OUR ETHNARCH may have lost the elections and gone home, but his proud legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of journalists and politicians. Like true disciples, they have made it their sacred mission, now that he has departed from the front-line of politics, to spread his noble message of bad faith, suspicion, mistrust, confrontation, pessimism and pettiness.
They did not have a moment’s rest in the last week, as they toiled night and day to keep alive the flame of negativity and misery – bequeathed to them by their venerated Ethnarch – in view of the planned opening of Ledra Street, which threatened to reverse the bad climate he had so caringly nurtured over the last five years.
His devoted disciples did everything they could to rubbish the opening of the crossing, exaggerating the differences in talks between the two sides, insisting that the Turkish troops had not withdrawn and belittling the importance of the event. The opening of the crossing was nothing to celebrate, while the Cyprob remained unsolved, they sternly reminded the weak and naive among us, just in case we allowed a positive thought pass through our mind.
That the whole thing was a Turkish scam aimed at deflecting attention from the ongoing occupation was the main message as the pious ones pilloried those of us dumb enough to entertain positive feelings about the opening of Ledra Street. TV reporters were constantly spotting Turkish soldiers in the buffer zone before the opening and discovering encroachments on our territory.
This orgy of total negativity was too much for former Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades, who rounded on the Ethnarch’s pious disciples on a radio show. They sounded like ‘kodjakares’ (old women), constantly moaning about their rheumatism and arthritis and making everyone feel miserable, he said, adding:
“These people can’t smile. Optimism has disappeared; a sense of humour has disappeared. They haven’t yet realised that it’s been more than a month since things have changed.”
THE KODJAKARI of the week title must go to RIK’s ultra-serious disciple of the Ethnarch, Paris Potamitis, who always wears the ‘very concerned about the future of the country without Tassos’ look on his unsmiling face.
It was the intrepid Paris who had spotted the two Turkish pseudo-cops standing inside the buffer zone on Thursday evening and made a big issue out of it on the telly, getting his cameraman to focus on the violation of the agreement, which was conclusive proof that the Turks cannot be trusted to honour their signature.
Like a committed kodjakari, he had grabbed the opportunity to introduce some negativity to the proceedings, beating his breast live on TV about the latest outrage perpetrated by the deceitful Turks. What RIK’s kodjakares failed to do in the morning the intrepid Paris pulled off in the evening.
The corporation, which is a nest of pious Tassos disciples, had tried to ruin the day of the opening of Ledra Street from the start, reporting violations by the Turks on its radio shows before the morning’s scheduled opening. The disappointment in the voice of the RIK announcer when the crossing was opened was obvious, but at least the corporation’s hacks had something to be happy about by the evening when they could report the Turkish violations and subsequent closure.
What Paris failed to tell us naive idiots in all his reports from the front-line, was why it was such a big deal that a couple of Turkish cops, with nothing to do, had ventured into the buffer zone. They didn’t bother anyone or claim sovereignty over the road, so why the fuss? I think I will call Paris and find out how his rheumatism is.
IN FAIRNESS, it was not only RIK which made an issue about the moustachioed cops. Sigma TV’s reporter labelled them “uninvited invaders”.
Did not get a chance to see how Antenna covered the invasion by the cops, but I am certain its reporter and leading disciple of the Ethnarch, Kyri Pomylorides, who also wears the ‘concerned about the future of the country without Tassos’ look on his face, would have put the violation in its proper context.
The guy apparently had asked his cameraman to film a hole in the big curtains, in front of a dilapidated building in the buffer zone because he believed the Turks would spy on us through it. Apart from blind loyalty to the Ethnarch and the mentality of a kodjakari, the other essential requirement for getting a job on television is high intelligence.
TOO INTELLIGENT to work for Antenna, presenter Kostas Konstantinou is another disciple who is now spreading the word as a RIK reporter. On Friday night Konstantinou identified another violation by the Turks in the Ledra Street buffer zone. This was what he reported on the station’s evening news, live from the street of sorrow.
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