The media is once again focused on the prolonged dispute in Cyprus, as the leaders of the island’s Greek and Turkish communities attempt to arrive at a political settlement that would reunite the island.

Cyprus has been partitioned since 1974, when a Greek-sponsored coup against President Makarios provoked Turkey into intervening, ostensibly to protect the island’s Turkish community. Turkey expelled 180,000 Greeks from the northern part of the island, leading to a population exchange in which 60,000 Turks relocated from the south. Ever since, its troops have remained, enforcing the island’s division into the southern, Greek-dominated and internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s allowed the RoC to join the European Union and its Economic and Monetary Union. This had dramatic consequences, as the country’s bloated banking sector succumbed to the eurozone crisis and collapsed. This put Cyprus in the same camp as the other austerity-ravaged countries in the European south.