Cyprus and the EU: what matters is perception

This article is published in the Turkish Weekly of March 31, 2007

The first time I heard about the Cyprus issue and the divided island, was when I was 16 years old, just back from a nice holiday in Italy. I remember hearing that the Turks invaded Cyprus: the Turks did it again. At least that was the news in the Netherlands. There was no internet, no international television channels like CNN, BBC World which are now broadcasting worldwide: we were dependent on printed media. No real-time coverage.

When I made my first trip to Turkey in 2002, 26 years later, I immediately clashed with Turkish people over Cyprus: in my opinion Turkey was wrong and they were the ones to blame for the status quo on Cyprus.
I was also annoyed that my Turkish friends referred to Cyprus as ‘Baby land’ while talking about it, as if it was a colony of their Turkey: their Motherland. The vast majority of them had an outspoken opinion about ‘Peace Mission to Cyprus’; it was the only solution to stop the violence over there. And it belongs to Turkey.

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