Erdogan’s accidental gestures of goodwill, that he doesn’t even know about

Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s decision to skip the annual celebrations in the occupied north marking the anniversary of the invasion and the occupation that followed it has been read by some as a deliberate signal, one aimed at the current manoeuvring over the Cyprus problem and the UN Secretary-General’s forthcoming visit.

For the credulous among us, Erdogan’s absence from the occupied north on 20 July can be filed under “goodwill gestures”: the sort everyone notices except Erdogan himself. Perhaps...