UN plan kindles hope on Cyprus

For nearly 30 years, Ioannis Shekersavva has longed to return to his ancestral home, a harbor town in northern Cyprus. "I think of Kyrenia every day," he says.

His family was among 162,000 Greek Cypriots displaced after Turkey seized the northern part of the island following a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriots backed by the junta then ruling Greece. The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have lived apart ever since.

But the three-decade impasse could soon be broken. Cyprus's larger goal of joining Europe is propelling efforts to reunite this Mediterranean island.

The United Nations is racing to broker a framework reunification agreement before the European Union's summit next week, at which Cyprus and nine other countries are expected to receive invitations to join in 2004.

"Everyone is treating this as the most critical period in Cyprus's history since 1974. It's a coming together of a number of different factors, most important of which is Cyprus's EU accession," says James Ker-Lindsay, director of Civilitas Research, a political consultancy in Nicosia. "For the Greek Cypriots, EU membership represents security. For the Turkish Cypriots, it is a way out of their impoverished isolation."

On both sides of the divide, many agree that the opportunity must be seized. "[The UN plan] is like quinine. You hate it, but you have to take it because it will be good for your health," says Dinos Lordos, a prominent Greek Cypriot businessman.

A Cyprus settlement would save the EU from ushering in a country divided by a Berlin-style wall and remove a major source of friction between key NATO members Greece and Turkey. It would also assist Ankara's bid to join Europe - a goal supported by the US, which wants Turkish support in the war on terror and the campaign against Iraq.

But a Cyprus deal may dash Mr. Shekersavva's hopes of going home. The UN proposals, unveiled last month, require the Turkish Cypriots to hand back chunks of territory to the Greek Cypriots, allowing half of the Greeks driven out by Turkish troops to return. The rest, like Shekersavva, would be offered compensation instead. It "simply legalizes the fait accompli created by the (Turkish) force of arms in 1974," fumes Shekersavva, secretary of the Kyrenia Refugee Association.

Among Turkish Cypriot critics, the most vocal are those who would have to relocate from territory that would be returned to Greek Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots comprised 18 percent of the island's population in 1974 but were left with 37 percent of the land - a holding that would shrink to 28.5 percent. "We want a solution but without moving people again," says Salim Karabekir, the chief government official in Nikitas, a village inhabited by Greek Cypriots until they were driven out 28 years ago.

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