"How Cyprus's wounds are hurting Europe
By Quentin Peel
Published: December 23 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 23 2004 02:00
Words such as 'historic' were being freely bandied about in the corridors of the European Council's headquarters in Brussels last week after the deal was done to launch negotiations with Turkey to join the European Union.
If the process comes to its intended conclusion - in about 10 years - it will demonstrate the extraordinary capacity of the EU to heal the wounds of history. If Europe can bind Christians and Muslims in one great secular construction, it would provide a dramatic demonstration that the 'clash of civilisations' is not inevitable.
Yet it was a moment that very nearly did not happen. A combination of clumsy diplomacy by the Dutch presidency of the EU and legalistic quibbles by both the Turkish and Greek Cypriot delegations almost brought it to grief. It took the intervention of the Big Three - Britain's Tony Blair, France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schr�der - to force a conclusion."
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