Balkans: December 27, 2002

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Turkey said the EU's Copenhagen summit decision to admit Cyprus in 2004 even if the island remains split is unacceptable. The Turkish government urged Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots to continue to negotiate to solve their differences. Essentially, the UN decided to admit the Greek half (southern half) of Cyprus, and ignored the Turkish northern republic. If the EU goes ahead with this offer, and the island remains divided, an EU politician (probably Greek?) could accuse the Turkish Army of occupying EU territory. That would make for an interesting political situation, but one that would probably backfire. At that point Turkey might simply say, so what?