FOR THE first time since Cyprus’ independence in 1960, three candidates – two of them doctors – will vie for the Armenian seat at the House of Representatives at a by-election next Sunday.
Numbering around 3,000 people, the Armenian community in Cyprus may be small, but like any small community, the issues are always big enough to split people into separate camps.
On the surface at least, the biggest issue in the election is the closure this year of the Melkonian, the only Armenian secondary school in Cyprus and the only one for a large number of other Armenian students in the region.
The big campaign question for the three candidates, Dr Antranik Ashdjian, Dr Vahakn Atamyan and businessman Parsing Zartarian, the third surprise candidate, is whether they can pull off a miracle and have the school re-opened.
There are other election issues such as the protection of the Armenian monastery in the north, improvement of the Armenian primary schools, introducing Armenian studies at the University of Cyprus and a host of other educational and cultural topics.
One might wonder how a small community with a voting population of just under 2,000 might be divided over such worthy endeavours but when the surface is scratched it becomes apparent that the divisions in the Armenian community run very deep.
“There is polarisation,” said one member of the community. “It’s like our camp and their camp and the issues are mainly ego issues.” He said the two polarised candidates, Ashdjian and Atamyan command around 80-85 per cent of the vote.
Zartarian, he said, has come in and turned everything upside down. “He is saying he doesn’t care if he is elected, but he wants his block of votes to appear as a statement saying: ‘lets move away from the polar situation’, and also as a protest vote against the other two because they represent the establishment.”
By establishment he meant the inherited status quo from Bedros Kalaydjian, 71, the Armenian representative who died on September 1 after serving two terms. He in turn had succeeded his brother.
“Dr Atamyan is the candidate going with the flow of the previous candidate,” he said “The other camp says the establishment comprises the same people that closed the Melkonian. Atamyan’s opponent, Dr Ashdjian, is a rival group. The third candidate Mr Zartarian is not involved because he was out of this situation.”
Indeed Zartarian told the Sunday Mail he wanted to break away from all the “stupid rivalries and divisions”. Although an outsider, he believes he will grab a significant number of votes.
“Our community has been divided for the last 40 years between two big camps or fronts; for the first ten to twenty years, one side dominated, and for the past 20 years the other side – the Kalaydjian family – has dominated and it has been sort of accepted in our society that you have to be from one side or the other and that’s the way things are but there is a lot of dissatisfaction because when one side gets elected they ignore the other side and I’m trying to break this situation,” he said.
“I believe that the community has matured. There are a lot of free-thinking, young, educated people who want to get away from this situation.”
Zartarian said the divisions date as far back to the pro- and anti-Soviet situation in Armenia, which reflected in the Diaspora and has existed in Cyprus since.
A second division concerns divided loyalties to the Armenian prelature in Lebanon and the one in Armenia. “These things are not known to outsiders,” said Zartarian.
“For political reasons a large number of people don’t talk to each other, don’t go to church, and never stepped foot in the Melkonian. As a result, our children grow up not knowing the ‘other’ side’s children and the divisions are carried on to the next generation.”
Ashdjian, although said to be riding on one of the two polarised tickets, also decided to run for the sake of unity.
“It was the hopeless situation our community was getting into, the stagnation we were seeing around us, and as a young member of the community and as a parent, I could see that the future of our children was becoming very doubtful on this island as Armenians, in terms of preserving their identity, their culture and their mother tongue,” he said.
“Therefore I decided to take the step just to prove that we can still put our differences aside and work for a better tomorrow for our children. “The same people have been running the show for the past 20+ years and there is nothing new to offer, only the guilt of bringing the community to this state and the guilt of letting the Melkonian close. We are offering something new, a wind of change and a wind of changing mentality in approaching community affairs.”
Candidate Atamyan however said there had been a lot of misconceptions about the ‘establishment’ role in the Melkonian, of which he was a board member. “Everyone has to know that the board of the Melkonian in Cyprus was not a decision-making board. It was only running the school day to day. The board has never had never had any decision to make. We couldn’t even hire and fire teachers, and this is one of the reasons I said many times I would rather resign,” he said.
Atamyan said he personally struggled to keep the school open and that he was the first person to go to the media, the Education Ministry and the government. He was asked to resign by the school’s US administrators two days after he testified on the issue at parliament even though the administrators had warned him in advance not to attend, he said. “I fought for the school and the alumni can prove it,” he said.
Atamyan said he has been actively involved in the community in Cyprus for 18 years, and is also president of the board of the elementary school and prominent in other Armenian organisations on the island so he has much to offer in terms of experience.
“I will try to resolve the Melkonian issue. I believe the Melkonian has to reopen and it has to reopen as a boarding school. I have some plans for this I will announce at a later stage,” he said. “I put in my candidacy as an independent but many parties and clubs supported me. I can’t say to anyone not to come and support me.”
The political observer said that whatever ‘camp’ the candidates might be in, for the first time since 1974, the good news was that they were all “younger generation’, which signalled at least some hope for change.
