Others said that some violation of OPOV was inevitable in any form of the "bizonal, bicommunal federation" that both sides had accepted.Iraq and Bosnia were under huge external pressure to accept arrangements that one or more groups disliked.
Partly thanks to a change of line by Greek-Cypriot diplomats, a bicommunal effort to recover and identify remains started in 2004; so far over 800 have been examined.The parallels between Cyprus and Spain have been explored by two Belfast-based scholars, Iosif Kovras and Neophytos Loizides*, who say both cases highlight the same paradox.
Indeed some Greek-Cypriots hope their EU membership may lead to a solution more favourable than the bizonal, bicommunal federation that they reluctantly accepted, as the basis for further talks, in 1977.Such gamesmanship is already receiving discreet encouragement in parts of Europe (eg, France and Austria) where a dust-up between Turkey and the EU would be welcome.
Even so, this ought to be a propitious moment since, for the first time, the leaders of both sides want a deal.For 30 years after 1974, the Turkish-Cypriots were led by the obstinate Rauf Denktash, who preferred partition to the "bizonal, bicommunal" federation that both sides agreed to aim for in the late 1970s.
Both sides now agree that there will be a united Cyprus federation with a Turkish-Cypriot constituent state and a Greek-Cypriot constituent state of equal status, a bizonal and bicommunal federation with political equality, which is a member of the UN and the EU.This joint statement has been embraced by all relevant parties, locally and internationally.
A year ago you did not describe Dervish Eroglu, the Turkish-Cypriot leader, in the brightest of colours ("a nationalist hardliner", against "a bizonal, bicommunal federation").
In February the two sides agreed to work for a bizonal, bicommunal federation "with political equality".
A better idea, perhaps, would have been to ask both communities if they still accepted the idea of a "bizonal, bicommunal federation" on which all talks about Cyprus have been based since the late 1970s.
In 18 months of UN-sponsored negotiations, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, respectively the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders, have broadly agreed over how a bizonal, bicommunal Cyprus should be governed.
Another flicker of hope is the bicommunal campaign on Facebook, a social-networking website, to protect the island's wild donkeys, ten of which were mysteriously shot dead recently.
Mr Eroglu is against the idea of a "bizonal, bicommunal federation", which has been the basis of all Cyprus talks since 1977.
