WORLD VIEW: The Rough Guide says North Cyprus has at first glance a Ruritanian charm, with old British cars tooling about, or mouldering, in fields. Since its 1999 edition most of the Hillmans and Morris Oxfords seem to be now in the latter category. Left-hand drive Toyotas and even buses present some challenge on roads where driving is, as in Ireland, on the left.
That confusion is the least of the political problems in "occupied Cyprus". In this snapshot of representative opinions the main complaint is of isolation - because the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus officially does not exist. The only country that recognises it is the "motherland", Turkey. And its elite feels the EU is no friend.
North Cyprus considers itself under a trade and political embargo by the world. "It is the same as Iraq. We can't sell our oranges. We can't even play a soccer game with Israel," says its business leader, Ali Erel.
In this year of destiny for the island two strands of negotiation are under way. One is to settle the partition question with the Greek Cypriot south, and the other is on the more prosperous southern Republic of Cyprus's application to join the EU.
The Turkish Cypriots say they feel completely left out of the EU negotiations. Mr Erel, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, is a player in both debates. He wants to break the logjam in both negotiations.
He argues for "confidencebuilding measures" and efforts to educate Turkish Cypriots about the values of the EU, which is, however, popularly resented as synonymous with "the embargo". And he says: "We don't have integration with Turkey", which props up the TRNC to the tune of $250 million a year. But the republic has virtually no industry and only a one-way trade relationship with Turkey. The TRNC buys.
"Let's do some business [with the Greek Cypriots] and put pressure on the politicians . . . But the EU is insisting on harmonisation first. What sort of bullshit is this?" Erel asks."How can this be done with embargoes?"
The chamber recently set aside part of its building for an EU information centre. Meanwhile, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, blames the Turkish Cypriots for a lack of progress in negotiating Cyprus into the union.
The north says that the south's unilateral application does not have the TRNC's permission. But in the intimate and tangled web of North Cyprus politics it is far from clear that the leadership wants either a partition "solution" or EU entry.
With the EU negotiating for accession of a united Cyprus by 2004 - though threatening to leave the north out if no National Question solution comes - North Cyprus's Minister for Tourism and Environment, Serdar Denktash, said a surprising thing: North Cyprus should stay out.
In an interview with Irish journalists he said the ideal situation would be for EU applicants Turkey and (southern) Cyprus to go in and for North Cyprus to become a free trade haven, an entrepot between the Far East for the cheap sale of goods to Westerners. None of his fellow ministers agrees with him, he says. This is a "personal view".
He is the son of the president. President Rauf Denktash (78) is supposed to be negotiating (in secrecy) a settlement of the island's 28-year-old partition question directly with the southern president, Glafcos Clerides (83). In the northern mind the EU and partition questions are inextricably linked: Cyprus could apply to the EU after a confederal solution. But to the south they are not so linked.
A younger politician who served as deputy prime minister under Denktash in the mid-1990s told me: "Denktash is a Cold Warrior. He doesn't want to solve the Cyprus problem and he doesn't want to be a member of the EU, which is very, very different from his mindset."
This is Mehmet Ali Talat, president of the Republican Turkish Party, which has six seats in the 50-seat parliament. "Denktash is deceiving the people with disinformation," he says. However, he does not think Denktash junior's surprising view reflects the father's thinking. He just thinks Serdar is "naive".
Before his talks with Clerides began last December Denktash senior was preaching that "the EU was a mincer", that it would mean disintegration of the Turkish community and that it was rather like Énosis (the 1950s movement for union with Greece, which exists now more as a dread in older Turkish Cypriot minds).
The current Deputy Prime Minister, Salih Cosar, says the problem with the EU is that it set up negotiations with the Republic of Cyprus. "They asked to the south as the government of all the island. That is the problem."
Stories of isolation are legion. To help break it next month North Cyprus is opening "direct" Dublin tourist flights - that must, however, pause for an hour in Turkey.