PRESIDENT Papadopoulos was initially reluctant to allow the Rizokarpasso Gymnasium to be reopened, believing the cost would be too high for just four pupils, DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades said yesterday.
Anastassiades made his comments in an interview with a private radio station and repeated them later at a news conference he gave on the Cyprus issue.
The school re-opened on Monday for the first time in 30 years with 11 pupils, while several more are expected to attend. Around 15 teachers have been appointed to the school. Some will remain permanently in Rizokarpasso and others will commute from the free areas.
DISY spokesman Tassos Mitsopoulos clarified later that it was not that Papadopoulos had been against the opening of the school but rather that he felt the cost would be prohibitive for the sake of four pupils. “This is logical,” said Mitsopoulos.
He said Anastassiades had helped Papadopoulos change his mind when he said that Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat, with whom he was in discussions, was ready discreetly to allow several families to return to live in the Karpass if the school was reopened.
Other sources close to the reopening of the school confirmed that Papadopoulos had been against the idea because it would have cost in the region of £120,000. However, the source said that following intensive negotiations to recruit as many families as possible to return and numerous meetings with Presidential aides, Papadopoulos had had a change of heart.
“The support of Mr Anastassiades was also constructive particularly in light of his meetings with Mr Talat,” said the source.
“It was a mistake on the part of the President to think that it was not worth it financially for the sake of only four children but this is not a normal case. It’s a humanitarian issue and it’s a national cause.”
The next step, according to the source, is to have a Lyceum up and running in Rizokarpasso by next September so that the third-year Gymnasium pupils can continue their education at the enclaved village and remain near their parents.
Two Greek Cypriot primary schools were allowed to continue to operate in the north after 1974 but after the age of 12 children were forced to move south to attend secondary school.
The UN Secretary-General’s Spokesman Fred Eckhard yesterday commented on UNFICYP’S contribution to the operation of the school.
“With the help of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus the Greek Cypriot enclave of Rizokarpasso in the northern part of the island now has its first Greek language secondary school”, he said.
“The UN Mission sought the co-operation of officials from both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot authorities to make this project a reality,” Eckhard added.
A senior UN official delivered textbooks to the school when it opened on Monday.
