RULING DIKO said yesterday that the political messages left behind by the two-day religious festival in occupied Morphou did not serve the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.
DIKO and EDEK chose not to attend the festival, which saw the resumption of religious services for the first time in 30 years at the church of Ayios Mamas, which had been turned into a museum by the Turkish Cypriot regime.
In a written statement, DIKO, which opposed the function altogether, suggested that the messages and views left behind did not serve political efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.
DIKO said it was too naïve to think that a serious international problem “has not found its solution because the two communities of Cyprus lacked mutual love between them”.
Theological views and appeals to a moral and just world were not enough to offer a basis for resolving a political problem, because geopolitical and strategic interests were the main factor in international political problems, DIKO said.
“If the world was made of angels, if humanity behaved and operated based on the principles of the Gospel, then paradise would have been on the earth,” DIKO added, in a dig at the message of forgiveness and reconciliation preached by the Bishop of Morphou this week.
The party stressed that the management of the Cyprus problem should be left to the country’s political leadership, which would set the goals and strategy for a viable solution of the Cyprus problem.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades, who attended vespers in Morphou on Wednsday night, said he saw prospects for operating other churches, as long as the Greek Cypriot side made clear what it was it wanted so that the country could be reunified as soon as possible.
Asked whether the warnings about possible violent incidents had been exaggerated, Anastassiades said: “I do not want to say that there was a deliberate spread of fear to prevent a large number of Greek Cypriots from going”.
“Of course, this does not mean that we should enter a confrontation on whether what was being rumoured had any hint of truth,” he added.
Anastassiades, who in recent weeks has taken the initiative of introducing contacts with the Turkish Cypriot parties, revealed that there was an ongoing dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot leadership regarding the continuation of the operation of the Ayios Mamas church.
The DISY chief suggested that there would not be any problem in re-opening other churches if the Church showed interest in repairing them.
He added, however, that such events were semi-measures: “What the Greek Cypriots want is not to go to church under an occupation regime.”
