A quarter of a century after Turkey seized northern Cyprus in the name of the Turkish Cypriots, the breakaway state's economy remains in the doldrums while that of the Greek-Cypriot south has boomed.
Gross domestic product in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus amounts to just $4,016 per person: in the government-controlled south of the divided island, it stands at more than $14,000 a head.
And while the internationally recognised government is negotiating to join the EU in the next wave of members, Turkish-Cypriot leaders have spurned all invitations to join the talks.
In the first four years after the Turkish invasion of July 20th, 1974, the government experienced huge difficulties in the south as it struggled to provide aid and jobs for the 180,000 Greek Cypriots who had fled their homes in the north.
But in the 25 years since, Greek Cypriots have benefited from a boom in tourism and services which has marginalised the south's once important agricultural sector.
Tourism now accounts for nearly a quarter of GDP, bringing in almost $2 billion a year and generating another $2 billion annually in other economic sectors.
Tourism has been further boosted in recent months by a fall in the value of the Cyprus pound against the dollar and pound sterling - the island's currency is pegged to the euro at €1.725 to the pound. "That favours the tourists, half of whom are British," the Finance Minister, Mr Takis Clerides, said.
Offshore companies contribute more than $400 million, especially the 1,100 companies which have offices in Cyprus.
"We never sought to attract so many or to turn the island into a tax haven, just to be a business centre and link between Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East," said Mr Sophoclis Mikhailides, who heads the central bank's international division.
By contrast, the 390,000 tourists who visited breakaway northern Cyprus last year generated revenues of just $200 million. Fully 313,000 of the visitors were Turkish - tourists of other nationalities are often deterred by the need to fly via mainland Turkey.
Analysts say that growth in the north is running at 5.5 per cent, but this is balanced by a very high inflation rate of 60 per cent imported with the Turkish lira.
The breakaway state's $675 million budget is heavily subsidised by Ankara, which has provided $250 million in grants and loans with the increasingly formal integration of the Turkish-Cypriot economy with mainland Turkey. Infra structure projects in the north are largely directed from Ankara, which also supplies the drought-ridden north with drinking water by sea.
The Greek-Cypriot economy still has to undergo some tough reforms to enter the EU, but the government insists it is already in good shape to join. Exchange controls must be lifted, value-added tax must be raised from eight to 15 per cent and other fiscal and banking laws will have to be amended before the end of the negotiations by the year 2001.
Many businessmen and bankers say the government should have moved quicker to cut public expenditure and harmonise the economy with the EU.
"Although the measures are difficult now, they are vital for the economy in the long run," said the head of the island's second largest bank, the Popular Bank, Mr Kikis Lazarides.
But Turkish Cypriots have refused all economic blandishments from the EU to join the membership talks insisting on recognition for their breakaway state which is still recognised only by Ankara. Their position exasperates many European diplomats.
"We know the syndrome well - they isolate themselves and then say they are isolated," one diplomat said.