by halil » Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:07 pm
‘When they call me a traitor, I feel more Cypriot’
THE RECENT election of a Turkish Cypriot teacher to represent Cyprus in a Europe-wide teachers’ union body has caused a storm in education circles, highlighting once again the political minefield that interaction between Greek and Turkish Cypriots involves.
One teachers’ union has gone so far as to accuse him of back-stabbing, but for Sener Hassan Elcil, the fuss over his election is indicative of racist and divisive attitudes that take no account of his lifelong struggle for a united Cyprus.
“My doors are open and my hand is always ready to shake anybody’s hand. This seat is for Cyprus. We Cypriots have suffered a lot and I’m saying that’s enough for us,” Elcil told the Cyprus Mail.
“The teachers unions need to rethink and not look through the prism of racism. I am against racism, fascism and extreme nationalism in our country. If teachers can’t be good examples of sharing and cooperation then how do we expect ordinary people to build bridges?” he asked.
The European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), which has country members from the entire European continent, convenes its General Assembly once every three years. At its last meeting in November in Warsaw, there were two candidates for the Cyprus seat on its executive council. Both are general secretaries of their respective unions. Both are Cypriot. One was Costas Hadjisavvas of secondary school teachers union OELMEK and the other was Elcil of the Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union KTOS. Elcil won 2,232 of the European delegates’ votes and Hadjisavvas 808. OELMEK’s response was that someone who lives and works in the occupied areas cannot represent teacher unions of the Republic.
Elcil now represents all education unions in Cyprus, made up of three Greek Cypriot and three Turkish Cypriot unions. Two of the Turkish Cypriot unions, KTOS and KTOEOS, were registered in the Republic of Cyprus in 1968.
Up until that point the Cyprus seat had always been occupied by a Greek Cypriot unionist with a Turkish Cypriot representative acting as observer. Elcil’s election inspired news reports that the seat had been snatched from the Republic of Cyprus, while former education minister Akis Cleanthous described it as “a very negative development for our political question” which could have been avoided.
The Greek Cypriot section of the United Cyprus Platform, made up of Greek and Turkish Cypriot educators, welcomed Elcil’s election as “very positive”. The group of teachers called on Greek Cypriot teacher unions to abandon their “nationalist preconceptions and work with their Turkish Cypriot counterparts in a climate of cordiality and sincerity to build together an education of peace”.
The Platform noted that Elcil was known throughout Europe as a trade unionist, teacher and fighter for peace, democracy and a solution in Cyprus. It highlighted that the Turkish Cypriot representative was one of the pioneers of the movement ‘This Country is Ours’ and has a reputation for openly opposing the island’s partition and the ‘TRNC’ as a puppet and vassal of Turkey.
“It should be understood by everyone that the Turkish Cypriots are a part of the Cypriot people, something which is well understood by European trade union educators,” said the announcement by Greek Cypriot teachers.
When the Cyprus Mail called Elcil for comment, he was protesting in the north over a recent bill on teachers’ salaries, explaining: “I’m demonstrating against the puppet government.”
“I am a Turkish-speaking Cypriot, a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus,” he said.
Elcil explained that Greek and Turkish Cypriot teacher unions have worked well together up to now but that it is not right for Greek Cypriots to always represent the whole country and never Turkish Cypriots.
“We are all Cypriot organisations. We are living in the north but this is not our will. Every day we are fighting the separatist regime under influence from Turkey. We suggested in 2003 to organise a rotational system for representation in ETUCE among all unions but this was rejected,” he said.
The unionist said he rejected the idea of getting observer status because as registered unions of the Republic of Cyprus, they were equal members of ETUCE. However, the Turkish and Greek Cypriot unions collaborated over the years to act with one voice in European teacher union circles.
“OELMEK decided though that its leadership will not cross to the north. I don’t accept there are any borders in Cyprus but they think if they cross this artificial border, they will reocgnise the ‘TRNC’,” he said.
Elcil said he decided to stand as a candidate for Cyprus when he discovered that the Greek Cypriot unions had written letters objecting to the academics trade union in the north, DAU-SEM, from being a member of Education International.
“We were not made aware of this letter. We found out during the General Assembly.
I decided to become a candidate there and then because of their attitude and manner.”
And the rest is history, or at least, that’s what they say...
Hadjisavvas said that Elcil had violated an informal agreement in 2006 saying that the Cyprus representative who would sit on the ETUCE executive council would be Greek Cypriot while a Turkish Cypriot would sit as an observer until a solution of the Cyprus problem.
He argued that Elcil should have informed the Greek Cypriots that he planned to stand, saying they found out on the day. “We ate lunch together and he said nothing. It’s as if he stabbed us in the back,” said Hadjisavvas. The OELMEK official said they should have at least been warned: “It doesn’t mean we would have accepted it but we could have discussed it”.
Elcil has since invited all unions for a working lunch on the buffer zone, however, one union has so far refused to accept the invite.
“OELMEK’s central committee will have to convene to decide on this after the holidays,” said Hadjisavvas.
“This seat belongs to Cyprus, to everyone. We have to cooperate. When I go to international bodies, I want to represent all our ideas,” said Elcil.
The Turkish Cypriot confirmed that only the OELMEK leadership was refusing to cooperate with him.
“There is no difference between what Rauf Denktash calls me and OELMEK. When they call me a traitor, I feel more Cypriot. I will try to meet them. If they close the door I will come through the window,” he said.
[/quote]
