>Fast forward to 2004 and a referendum is held on whether Cyprus should unify. The Turkish north votes yes, the Greek south votes no and Cyprus enters the Euro leaving Northern Cyprus out in the cold.
This sounds like a mysterious outcome, given what you said above, but one can add that the "unification plan" was to create an old-style colonial protectorate, which, besides giving foreign powers the power to meddle with the new "state" affairs, gave equal political power to the Turkish minority (the majority of which came post-invasion in order to take control of the Turkish side) and to the Greek majority (instead of using legitimate elections). And of course it didn't address any of the violations of lots of UN rulings by the occupying force.
So mainly it was just perpetuating the occupation and the injecting, and saying "ok, now you both have half-half stakes at a new country".
This sounds like a mysterious outcome, given what you said above, but one can add that the "unification plan" was to create an old-style colonial protectorate, which, besides giving foreign powers the power to meddle with the new "state" affairs, gave equal political power to the Turkish minority (the majority of which came post-invasion in order to take control of the Turkish side) and to the Greek majority (instead of using legitimate elections). And of course it didn't address any of the violations of lots of UN rulings by the occupying force.
So mainly it was just perpetuating the occupation and the injecting, and saying "ok, now you both have half-half stakes at a new country".