"It's important that the pro-solution camp has been strengthened, as far as it goes. It's also important for Ankara because Turkey's whole approach is to present itself as pro-solution," said one European diplomat in Ankara.
"But quite frankly there's not very much they can do. They're finding (Greek Cypriot President Tassos) Papadopoulos is playing the former Denktash script to the very word."
For decades, veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was widely seen as the main obstacle to reunification of the Mediterranean island, split on ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at union with Greece.
But a referendum last April on a United Nations peace plan turned those assumptions on their head. Turkish Cypriots ignored Denktash and strongly backed the blueprint, while Greek Cypriots heeded Papadopoulos's emotional call to reject it.
The internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government has since joined the European Union in the name of the whole island.
Turkish Cypriots still struggle with UN-backed trade and other sanctions. EU and US moves to ease their isolation have been slowed by strong Greek Cypriot opposition.
Voters who backed Talat and other pro-settlement parties see a peace deal as key to bringing them and their shuffling, Turkish-subsidised economy into the international mainstream.
The EU has urged both sides to take up an offer from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan of renewed mediation. Talat is keen but Papadopoulos has shown no clear sign of accepting.
He has ruled out any new talks on the basis of the UN plan, which was crafted by Annan, though most analysts say there is little else on offer. Greek Cypriots responded coolly to the polls in the north.