While conceding that an annexation of the northern part of Cyprus is possible, PRIO Cyprus Centre's Senior Researcher Mete Hatay underlines that this will have consequences for Turkey and warns that talking so much about this possibility may prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"Yes, it's possible, Turkey may annex the north," Hatay says. "But is Erdoğan ready to pay the price of doing this? We already have a de-facto integration. In the past, Turkey would let us play in our middle earth [the world between heaven and hell according to Islam]. Now that middle earth too has collapsed, and Turkey is directly in control… Therefore, it doesn't really need to annex the north. But as we voice such an eventuality over and over again, we are, in a way, preparing the grounds for it. Because no matter how well-meaning, such presuppositions serve to break people's mental resistance."
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