For a country that earns its keep by catering to foreign holiday makers, Cyprus has a most unhelpful tourist attraction in the Green Line. An untidy barrier of concrete, old tires and barbed wire, the line separates the Greek Cypriot south of the island from the Turkish Cypriot north. At the main crossing point at Nicosia's Ledra Palace Hotel, which houses United Nations peace- keeping troops, the contrast between the two sides is overwhelming. Just a five-minute stroll to the south, tourists and wealthy Greek Cypriots sip cappuccinos in trendy cafes on Makarios Avenue and snap up the latest fashions at the local outlets of Gucci and Prada. Five minutes to the north, past disused colonial buildings and a Turkish Army checkpoint proclaiming "North Cyprus Forever," squalor and neglect abound. The Saray, the only hotel, is still pockmarked with bullet holes from Turkey's 1974 invasion, and vendors in the main market sell cheap counterfeit clothes from Turkey. The Green Line is all the more incongruous because of Cyprus's status as a new member of the European Union. Enlargement was a historic healing act that put an end to the cold war division of Europe by bringing eight former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe into the EU fold. But Cyprus brought a new division into the Union when it joined in May, and the island's age-old ethnic rivalries seem impervious to the unifying force of European integration.
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