When I was a student, there was a very large Greek contingent on UMIST’s campus. They were highly politicised and outnumbered the Turks by about ten to one. So they could push through a motion demanding that Northern Cyprus- held by Turkey since their 1974 invasion- was not recognised and could not be mentioned within the building.

Now, with the carrot of EU membership, Turkey is being persuaded into talks about reunification and improving its human rights record.