Opinion by Likourgos HRISTAKOS
Likourgos HRISTAKOS
TDN Guest Writer
For many months the stalemate in Cyprus has been persisting, at the typical, lugubrious and lethargic pace that Cypriots, Greeks and Turks have become accustomed to in the last four decades.
It's not the point of this article to offer any new perspective, or even rigorous insight, to this everlasting problem. It's just a small iteration of thoughts that we all read in the media from time to time.
A third party who reads the news on Cyprus must be constantly dumbfounded at the dramatic, and at the same time extreme, divergence of opinions of the two parties. The inevitable culmination of this divergence stems also from the observation that the two parts of the divided island are both parts of the European Union. Yet the argument, ferocious and passionate at times, reminds us of two entities that would rather joust and tarry rather than talk and attempt to understand each other.
Should we pose the inevitable question of who is to blame?
�Ah, �tis the awful, aggressive Turks who wanted to gobble up the island and cultivate their offspring on Cyprus so as to upset the population dynamics. Look what they did in 1974, how many they killed, occupying approximately 37 percent of the island, when the Turkish Cypriot population did not constitute even 20 percent of the island. Following the brutal INVASION in 1974, they have been occupying the land like a colonial power with 40,000 soldiers.�
A Greek-Cypriot or Greek would be content and correct to make these succinct observations.
�But, no! �Tis these lofty Greeks, my friend. Look what they tried to cook and stir back in the early '60s. They accepted the liberation of the island, but they wanted more, taking no account of the Turkish Cypriot population. They supported the coup, Samson and his henchmen, and led to the persecution of the Turkish Cypriot population from 1963 to 1974. Without the INTERVENTION of Turkey, the Greek Cypriots would have wiped out the Turkish Cypriots. If there's a Greek word you should never forget, �tis Enosis! Their eternal dream!�
A Turkish Cypriot or Turk would be content and correct to make these succinct observations.
It's a really amusing thought. Let's provoke our leaders in the following discussion:
Ask the Greeks and Greek Cypriots to expand on their political ideas on Cyprus, within an entertaining time window: 1963-1974.
We never hear a self-critique on that.
Ask the Turks and Turkish Cypriots to expand on their political ideas from 1974 onwards.
We never hear a self-critique on that.
Thankfully, many of us have reached the point where we see that politics really stinks from a distance and that all four parties are just playing their games, mocking us most of the time. In the meantime, many of us, imbeciles and pathetic romantics, keep dreaming about a united multicultural, trilingual (to also honor English -- for our beloved ex-colonizing Albion mother) island, which could even play a significant role in showing how different cultures and religions can creatively coexist. Our turbulent times should force everybody to act in this direction.
The number of people who think like that are, perchance, not very great, journalists from all four regions involved easily slip back to their immemorial instincts (the evil Turk, the sneaky Greek, Talat… Papadopoulos… occupied land, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), the Papadopoulos administration, Turkish generals…). Do any of these great politicians of ours -- Karamanlis, Erdoğan, Molyviatis, Gül, Talat, Papadopoulos -- do any of them desire a solution to this problem? Do they really care that the people on the island have carried the stigma of a struggle for the last 40 years?
Every few months we hear of a proposal that really satisfies the aims of only one side, and these proposals subsequently fall into lethargy. Open the port of Famagusta and share control between the two communities (one side), lift all restrictions to the north so as to allow Greek Cypriot ships to use Turkish ports and Greek Cypriot planes fly over Turkish soil...
Fabulous. How thrilled we all are. Get the Americans, the Russians are also involved, the British and the French, each of them for a different reason and then you get… A Mediterranean salad.
If anything, this article wishes to express the increasing concern of some individuals who sadly make the following observation: As long as you, our turtle-moving Mediterranean leaders, do not sit down (do it by telephone so that the press will not find out) and honestly talk about give-and-take, no Annan can save the day. Remember, if you care about it, that the people on the island on both sides are so tired of all of your (willingly?) fruitless efforts that they are finally settling for division. You might think, what's wrong with that?
A divided island, with both parts in the EU is an extreme paradox and a textbook definition of the word �a-topos.� It only proves that there will never be a multicultural, multi-religious European Union. It proves that the (mental) borders between East and West will prevail till the end of time. It will keep the door to aggression ajar, forever. This and much more.
For this, you our leaders, will all be judged by history. I wonder if history ever was on your agenda?
Concluding for those few adamant romantics, I will mention an evening at the house of a colleague of my wife a few weeks ago. She was living in the northern part of Nicosia, which she was forced to abandon in 1974 at the age of 16. She kept dreaming about returning to her home for the last 30 years. She has not had the strength to do so even after the borders opened up. She was telling us that her father on his deathbed, just before his soul departed, uttered a few words in Turkish to honor his best Turkish Cypriot friend who had died many years ago…
*Likourgos HRISTAKOS, a Greek Cypriot academic, can be reached at [email protected]
from turkish daily news, today
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