Anastassiades blasts plan for coup and invasion anniversary rally

DIKO yesterday defended the decision to organise a rally to condemn the 1974 coup and Turkish invasion, while opposition DISY questioned the benefits of such a function at a time when the two communities were trying to rebuild trust in one another.

DIKO deputy chief Nicos Cleanthous, whose idea it was to organise the July 17 rally, claimed the aim was for all parties to hold a common function that “seals the unity among us and does not divide us, and is positive in the sense that we become more convincing that we leave the past behind only to remember it and to learn its lessons.”

Cleanthous said his idea had been embraced by all the parties in government.

Fringe right-wing party New Horizons yesterday said they were also participating in the rally.

Cleanthous insisted said it was a good thing to do and rejected criticism that it was not the right time for such a function.

“Didn’t the Turkish Cypriots indirectly target the invasion when they protested in their thousands?” Cleanthous asked.

He added: “Don’t they realise that they are also victimised by the invasion?”

But DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades, whose party disagreed with the organisation of such an event, maintained the rally could not possibly achieve unity.

“We should work to create the conditions for unity,” he said.

Anastassiades said that in the past such events had caused trouble among party supporters because of the slogans being chanted, adding his party had been isolated because it refused to participate.

DISY has always been accused of giving political shelter to people who played instrumental roles in the July 15 1974 coup against President Makarios.

The DISY chief also warned that the current climate of rapprochement could be hurt by the rally, which would remind people of terrible events.

“Functions like these which end up looking like fairs are of no benefit and cannot be used to remind us of horrible events, especially in this climate,” he said.

He added such a rally would reawaken memories in both communities of events that had taken place between the two sides.

“Rallies cannot show an image of unity; if they held a rally in support of a particular solution (of the Cyprus problem) it would be understandable; but what are they going to shout about?

“What are they going to talk about in their speeches?” Anastassiades asked.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.