BRENDAN O'MALLEYAND IANCRAIG, The Cyprus Conspiracy: America, Espionage and the Turkish Invasion (London: I. B. Taurus, 1999). Pp. 283. $29.95.

Extract

“We Greeks invented tragedy. So we are fated to act it out. But why it should be only the Greeks of Cyprus, I don't know” (Greek Cypriot student, Limassol, 1993). “When bad things happen to us we think someone else intended them. When it's good things, we think we did them. That's what we learned [in an intercommunal conflict-resolution exercise]. But it's true!” (Turkish Cypriot student, Nicosia/Lefkoşe, 1997). Brendan O'Malley and Ian Craig ably relate a well-researched account of the division of Cyprus, focusing on the deliberations and political events that presaged partition in 1974. Their purpose is not to draw lessons for policy today, but to explain and to fix blame—and, at times, credit—for the division of the island.