The Cyprus Problem

Obviously Paul Krugman did not read my blog when I posted "Pandora's Oasis", just before Cyprus took over the EU Presidency last year, otherwise it would have been evident to him and everybody else that about 8 months later the UK would be sending a military plane with € 1 million in notes to the potential cashless British expatriate population........

Seriously, I would like to hope that when EU leading politicians, by now infamous for their indecision and over prudence, submit an offer to Cyprus to cut bank deposits by 10 or more points as a solidarity contribution, they would have contemplated the plausible popular consequences as well as a reaction from Russian presidents and prime-ministers and their fellow stakeholders.

I dug up a booklet from my library, with the title "The Cyprus Problem", something I picked up from what was once a home on the east coast of the island, below the green line. A fascinating spot, next to a UN post, from where visitors could binocular in the direction of Varosha, a ghost town which once would have housed over 15000 Greek Cypriots, an (other) unresolved diplomatic dispute, not without bloodshed, dating from well before 1974, the actual time of a Turkish invasion.

This booklet, published may be 20 years ago, with no author identified, makes the case that the only way for The Problem is for both Greece and Turkey to be outside any European (economic) Community and inside some sort of east Mediterranean Confederation.

So now Cyprus has another, more contemporary problem on its hands. Or just maybe it has an opportunity.