Much is at stake in the negotiations on a settlement in Cyprus, which have been fast-tracked by the latest proposals from the United Nations for a federal-type agreement.
The prospect of a settlement would make it much easier for the island to join the European Union in the forthcoming enlargement. It would ease the path towards accepting Turkey as a candidate for EU membership. It would seal the international acceptability of the new Turkish government, led by Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic Justice and Development Party. And it would give a fillip to Greece, the next holder of the EU presidency.
It is quite a catalogue. The UN proposals have been carefully calibrated to a tight timetable - probably an unrealistic one, as Mr Erdogan said yesterday in Athens. If they were followed, Cyprus would combine elements of federalism in its external relations and confederalism in its domestic affairs. Internationally and within the EU there would be a single entity speaking with one voice, with alternating presidencies between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Domestically each community would have extensive self-government and proportionate representation in the central administration, again with rotating leadership.
The precise details are left to the negotiations. These are urgent, given the fraught atmosphere surrounding the final stages of EU enlargement between now and the EU summit in Copenhagen on December 11-12th when final terms must be agreed with the candidate states. Turkey has said it will annex the northern part of the island if Cyprus is accepted as an EU member without a political settlement on its future. Several EU states believe it would be wrong to go ahead without one, despite the political agreement already reached to do so. The controversy has been stoked by Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's high profile opposition to Turkish EU membership, on the grounds that it is not a European country. It is stimulated further by continuing political argument in Turkey over whether the secular and military establishment there will accept Mr Erdogan's democratic credentials after his outright victory.
Thus there is a real opportunity to make rapid progress in one of the world's most intractable political conflicts. It makes much sense to pursue it. Key issues in the talks include whether recent Turkish settlers will stay, the distribution of land, the return of refugees and agreed ways to settle disputes. Within the current international setting these issues are potentially resolvable as never before if the will is there.