"Cyprus at a Crossroads
by Mehmet Hasgüler and Murat Tüzünkan
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2009, pp. 63-71
Cyprus is an island boxed in on three sides by Turkey and the countries of the Levant. On the streets of its divided capital Nicosia, silence prevails, except for the tick-tack sounds coming from the tables of the city's backgammon players, who gather every day in the city's coffee shops. The players are mainly old Cypriots. Many of them were once members of militias during the civil war. As they play, they reminisce about their conflict. Both Turks and Greeks populate this third-largest island of the Mediterranean. They hardly ever shared the same coffee shops even in the past when they were living in mixed communities. Now, they are living completely apart as the island is divided between the Turkish and Greek sections separated by the green line, patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers who first came to the island nearly half a century ago. The game for the future of Cyprus, however, is coming to an end. The island's Turkish and Greek inhabitants will either unite or divorce."
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