, made clear in a speech mark-
ing the first anniversary of Cyprus's accession
to the EU, Cyprus in many ways embodies the
 
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