Turkish Cypriots who live in Greek Cypriot properties in the north, or who migrated overseas before 1974, are ineligible to make claims on their lands in the south.
Even though Papadopoulos broke a promise to back the plan, the EU then allowed the Greek Cypriot government to join the EU as the island's sole representative.
Without any warning, this forbidding obstacle was thrown open by the Turkish Cypriot authorities, and it was announced that any Cypriots could travel freely on the island as long as they were back at the frontier by midnight.
Supported respectively by Greece and Turkey, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have seen little incentive to compromise on such contentious issues as sovereignty, as well as new territorial and security arrangements.
The status quo that has existed since 1974 has been broken in part by the tactics of the Greek Cypriot side which has recently pursued what might be described as a policy of brinkmanship, although others might see it as a calculated policy of escalation in order to bring the international community into more active involvement.