Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

Niyazi Kizilyurek

03.10.2008



Last Sunday the Greek Cypriot newspaper Politis published Archbishop Chrisostomos’ text “thesis on history” which he originally meant to present at the Holy Council for approval, however decided to share with the public. Archbishop Chrisostomos expressed his opinions on education reform and the changes in History books, which was one of the main debate issues in the Greek Cypriot community recently. The Archbishop rejected the attempt made during the last educational year by Education Minister Andreas calling it the year of “coming closer and peace” adding that this was a “harmful” attempt as much as it was “unnecessary.”
To be frank when I first read the text I planned to write a critique on it. However after having read it more carefully I decided to just relay the elements mentioned in the text. The ideas mentioned say so much as they are that I thought it was meaningless to write a criticism of it, so I decided to just share the “notion of history” with Archbishop Chrisostomos’ own words.

. “Education is the basic element for a community to continue their existence and way of life, because education is what carves the national conscious of a community.
• Hellenistic Education is what has preserved Cypriot Hellenism during different invasions and preventing assimilation.
• In order to preserve the island’s national identities, the 1960 constitution assigned Educational Affairs to the communities separately.
• It is unacceptable to change and weaken the Hellenic identity within the majority of the Cyprus community (Greek Cypriots) because we are a member state of the European Union, circumstances have changed and we have become a multi-cultural community.
• To preserve and strengthen the national identity does not mean to support nationalism or national narcissism, it is to preserve traditional values, an elementary consciousness and the knowledge of history.
• Hellenic education is open to foreigners by nature. As it has elements of other cultures it also feeds other cultures. This has been so since Alexander the Great and the first days of Christianity until today.
• The Cypriot Church has gone through times of difficulty during foreign invasions but has taken the Bible as the basic element and has not settled for nationalism or chauvinism. They have seen other races as brethren and protected their rights. Even those who have harmed them...
• We believe that the defined target (coming closer and peace) for this educational year is as harmful as it is unnecessary. It is unnecessary because our education has never nurtured feelings of hatred towards neighbours, neither has it ever been against peace. The peaceful living of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots is not an element to be the issue of education, because this is in the nature of the Cypriot people. The elements that divide the two communities is the occupation, the occupant army and the settlers. The announced target for this educational year means that our schools have a planted hatred and enmity against Turkish Cypriots.
• This target is also harmful because apart from diverting real problems from the public it also weakens the main priorities of education which are “I will not forget and keep fighting, salvation and human rights, etc.”

As you can see one truly feels “tongue-tied” after reading these opinions, I feel the need to underline something: Once you change the words “Hellene” and “Greek Cypriots” with the words “Turks” and “Turkish Cypriots” and read the text once again, you can see that there are many historians, ecclesiastics and politicians with similar ideas in the Turkish Cypriot and Turkish community. Although this may show that “great minds think alike”, it also shows that “the ways of nationalism are alike…”

[utu]

History is not all roses for any community. The Greek Cypriots have their 'skeletons in their closet' just the same as the Turkish Cypriots. ALL of history's lessons should be heeded, or else one is doomed to repeat them.