ABSTRACT
In a rapidly changing world, Turkey’s relations with its Greek neighbours seem to have been the theatre of foreign policy which was least affected by the end of the Cold War. In both countries, the ideological and historical heritage was still powerful. The nationalist narratives of each nation emphasized their differences, but were painfully aware of their similarities, operating in unacknowledged symbiosis, with Greeks identifying Turks as ‘the other’, and vice versa. 1 The tensions and conflicts that had built up since the late 1950s continued unresolved as the 1990s turned out to be a decade of false starts and little progress that failed to unblock what appeared to be a condition of permanent stalemate. It was not until 1999, with a fundamental change in Greek policy, that day-to-day relations with Turkey’s Aegean neighbour changed dramatically, although basic problems remained unresolved. As in previous years, the clash of interests and emotions over Cyprus lay at the heart of Greek–Turkish conflicts. Nonetheless, in 2004, Turkey made historic moves to solve the Cyprus dispute. Sadly, the olive branch was rejected by the Greek Cypriots and by 2011, the problem had returned to stalemate.
