Cyprus: Approaching Flashpoint

"In the ebb and flow of histories and cultures," Lawrence Durrell once wrote of Cyprus, "it has time and time again been a flashpoint where Aryan and Semite, Christian and Moslem, met in a death-embrace." The legendary island of Aphrodite gained independence from Britain a decade ago. Yet it remains an uneasy homeland to 490,000 Greek Cypriots, most of whom have traditionally espoused enosis (union with Greece), and 110,000 Turkish Cypriots, who have long favored partition of the island. In December 1963, savage fighting broke out between the two communities. In November...

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