CYPRUS - An Unexpected Geopolitical Giant

(antifon) - Cyprus has quite a few things going in its favor. First, international law. Unless the UN member Republic of Cyprus decides to cancel itself, and why should it, that's all there is in as far as the law is concerned, a Cyprus spanning all corners of the island, legally speaking. Second, the same legal entity, legal as per the highest law of the earth, the UN charter, is also a member of the European Union, the greatest and most tightly knit intranational grouping since the end of WWII, and a member of EU-17, the hard European core that uses the same currency.

A EU that more and more develops into a federation, with constant alignment of the economic, trade, political and defense mechanisms of its member states. Yes, it will be a while before it can speak with one voice, but it is a reality that hardly anyone can ignore or diminish, save a few Turkish live political caricatures.

Lastly, Cyprus has an exclusive economic zone with hydrocarbon reserves, in one of the most geostrategic areas of the globe, that render it one of the most valuable members of the Union, both for its supply capacity as well as the independence it provides the Union away from monopolisitic and non-dependable supply routes that originate from Russia, Azerbaijan and the Middle East, and need to travel through a number of precarious, politically or militarily, spots before reaching Europe.

There are few in the west that would pursue a course of action that would force Cyprus to award undue leverage on Europe via an ethnic Turkish voice in Cypriot matters.

And the more "Turkey" is perceived as having an identity crisis, all the more leaning towards an Islamic version of democracy, an oxymoron really, the more the need for a stable, functioning European Republic of Cyprus, away from constitutional experiments whose purpose would be to serve either archaic British narrow interests, or "Turkey" 's outladish and hypocritical (just ask what language 20 million of its Kurds speak) demands or even Turkish Cypriots' naive, preposterous and self-centered interpretation of what is considered a fair solution for a circa 12% minority community within a unitary state!

If you do not see Cyprus as a giant today, then you are short-sighted, politically speaking.