EUROPEAN UNION countries loudly criticize Russia for creating frozen conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and, now, Ukraine. Yet they are quieter about their own case of Cyprus, an EU member with an unrecognised Turkish-Cypriot north. This frozen conflict is older: over 50 years have passed since clashes broke out between Turkish- and Greek-Cypriots, 40 since Turkey invaded and grabbed northern Cyprus and ten since the Annan plan for unification that Turkish-Cypriots accepted but Greek-Cypriots rejected.Bitter experience recommends scepticism about talks on Cyprus. Even so, a sixth round is under way. In February the two sides agreed to work for a bizonal, bicommunal federation “with political equality”. A new UN envoy, Espen Barth Eide, a former Norwegian foreign minister, arrived in September. The (Greek-Cypriot) president, Nicos Anastasiades, who backed the Annan plan, is eager for a deal. He knows well the cost of not having one: from the garden of his presidential palace in Nicosia (“Europe’s last divided city”) he can see the Turkish-Cypriot flag emblazoned on the Pentadaktylos mountains.Two newer developments ought to spur the negotiators on. One…
