The fact that it is an island means that it is not organically linked to other territorial disputes, for example those in the Balkans. The Greeks and Turks are secure in their national identities, as paradoxical or contradictory as some of those identities may be. This fundamentally distinguishes the situation on Cyprus from the situation in the former Yugoslavia and from that in the former Soviet Transcaucasus. From the second half of the 1980s both Greece and Turkey accentuated the European orientation of their foreign policies. However, I believe that at least some circles in Greece understand that Turkey's growing significance in the Asian region makes it no longer possible to diminish the objective significance of Turkey not only for the U.S. but also for the European Community, which is increasingly taking on a foreign policy coordinating role.
Turkey is in an entirely new position today.
For the first time in nearly three hundred years, there is a situation where there is a strong Turkey getting stronger and a weak Russia getting perhaps weaker. The present situation of a strong Turkey and a weak Russia is new at least since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. If we admit an emerging tripolarity of trading blocs, where North and South America fall under U.S. tutelage, where Central and Eastern Europe falls under EC tutelage, and where East Asia falls under Japan's tutelage, then we are left with Africa, Central Eurasia, and southwest Asia including Asia Minor and the Near East. Cyprus is further unique in that the conflict there, although one side is Christian and the other Muslim, does not have a fundamentally religious but rather a national character. Religion has little significance as an actual source of conflict.