History cannot change. But it can teach us something.

A country that broke a ceasefire in wartime, and used it to carve out a bridgehead, then seized the overwhelming bulk of another nation’s territory, land it still holds today. How exactly are we supposed to trust that country at the negotiating table for a fair and lasting solution?

There are moments in history that leave no room for forgetting, and none for naivety either. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 is one of them. Not simply because it trampled the sovereignty of an independent...