Cyprus-Forum.com

[Viewpoint]

I am with Bir. As for safeguards etc, that is all fine, and they should be provided so as to make everyone feel safe. No sane person wants to repeat the events of 1963 or 1974. Full participation in the political life of the future state makes the Turkish Cypriots a major if not THE major political force. Just think of any politician who wants to be elected and how he would look at the 18 per cent of the vote! Separating the communities was the problem all along, it robbed the Turkish Cypriots of the power of their vote in the overall political life of the island.

I look forward to a time when the presidential candidate will choose a vice presidential running mate and both together will seek the vote of all Cypriots. The separate choice of president and vice president as if the politics in each community are irrelevant to the other was nonsense from the start. Each candidate will have to come from the two major communities of the island, but not necessarily in the order Greek President Turkish Vice president. It can be the other way around in a unitary state with full implementation of human rights in the modern sense.

With 82% of the vote in the hands of GCs do you really hand on heart feel that they will vote according to ability and not ethnic back ground, I have my doubts and becuase this puts my community at risk and not yours therefore I need safeguards to ensure we have a say in our own future and can stop any laws that will effect either community negatively.

Despite your above points this how a democratic and particularly European state is working.Otherwise we are speaking about a dictatorship of minority against the majority which is the case in Cyprus for the last 50 years.

If you which I can explain to you what the word Democracy means because I am not sure that you learned this word in your scholl

You should research the examples I provided to find out what I mean, eg the EU, do you not have a veto right ? does that make it a dictatorship?

This safeguard is vital as anything else will nto be acceptable due the GCs past track record and the mistrust we feel towards one another today.

[denizaksulu]

I am with Bir. As for safeguards etc, that is all fine, and they should be provided so as to make everyone feel safe. No sane person wants to repeat the events of 1963 or 1974. Full participation in the political life of the future state makes the Turkish Cypriots a major if not THE major political force. Just think of any politician who wants to be elected and how he would look at the 18 per cent of the vote! Separating the communities was the problem all along, it robbed the Turkish Cypriots of the power of their vote in the overall political life of the island.

I look forward to a time when the presidential candidate will choose a vice presidential running mate and both together will seek the vote of all Cypriots. The separate choice of president and vice president as if the politics in each community are irrelevant to the other was nonsense from the start. Each candidate will have to come from the two major communities of the island, but not necessarily in the order Greek President Turkish Vice president. It can be the other way around in a unitary state with full implementation of human rights in the modern sense.

With 82% of the vote in the hands of GCs do you really hand on heart feel that they will vote according to ability and not ethnic back ground, I have my doubts and becuase this puts my community at risk and not yours therefore I need safeguards to ensure we have a say in our own future and can stop any laws that will effect either community negatively.

Despite your above points this how a democratic and particularly European state is working.Otherwise we are speaking about a dictatorship of minority against the majority which is the case in Cyprus for the last 50 years.

If you which I can explain to you what the word Democracy means because I am not sure that you learned this word in your scholl[/quote]



Nobody learns in their sandals anymore

[Nikitas]

A case in point, of democracy at work and the power of minorities is the recent courtship of the vote of minorities by US democrat candidates. They approached all minorities, including gays, lesbians, feminists etc, inorder to get the votes they need. Note that this happened within one party to elect its presidential candidates. The presidential contest proper has not yet started. There they call it democracy at work and they do have a federal system.

In the 1960 constitution we were obsessed with guarantees and vetoes and safeguards etc we paid no attention to the political alliances that could have been built to span the communities.

No one is proposing abolishing the guarantees to each community. The proposal was to allow for across the ethnic divide alliances along political lines. One way, and note it is just one way, there may be many others, is to have candidates for the positions of president and vice president run together and appeal to the electorate together.

One beneficial side effect of such an arrangement would be that parties would form alliances and work out programmes for the whole island along common political grounds, and not have weird results like a Greek Orthodox Archbishop for president and a Turkish Cypriot secular academic for vice president. Hard for a duo like that to have a common programme or view on how to overcome an impasse!

[BirKibrisli]

Some people are hell bent on staying glued to the 63 to 74 period....like some people insiting that Cyprob began in 1974 with the Turkish invasion...
It really make me despair sometimes. Nikitas is spot on...The 1960 constitution for all its safeguards was essentially condenming the TC's to being a political minority forever...In real life,when ethnicity is removed from all equations,people will vote for the party who represents their political ideology and world-view most...Sure there will be initially at least,right wing parties along the Nationals Action lines on both sides playing the ethnic or racist cards...But most people will go beyond that and see the world through humanitarian or leftist or loberal democrat or centrist or capitalist eyse and vote accordingly...Why shoul a TC never bocome the President of his/her country if she/he is a deserving candidate???But to give VP his/her credit,she is right in his arguments that there are no preparations or steps to counter the influence of ardent partitioners and scare-mongerers in Cyprus...VP's own scaremongering included...

[Nikitas]

Bir,

One thought to allay the fears of partitionists would be to reserve the post of vice president for a Turkish Cypriot, the post of president open to all Cypriots. But they would have to run as a duo not indivicually and everyone votes. Then it is conceivable, although not likely to happen for generations, that both could be Turkish Cypriots.

If they have a true Cypriot concsiousness the prospect does not worry me at all.