22 March 2013
by Hugh Pope
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Last month, iron anti-riot shutters boarded up the street-side windows of the Grande Bretagne hotel ballroom in Athens as fine-suited patriarchs of Greek and Cypriot industry gathered for the annual Athens Energy Forum, hoping that recent discoveries deep beneath the … Continue reading
23 September 2011
by Hugh Pope
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Despite eastern Mediterranean states’ new readiness to talk and act tough, navies of the region are unlikely to clash any time soon over oil platforms, aid flotillas, maritime boundaries or exclusive economic zones. But newly assertive Turkey, Israel and Cyprus … Continue reading
9 June 2011
by Hugh Pope
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New cities, high-speed trains, suspension bridges, airports, tax holidays, a “crazy” grand canal parallel to the Bosporus waterway, iPads for all – the campaign trail ahead of Turkey’s 12 June parliamentary elections is strewn with promises of great times coming. … Continue reading
15 April 2010
by Crisis Group
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With Turkish Cypriot leadership elections on Sunday, the future of the Cypriot negotiations are under question. It is clear from the candidates’ platforms that a victory for incumbent Mehmet Ali Talat will make it easier and quicker to reach a … Continue reading
18 January 2010
by Didem A. Collinsworth
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In Cyprus, leaving things until the last minute, then scrambling to try to get them done as a deadline approaches, is as popular as it is in other Mediterranean cultures. It has cursed several past rounds of talks on reunifying … Continue reading
5 January 2010
by Hugh Pope
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Turkey’s friends in Europe have won an important argument. The governments of France and Germany have stopped advocating a “privileged partnership” to replace the long-promised goal of EU membership for Turkey.The concept was always a short-term pandering to Europeans’ fears … Continue reading
24 July 2009
by Hugh Pope
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“Everyone in my community is clairvoyant,” a Belfast politician is quoted as saying in Divided Cities, a new book by Jon Calame and Esther Charlesworth (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009). “My community knows how evil and devious the other side is … Continue reading
23 April 2009
by Hugh Pope
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After the morale-raising 6-7 April trip to Turkey by U.S. President Barack Obama, Turkey is back to facing the reality of its tough neighbourhood: last-minute stresses in its hopeful recent talks on normalisation with Armenia (see our 14 April 2009 report), … Continue reading
23 February 2009
by Hugh Pope
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Turkey has been converging formally with the European Union and its predecessors since it signed an association agreement in 1963, the same year the dispute between Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Turkey and Greece over Cyprus became both a cause and … Continue reading