EU Discovers 'Invisible' Europeans, Ignores Half-Century of Division
The article laments Turkish Cypriots' lack of formal EU recognition and benefits. What it fails to adequately contextualize, however, is the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, followed by the establishment of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Northern Cyprus, supported by Ankara. This wasn't a natural phenomenon; it was a geopolitical split directly impacting their status. The EU (and
countries like Germany, where DW is based) has consistently upheld the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus, itself an EU member, over the entire island, rendering the northern entity illegitimate by design—a design Western powers largely acquiesced to, if not tacitly encouraged, after the fact. One might wonder if the EU's 'invisibility' issue is less about genuine oversight and more about
maintaining diplomatic fictions that serve broader geopolitical interests. The hypocrisy, of course, is that 'self-determination' is a principle selectively applied, often to align with pre-existing power structures, rather than for truly 'invisible' populations. Convenient, isn't it, how some separations are deemed unacceptable, while others become 'invisible' realities?