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[Kifeas]

Gündüz Aktan: Denktas and his aftermath
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Denktas is gone, but his struggle is far from being over. He had engaged in that struggle a long time before he became president, and his efforts will continue after his departure from the presidency.

Gündüz AKTAN
Former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Rauf Denktas is gone, but his struggle is far from being over. He had engaged in that struggle a long time before he became president, and his efforts will continue after his departure from the presidency.

And he will win.

Heroes are great regardless of whether they are holding office or not.

In a way, KKTC President Mehmet Ali Talat is unlucky. No matter what he does it will be considered insufficient in the long shadow cast by Denktas. In another way he is lucky. All the things he had criticized Denktas for, he will now be doing himself. At the end of the “ritual patricide” called election his father held him by the hand and gave him the “snake” that is the symbol of power. The handover ceremony from one generation to another has been completed. The things the son had said during the time of his rebellion are no longer of no any consequence. As long as he had prevailed, the father figure had been the enemy. Since he is gone, the enemy has become the “enemy.” Now Papadopoulos has an “enemy” who is younger than him.

Papadopoulos thinks he has won. He has become a member of the EU. He has veto powers in his hands and he has Greece's support behind him as well as the support of the band consisting of those who do not want Turkish membership in the EU. Now, the new pope, too, has joined them.

Papadopoulos is putting forth conditions, saying, “If Turkey maintains its stance of not recognizing the Greek Cypriots … if it does not withdraw all its troops from the island … if [U.N. Secretary-General] Kofi Annan insists on mediation and a timetable … if all Greek property is not returned and if Greek Cypriots cannot settle in northern Cyprus as they want ... then there will be no solution.” He believes the veto powers he has are powerful enough to make the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey bow down.

Let him try and see. He will not learn without trying.

The Greek Cypriots, in general, and Papadopoulos, in particular, are similar to the “liberals” in Turkey. Our “liberals” think that Turkey's power is negligible whereas Greek Cypriots think they are omnipotent. Both groups are making errors in their calculations.

Ours advise us always to lose. Greek Cypriots do not know to content themselves with what they have won. They keep demanding more and more. This error on the part of the Greek Cypriots causes them to run into disasters. Former Greek Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios witnessed that before he passed away.

The mistakes made by the Greek-Greek Cypriot side save Turkey and the Turks from peril in the most unexpected ways. The April 24 referendum was one such case. The Greek Cypriots will make similar mistakes in the future as well. National characteristics do not change easily.

The worst thing one can do to the Greek Cypriots is to give them the impression that they can get whatever they want. Then, they definitely do not know where to stop and they trigger such incidents that they lose all of a sudden all the things they had won. Then they begin from scratch. Working hard with great patience and perseverance they get back one by one what they had lost -- only to lose it all once again at with a single throw of the dice.

I trust the Greek Cypriots.

Meanwhile, Turks are, in a way, like their “liberals." Turkish fathers do not recount to their children the evil things others had done to them. The past gets to be forgotten. With incredible naiveté their children perceive the outer world as a place where there are no enemies. The legacy the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo leaves to the new generation, on the other hand, is sheer animosity towards Turks. The same can be said about Armenians, too.

The biggest problem of those who govern the Turks is how to prevent exploitation of the peaceful intentions of the Turkish people, who perceive everybody as friends. The Turkish people see their leaders as persons who needlessly seek conflict. Greek-Greek Cypriot leaders, on the other hand, project a peaceful image as they try to limit the harm caused by the seeds of animosity they have sown in the Greek-Greek Cypriot children. However, they cannot take any step towards a genuine peace.

Since he knows about the hostility of the enemy, Denktas has tried so hard to protect his naïve people. However, because he accepts the facts of the world he has, at the same time, known that it is possible to strike a deal with his enemy under certain conditions. Unlike him, Talat is a child of the “enemy-less” naïve generation. However, he has the potential to become a more merciless adversary for his enemy if the enemy exploits his good intentions.

Talat has come to terms with his “father.” Now the time has come to come to terms with the “mother” land. The possibility of Turkey becoming a member of the EU is dimming with each passing day. To be “part of the outer world” the Turkish Cypriots should undoubtedly be able to stand on their own two feet. But can they leave us and join “a world that is outside us” as soon as they learn how to walk? Their “father” says he would not allow that. There is no way the mother “land” can allow that, either.

The basic taboo is that what is ours should stay with us. Does Talat have the power to save himself from the nihilism of the leftist-turned-liberal circles? Of course he has. They are living in a dream world whereas Talat is in the real world. Refraining -- of our own volition and free will -- from trying to do the impossible would be a sign of adulthood.
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[cannedmoose]

A pretty appalling take on history, Turkish traditions and liberalism really... could almost have come from Volkan...