Europe's Stepchildren: Will Reconciliation Efforts in Cyprus Fail? - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The Turkish residents of Northern Cyprus will go to the polls to elect a new president on Sunday. The future of their internationally ostracized republic, the most isolated in Europe, is at stake. A solution to the three-decade division between Greek southern Cyprus and the Turkish northern part of the island is nowhere in sight.

Some 1,400 Greek Cypriots have filed petitions with the European Court of Human Rights for the return of their property in the north, and €70 million ($94 million) in compensation has been paid. No money flows in the other direction, not officially, at least. The Republic of Cyprus is holding properties formerly owned by Turks "in trust" until the conflict is fully resolved, or it simply compensates the former Turkish owners, as in the case of a Turkish Cypriot who fled to England and received more than a half-million euros under the table.

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