By Nick Pittas
THE DAWN of the New Year is a time traditionally to renounce the bad habits acquired over a lifetime and to make resolutions to put good habits in their place. For individuals, such resolutions typically address matters of health (quitting smoking, eating less) or character (being more decisive, not procrastinating). Most individual resolutions rarely make it past Epiphany and nearly all are but a faint memory by Valentine’s Day.
In the case of communities, our leaders have not yet developed the tradition of making resolutions for the collective. Whether this is because the hardest thing for a politician to admit is making an error, particularly one that suggests moral weakness or maladministration of the affairs of the community, or simply an entrenched belief that any sign of weakness will immediately be seized to their advantage by the ‘enemies’ of the community, it’s hard to say. Nevertheless, allow me to suggest that a bit of candid self-reflection and resolving to do better at the community level may not be a bad idea for Cypriots on both sides of the dividing line.
The difficulty in solving the Cyprus problem has less to do with the difficulties of constitution making and the intractability of the issues than we think. What has been lacking over more than 40 years is not insufficient constitutional wisdom or political ingenuity around the table. On the contrary, our problem has engaged some of the wisest and well-informed minds within the international community for more than a generation, all to no avail. May I suggest that what is blocking a solution has less to do with strategic considerations and more to do with suspicion and fear of the other in each community.
How are we to move away from the climate of mutual fear and suspicion? How can we overcome our history and allow a new day to dawn for the people of Cyprus?
What Cyprus needs more than anything else is a catharsis of all the pent-up fear and suspicion wrought by its history, particularly that of the past 50 years. What we need is something analogous to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa after the fall of the apartheid regime. Such a commission in Cyprus would allow all those who have suffered at the hands of anyone in either community as a result of politically motivated crimes perpetrated by state, pseudo state or para-state organs, such as militias or political goons of all stripes in either community, to come forward and call their tormentors to account.
I am sure we can find a prominent and wise panel of Cypriots who can see past the narrow communal blinkers that separate us and find the vast cultural and humanitarian ground that unites us.
Both sides need to admit the tragic errors made when gunmen dominated the political scene in Cyprus, and when the law that prevailed was an eye for an eye, and if possible a jaw for a tooth.
The silent majorities on both sides need to find a forum to come together and offer some balm to each other for the horrors of the past, and to resolve once and for all that any inter-communal problems that may exist or arise in the future will be resolved by negotiations or judicial process and not by threats or acts of violence against each other.
On the Greek side, we should resolve to stop pretending that the Cyprus problem is merely one of invasion and occupation by Turkey. The Cyprus problem did not begin in 1974. All that happened in 1974 is that the tables were turned, due to our own hubris, and the Turks got the upper hand on the ground. Until we admit that there is truly an inter-communal problem, and that the Turkish Cypriot community has genuine concerns that need to be addressed constructively and generously, we should not be surprised if our compatriots on the other side, even those who are most in favour of reconciliation and re-unification, are reluctant to give up the security of protection by the Turkish armed forces.
We should also resolve not to advocate a bi-communal, bi-zonal and federal republic as the basis for a solution unless we really mean it. If we are not ready to accept a component state in the north that is demographically dominated by Turkish Cypriots then we do not accept bi-zonality. If we do not accept structures that give the component states significant sovereign powers, and federal structures and institutions in which both communities have a significant voice, and in respect of fundamental issues gives both sides a veto, then we do not accept federalism. If we are not truly in favour of both separation of powers, as between component states and the federal authority, and sharing of powers at the federal level, we should stop deceiving ourselves and others and frankly admit it and seek the only other alternative: partition.
On the Turkish side, they should frankly recognise that the long years of de facto separation since 1974 is largely the legacy of the intransigence of their leadership. Had the Turks shown magnanimity in victory, we would not have wasted a generation in which the north languished economically and which now has to struggle to catch up and enjoy the fruits of Cyprus’s membership in the EU.
They should also resolve to stop playing the ‘we voted yes and so end our isolation’ card, tempting as it is to play it to the hilt given the often clumsy way that our leadership conducts its diplomacy, and admit frankly that under the circumstances Annan 5 would probably not have been workable without the best will in the world, something that is in short supply. Without getting hung up on the name of the plan, there is a lot of scope for improvements to the advantage of both sides, and making it more balanced without prejudice to their “bottom lines”. By showing a little more sophistication and flexibility than our governing coalition, they can really put the pressure on our leaders to show once and for all whether they truly want a federal solution or not.
Given the tempest in a teacup that surrounded the Ledra Street roadblock fiasco, I am not going to hold my breath that anything much will change anytime soon. With a shared mentality tortured by maintaining 40 year old status quos or obtaining every minor advantage one can get past UNFICYP, about the only safe New Year prediction we can make is that the Cyprus problem will still be with us a year from now.
Another interesting aricle pointing out issues which both sides shoudl really take into account.
What do you guys think? any comments?
