Article sorely underestimates the value of the army

I was disappointed with an article that appeared in the July 19 edition of your newspaper entitled “What is the point of conscription?”

I think the person who wrote this piece employed a perspective that misses many of the realities of Cyprus. Someone reading it would first of all believe that Cyprus is some secure and problem-free country like Liechtenstein or Luxembourg and the government has willy-nilly decided to torment its young men by making them serve two years in the military.

The journalist makes very scant reference to the fact that Cyprus has 40,000 trained Turkish troops only miles away from the Cyprus Mail headquarters and that there is actually a purpose to having the Cyprus military.

In addition, the article completely misses the fact that the National Guard acts as a deterrent (albeit a weak one) against the occupation forces. On an international level, the existence of the National Guard demonstrates that the Cyprus problem is there and is open and provides all our administrations with legitimacy to promote our case that the Cyprus problem is an open wound.

It is for that reason that there are moves under way by pro-Turkish diplomats at the UN to not renew the mandate of UNFICYP and in that way show that the Cyprus problem is non-existent and unimportant and the occupation can continue with no consequences for Turkey.

Each citizen has both rights and responsibilities and the unfortunate lot of all Cypriot male citizens is that because of the occupation of our country, they all have to serve 25 months in the army.

That is unless of course they can go to a doctor and get a piece of paper that states their mental inability to serve, and then they can move to university where they can begin their studies worry free and mock the kids who actually decided to do the right thing and spend 25 precious months in the army.

Arion Petasis,
Nicosia

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.