The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities have been split since Turkey invaded the north in 1974, following a Greek-inspired coup.
Poets must be well-versed in the Greek Cypriot dialect, possess adequate knowledge of the popular poetry of Cyprus and the ability to retrieve existing, well-known Tsiattista and, above all, must be able to improvise a new couplet on a specific theme within very strict time constraints and be able to respond to his or her opponent.
In that case, the Greek-Cypriot administration will join the Union alone.
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Moreover, it is hard to see how Turkey can ever join the EU without a settlement in Cyprus, since it would first have to recognise the Greek-Cypriot government and abandon the Turkish-Cypriots.
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Turkey is obliged to open its ports and airports to Cypriot-registered ships and aircraft under an agreement extending its customs union to the ten governments, including the Greek-Cypriot one, which joined the union in 2004.
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Tasos Papadopoulos, the Greek-Cypriot president, has already said that he is against a referendum before the conclusion of negotiations.
The Greek-Cypriot president, Tassos Papadopoulos, has assured his voters that he has scores of vetoes up his sleeve.
Unfortunately this still remains unfulfilled because of continuous objections from the Greek-Cypriot side.
Greece will try hard to ensure that the ten include a soon-to-be reunified Cyprus, not just, de facto, the Greek-Cypriot half.
For many observers, the key lies with Demetris Christofias, leader of the Greek-Cypriot communist party Akel which governs in coalition with Mr Papadopoulos.
Why, Turkish Cypriots often ask, were outside powers so loth to speak up when they were being bullied into ethnic enclaves by the Greek-Cypriot majority in the 1960s?
Under a UN special envoy, Alexander Downer, the Greek-Cypriot president (Demetris Christofias) and his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart (Dervish Eroglu since March 2010), have held 100 meetings since September 2008.
As the Greek-Cypriot president, Tassos Papadopoulos, gleefully noted in December, he will have many opportunities to veto Turkish entry: the negotiations could last for ten years or more.
Others heaped praise on the Greek-Cypriot leader, Glafcos Clerides.
Eight are formally blocked because Turkey has not kept an agreement to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, an EU member since 2004 (Turkey does not recognise the Greek-Cypriot republic and insists that Turkish north Cyprus is being unfairly blockaded).
But if talks fail, the EU has said it is prepared to admit the Greek part alone, leaving the impoverished Turkish Cypriot community out in the cold. (The Greek bit was one of the ten countries invited to join in Copenhagen.) Were that to happen, the Greek Cypriots would most likely oppose Turkish membership for some years.
The northern half of the island remains occupied by Turkish troops and Turkey refuses to accept the legitimacy of the internationally recognised government of the Republic of Cyprus the southern, Greek-Cypriot bit of the island, which joined the EU last May.
The official position of the (Greek-Cypriot) government is that unless Turkey recognises it, it might veto the opening of talks.
Yet the (Greek-Cypriot) republic, with a population of only 850, 000, will be running the EU's ministerial business for six months.
But if the Greek-Cypriots vote no to the plan while their Turkish-Cypriot neighbours vote yes, the moral advantage enjoyed by the Greek side as the main victims of the 1974 events would be overturned.
The rapprochement should consolidate over the next few months as the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot governments adopt measures to help the two economies converge.
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The country has been in financial difficulties since the collapse of the Greek economy, where Cypriot banks had huge investments.
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The original (Greek-Cypriot) owner sued for compensation and won in Cyprus.
The restructuring of Laiki and the sale of the toxic-asset laden Greek branches of Cypriot banks is expected to cut the amount the country needs to raise to about 3 billion euros instead of 5.8 billion euros, officials have said.
Mr Clerides may accept Mr Denktash's demand for a rotating federal presidency: a Greek Cypriot one time, a Turkish Cypriot the next.
Kirkegaard says that the decision to tap depositors indicates that the European Central Bank is confident that the risk of a bank run elsewhere in the eurozone is low and by excluding Greek branches of Cypriot banks, they have reduced the possibility even further.
Kirkegaard says that the decision to tax tap depositors indicates that the European Central Bank is confident that the risk of a bank run elsewhere in the eurozone is low and by excluding Greek branches of Cypriot banks, they have reduced the possibility even further.
Eleni Meleagrou, a lawyer specialising in reclaiming Greek Cypriot property in the north, said she herself had discovered that an area of orange groves which belonged to her father had ended up in Nadir's hands.
However the biggest problem is not on the Turkish-Cypriot side, but the lack of pressure on the Greek-Cypriots to make concessions.
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