FOR SEVERAL days, hours upon hours of air time have been devoted to ‘developments’ in the Cyprus problem, statements have been strung out, politicians have queued up outside radio studios to have their say.
You’d think we were on the verge of something dramatic, a breakthrough or a final meltdown. And yet it’s hard to find anything of substance in the hundreds of column inches devoted to the subject.
On Monday, the message spun was one of gloom. Then on Tuesday, the President told us much had been achieved, even hinting on agreement (procedural of course, don’t expect too much) on several key points. Later that day, Mehmet Ali Talat asked to meet Tassos Papadopoulos to be informed what exactly he had agreed to. On Wednesday, the government admitted there were complications, but insisted we should not speak of shipwrecks of dead-ends (favourite terms of the Cyprus problemologists).
Meanwhile, across the Green Line, a grave crisis was shaking the foundations of society: the head of the armed forces refused to shake the hand of the ‘prime minister’ because the latter was not Turkish enough, accusations ‘proved’ by the fact there was no portrait of Ataturk to be seen and the national anthem had not been played.
Where are we living? A trip beyond the looking glass would reveal more contact with reality. This has gone beyond the theatre of the absurd and into a grotesque parody and farce. It’s time media and electorate stopped taking these pronouncements at face value and opened their eyes to what is going on. North and south, we are being subjected to a choreographed performance utterly empty of meaning.
On both sides, elections drive the agenda. Imminent presidential elections in Turkey mean the climate is particularly sensitive. Military-civilian relations are tense, and the ruling party is quite aware that any concession on Cyprus will be pounced upon as a sign of weakness, even a betrayal of Turkishness.
Tassos Papadopoulos and his advisers are well aware of this, taking advantage of Turkish paralysis to present themselves as the ones willing to move the process forward, held up only by intransigence up north. At the same time, with an eye on his own re-election prospects next year, the president repaints himself as a man willing to act to solve the Cyprus problem, reassuring wavering AKEL voters worried at the total deadlock of the past three years.
It all means nothing. The two sides are playing a game of chess. Both know that it will never end in check mate, and chess does not allow for both sides to share the spoils as any compromise demands. Trapped in the game, we turn the advance of a pawn into a major strategic triumph, and we forget the reality beyond the board.
