Georgetown University will host a public discussion on Cyprus next week, bringing together academic and policy voices for a conversation on the island’s divided past and the difficult search for a shared future.
The event, titled “Cyprus Divided: Past Missteps and Future Paths to Unity,” will take place on Monday, April 27, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., in the Murray Room of Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, 37th and N Streets NW in Washington, D.C. It is free and open to the public, though attendees must present a photo ID to enter the library.
The event is co-hosted by Georgetown’s Modern Greek Studies Program and the American Hellenic Institute. According to AHI, the evening will feature Dr. Andrew Novo, Professor of Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, in a “dynamic audiovisual presentation” drawing on his new book, The EOKA Cause: Nationalism and the Failure of Cypriot Enosis. The book examines the Greek Cypriot nationalist movement that sought union with Greece and the reasons that cause ultimately failed.
Following Novo’s presentation, Nick Larigakis, President and CEO of the American Hellenic Institute, and Dr. Omer Taspinar of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and the National Defense University, will offer commentary. Their participation gives the discussion both a Greek-American policy voice and a regional security perspective.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek junta-backed coup against President Makarios III was followed by Turkey’s military intervention, leaving the northern third of the island under Turkish control. More than fifty years later, the island’s division remains one of the longest unresolved conflicts in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Georgetown event’s title, with its reference to “past missteps” and “future paths,” signals a reflective approach. Rather than treating Cyprus only as a frozen diplomatic problem, the discussion returns to the choices, movements, and competing national visions that shaped the island before its division became permanent.
Novo’s book is especially relevant to that framing. According to the National Defense University’s description, The EOKA Cause explores the origins, conduct, and failure of Greek Cypriot nationalists to achieve the unification of Cyprus with Greece. It argues that the “strategic myopia” of the enosis movement helped define both the cause and its failure.
That history continues to echo in current diplomacy. The Greek Cypriot side continues to support a bizonal, bicommunal federation, meaning a reunited federal Cyprus with two constituent communities and zones under a shared state framework. Turkey, however, has continued to favor a two-state approach, leaving the basic framework for any future settlement contested.
Recent developments have made that divide more politically immediate. In October 2025, Turkish Cypriot voters elected Tufan Erhürman, defeating incumbent Ersin Tatar, whose leadership had been aligned with Turkey’s two-state position. Reuters reported that Erhürman’s landslide victory offered “a glimmer of hope” in breaking an eight-year impasse in Cyprus peace talks, while noting that he campaigned on reviving stalled negotiations with Greek Cypriots.
By returning to the history of EOKA, enosis, and the choices that shaped modern Cyprus, the Georgetown event places the island’s present uncertainty in a longer frame. The discussion asks whether understanding past failures can still help clarify what a realistic path toward unity might require now.
Please confirm event details with the organizers before attending, as dates, times, locations, and registration information may change.