Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

14.11.2008

Niyazi Kizilyurek

Heroism from the Greek Diplomat

Christos Zacharakis was a Greek Diplomat posted as Greek Ambassador to Cyprus between the years 1979-1986 and published his memoirs in 2004 in which in his own words he expressed his “memories and ideas”. He was really brave in that he expressed his opinion related to some of the incidents during his posting to Cyprus and he expresses his political stand in a direct way which is not usually expected of a diplomat. The retired former Ambassador played his ideological cards open when in 2004 he was supporting the ‘No’ group at the referendum.
Zacharakis claims that during the time he was in Cyprus he came across some Greek Cypriots who were making an effort to “get closer to Turkish Cypriots” added that these people were in fact those who rejected their ethnic heritage and he called them ‘Grekilli’ which meant ‘so-called Hellenes’. The people working with the ‘New Cyprus Association’ and ‘The Committee to Warm Relations with Turkish Cypriots’ are said to be “pitiful people serving foreigners” and that these people, “who have turned their backs against their mainland Greece”, claim that they want to share the same country as the Turkish Cypriots with so-called claims and concepts such as ‘Cypriot Conscious’. This is “unacceptable” according to him. While there are “ordinary spies” among these people there are also politically marginal people along with completely ignorant people acting through blindness.
He claimed that the members of the ‘Committee to Warm Relations with Turkish Cypriots’ believed that, if they were able to rid the Turkish Cypriots of their fears and receive compensation in exchange for the Greek Cypriot property they had in their possession, Turkey would have to leave the island. According to him this was the reason behind their rejection of their real ethnicity and turning their backs to Greece. Zacharakis claims that these people meant to “get the Cypriot Hellenism out of the way.”
The Greek diplomat claimed that once the “Turkish Cypriots were used to the power of the Turkish (he must be talking about the 1974 intervention and the spoils that followed NK) which made them more and more “Turkish by the day” adding that the re-union supporters were mere ‘day dreamers’ working for the ‘foreign cause’.
Zacharakis claimed that a part of both AKEL and the Greek Cypriot rightists were also in the similar page as the re-unification supporters, adding that following the coup Greece was very sensitive about not meddling with the internal affairs of the Greek Cypriot community saying that “once burned they would not take the chance of getting close to the fire again” which was why they did not want to intervene even a little bit and he says: “The supporters of reunification are taking advantage of this, abusing Greece’s sensitive attitude; on the other hand promoting their own motto using the blindness regarding Cypriot Hellenism.”
Zacharakis claims that the President of the time, Spiros Kiprianou, agreed with him. However, due to hesitations related to ‘votes needed’ from the public, he approved of the ‘Committee to Warm Relations with Turkish Cypriots’ making statements supporting the reunification efforts. Zacharakis claims that Turkish Cypriots had no intention of warming relations, adding the comment “for Turkish Cypriots this concept is nothing but a weird animal” courageously expressing his ignorance on the issue.
Zacharakis addresses most of his heat on the late Paraskevaitis, the head of the ‘Committee to Warm Relations with Turkish Cypriots’ which is in a way understandable because after 1974 Paraskevaitis wanted the Enosis mandate dating back to 1967 to be cancelled by the House of Representatives with statements such as “there is one Enosis that I am aware of and want to achieve and that is EpanEnosis’tir (re-unification).”
We can go on and on forever debating on what ‘Cypriot Conscious’ means; as a matter of fact we can question whether or not such a concept even exists. However there is one thing for sure: those who favour unification and peaceful living in Cyprus for the two communities are tagged with definitions such as: ‘so-called Hellenists’ or ‘so-called Turkish’ or statements as ‘people blind to national identity’ or ‘Neo-Cypriots’.
Those with a similar mind to Zacharakis on the Turkish side do the same thing. This is the worst political culture that has been created by nationalism in our country.

[Tim Drayton]

Where do these translations come from? I have located the orginal article in the Yeni Duzen, which has the title:
Bilinçsiz Kıbrıslılık Bilinci
I would translate this as "Unconscious Cypriot Consciousness". I can't make any sense of the title given here of "Blind Cypriotism Conscious".

[Get Real!]

Where do these translations come from? I have located the orginal article in the Yeni Duzen, which has the title:
Bilinçsiz Kıbrıslılık Bilinci
I would translate this as "Unconscious Cypriot Consciousness". I can't make any sense of the title given here of "Blind Cypriotism Conscious".

It could be one of Halil's freebie translations; at Bayrak he's considered a professor of the English language.

[DT.]

Knew Mr Zacharakis very well and went to school with his son. He was the last important diplomat this country had (barring the present US and UK ambassador and high commissioner). He was definitely the last important Greek ambassador that was posted here in the days when the Greek embassy was a close consultunt to the Cypriot government. Spyros was paranoid about making wrong moves and kept asking Zacharakis to come over to the palace to ask him about this or that.

There is nothing like this now, Karamanlis does not want to know and Christofias likes it that way. If a millitary episode occurred over the green line today Karamanlis might hear about it the next day in one of his morning meetings.