The latest effort to end the nearly 29-year-old division of Cyprus terminated in failure Tuesday at The Hague. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had labored mightily and invested considerable personal prestige in trying to bring the Greeks, Turks, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to agreement. Greek Cyprus will now enter the European Union on its own.
The application of Cyprus to enter the European Union provided an opportunity for the United Nations and EU members to give the divided Cypriots a strong incentive to put an end to the useless division of the island that has prevailed since 1974. The United Nations provided a blueprint, and a reasonable one at that, proposing a fairly loose federation of the two parts, to be approved in an island-wide referendum.
The Greek and Turk Cypriots blew the opportunity. The new president of Greek Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, 69, had campaigned on a platform that said his predecessor and opponent had given away too much in the negotiations. The longtime president of Turkish Cyprus, Rauf Denktash, 79, remains rigidly opposed to a deal and is unlikely to change his position during his lifetime, in spite of the clear desire of the Turkish Cypriot population for an agreement.
The rest of the Europeans didn't help either. The European Union, in its meeting in Copenhagen in December at which new admissions were considered, did not take the steps required to give the proposed settlement the necessary push. Instead, the other Europeans catered to the recalcitrance of Greece, an EU member. They also did not agree to set a date to begin negotiations with Turkey for admission to the EU, a deal that could have had as a condition a sharp Turkish push to the Turkish Cypriots to settle.
Instead, the Greek Cypriots are walking away from the failed negotiations with admission to the EU next year on their own, leaving the Turkish part of the island's population high and dry. With that tucked under their arms, the Greek side has little or no incentive to renew negotiations, in spite of Mr. Annan's brave words about the proposed agreement remaining on the table.
The door is still open, of course, but a fine opportunity has been lost for now. This is one that no one won.
E-mail this story 
