Source:
http://famagusta-gazette.com/letter-the-national-federation-of-cypriots-in-great-britain-is-not-fit-for-p23916-69.htm
Article:
Letter: The National Federation of Cypriots in Great Britain is not fit for purpose
LETTER TO THE EDITOR• Wednesday, 11 June, 2014
Sir,
The 22nd of May 2014 will go down in history as a black day for the Greek speaking community which suffered almost complete political annihilation.
A near wipe-out of the number of local and national representatives of Greek extraction took place, with incumbent councillors losing their seats, and new candidates failing to be elected at the local and European elections.
The results speak for themselves - 12 local councillors from the Greek speaking community elected in London in comparison to 32 from the Turkish speaking community elected in London.
With only a dozen Greek speaking politicians now elected to represent the Greek speaking Cypriot community, we have entire boroughs and areas in London where the Greeks live, unrepresented by Greek speaking politicians.
The tsunami that hit the Greek speaking community was not unexpected or surprising.
Calls by several progressive voices over the last ten years for a serious and concerted campaign to recruit members of the community to mainstream British political parties, and a greater involvement by the community in local and national politics in the UK have been repeatedly ignored.
These calls have been largely ignored by one organisation in particular, the “National Federation of Cypriots in Great Britain” or “The Federation”.
The Federation claims on its own website that one of its aims is to “coordinate the work of UK Cypriots in the political, social, cultural and educational spheres and lobbies for and articulates the interests and concerns of the Cypriot community in the United Kingdom”.
The reality is that the Federation under its current leader and executive committee has seen its own membership dwindle, and has proven to be utterly ineffective at lobbying both at local and national government levels on any issues of interest to the Greek speaking community.
We challenge any of the current executive of the Federation to give one example of political success that this organisation can claim was a result of its “co-ordination” to help promote the interests of the community and influence national and European decision-makers.
In fact the majority view in the Greek speaking community is that the Federation is not fit for purpose any more, representing ghost organisations, has little influence in national and local politics of this country, and does not speak for anyone other than the main Cypriot political parties based in the UK, ie AKEL, DISY, DIKO, EDEK, etc. It is obvious even to the most naive that if we want to have any real influence on Cyprus issues, we have to join mainstream British political parties.
In contrast, the Turkish speaking community of the United Kingdom had over 80 candidates in the recent local elections, electing 32 local councillors, mainly in north London.
This is in sharp contrast to the political tsunami that almost wiped out the political base held traditionally by Greek speaking local politicians in Barnet, north London.
The same old antiquated practices that have led the Greek speaking community into the political desert, causing some of the core political supporters of the Cyprus and Greek causes in Parliament to start questioning their allegiances, should end.
They may start to question the community itself when they see our own involvement in politics and decision-making dwindle to such a disastrously low level. We need proper co-ordination, real solidarity, leadership with vision and a clear strategy for the way forward to rebuild the Greek speaking community into an effective political force in the United Kingdom.
Yours Faithfully,
John Kaponi
Media adviser & Political strategist
On behalf of Greek speaking candidates at British local elections
As I have said in the past, the Greek Cypriots in the UK amount to nothing compared to the power and shear population of the Turkish (support from the mighty 4million Turks and their Diaspora-Associations/Feds from Germany and the UK), and Turkish Cypriots abroad. You can fool the easily paid off Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus, but it's us in the UK and abroad whom dictate what they can or can't do back home. When we say jump, Erdogan has to ask us again...and then President Eroglu re-confirms! That's why, if you want a solution to the Cyprus problem, don't bother with those in the TRNC....ask us, contact our federations and accept one on our terms.
Good luck in the Bogus UN Talks.....
...by the way, Dr Kudret Ozersay is in London to get a briefing from our people....he'll soon be heading back to Cyprus with a new agenda.
Ciao Bella!
