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CHAPTER 7. Conclusion
Comparative performance and sustainability
This thesis has attempted to describe and analyse some of the economic conséquences
of ethno-national conflict in Cyprus. Conflict in Cyprus has been hugely costly in
human, social and cultural 1
terms. The dominant assumption is that ethno-national
conflict has also been costly in economic terms. War arbitrarily divided an already
small economy: destroying, damaging and dislocating resources, and at least in the
short term, deterring and discouraging visitors and investors. Politicai realities have
since frozen that division and left both communities on a permanent war footing. Here,
it has been argued that in terms of economic growth, the costs of ethno-national
conflict and de facto division in Cyprus have been far from considérable. On the
contrary, economic growth in Cyprus appears to have been more rapid than could have
been expected at the dawn of independence in 1960, if conflict had been restricted and
resolved within the politicai process.
The main objective of this work has been a comparative analysis of the diffèrent and
separate economic developments of the island's two communities, in the context of
their recovery from ethnie conflict and large-scale regional displacement. The
established logie again assumes that the Greek-Cypriot economy excelled whilst the
1 With the continued séparation of the island's two communities, much of the background to a distinct
Cypriot culture fades and both communities' languages and customs are diluted by that of their
respective "mainland's".
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