By Patroclos
OUR POLITICAL parties stopped just short of organising a book-burning bash outside the presidential palace, after the stern announcement by the embassy of Mother Russia expressing its strong disapproval of the contents of the latest book written by Makarios Drousiotis, the journalist and author currently employed as an advisor to the president.
This was only because the 1,500-word announcement issued by the embassy and published in Phil, did not call for the offending book, which deals with the duplicitous role played by the Soviet Union during and after the Turkish invasion, to be burned. If it had, the parties would have dutifully bought a few copies of the book and arranged for supporters to place them on the fire in order to underline their loyalty to Mother Russia.
Rather than engage in Islamic practices, our mum’s embassy restricted itself to declaring the book “of an extremely low scientific level and politically unacceptable”. As for the writer, he was accused of being “an amateur researcher that does not know the scientific methodology of historical research and the principles of historical study and impartiality and does not know how to analyse and evaluate events.”
This must be because he was not educated at a Soviet university which would have ensured he picked up the principles of historical study and impartiality and learnt never to question the official version of events.
THE RUSSIAN ambassador, Stanislav Osadchiy, on whose instructions the book-bashing announcement was written is behaving like some Soviet overlord posted in the DDR or Bulgaria during the time of the Warsaw Pact, issuing instructions and advice to errant locals that have unwisely strayed from the true path of socialism.
How else could he have thought he had the right to interfere in our affairs so brazenly, pillorying a writer because he did not agree with what he wrote and complaining about the fact that he was working for the president. In the final paragraph of the announcement it says:
“The only thing that bothers us in relation to the extremely low scientific level and politically unacceptable book is the fact that it was not written by an amateur, compulsive writer, but by a special associate of the president. Is this a coincidence?”
The motherly advice from our Russian overlord was very clear: people who work for the president must not write anything bad about the Soviet Union, because it will upset the Russian embassy and make it think we are no longer a Soviet satellite.
AMBASSADOR Osadchiy has made a habit of interfering in our affairs and issuing motherly advice, always with our interest in mind.
Back in March he went on TV to tell us Moscow was not happy with Cyprus’ alignment with the EU, regarding the imposition of sanctions against Russia over Crimea. And he warned that “our businessmen would pull out capital and repatriate their activities.”
Then, as now, our political parties wasted no time in trying to please the ambassador. The House issued a resolution warning against jeopardising our “valuable ties” with Mother Russia, which it described as “a steadfast supporter of the Republic of Cyprus at critical times throughout its history”.
How strange that our big dick politicians, who are ready to take on the whole world in defence of our national pride and dignity, are happy to be Moscow’s lap-dogs.
If the US or British embassy had issued an abusive announcement, intimidating and belittling a Greek Cypriot writer and rubbishing his work, our politicians would have gone crazy, bravely pontificating about the right of free speech, demanding the government made official representations and organising mass demonstrations outside the embassy buildings.
But when Russia wants to suppress free speech in Kyproulla it has the full backing of our principled politicians.
FOUR PARTIES – EDEK, AKEL, DIKO, Alliance – issued statements fully supporting the embassy’s announcement and questioning the employment of a man with Drousiotis’ unacceptable views as an advisor to the president. If Drousiotis had written in favour of paedophilia there would not have been as hostile a reaction.
AKEL was worried by the fact the announcement “clearly touched the policy followed by the government towards the Russian Federation”. But otherwise, it was satisfied with the “documented answers the embassy gives to the author’s arbitrary claims about the role of the USSR in 1974”.
DIKO was worried because the “activities of Drousiotis were dynamiting Cyprus’ relations with a powerful, traditional and valuable ally such as Russia”.
The most valuable advice was contained in the dumbest announcement, issued by the Alliance of Lillikas, which said: “After the official, damning announcement by the Embassy of the Russian Federation, the President of the Republic has the obligation to take a position, restoring the historical truth and safeguarding the relations of Cyprus with the friendly country Russia.”
What qualifications does the president have to “restore the historical truth”? Does he “know the scientific methodology of historical research and the principles of historical study and impartiality”, to “restore the historical truth” in a way that would satisfy the Russian embassy?
PREZ NIK has been making a complete fool of himself recently. As soon as the Drousiotis book was published, he arranged a meeting with the Russian ambassador to grovel to him and tell him that he had nothing to do with its publication. The views expressed by the writer did not reflect his views, a contrite Nik assured.
This information was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the government spokesman. However there was no mention of any plans by Nik to restore the historical truth.
This was nothing compared to the way Nik has been making a fool of himself with regard to the foreclosures bill, grovelling to the party leaders and in particular to the jumped up Ethnarch Junior, whose arrogance and demands for changes grew by the day. All that the spoilt brat Junior had to say was that he was not satisfied with the government bills and Nik would tell his minions to make more changes.
At Thursday’s meeting with the party leaders Nik was adopting every change to the bills that they demanded. It was no wonder that they all emerged from the palace with a triumphal air. Neither Nik nor the leaders gave any thought to the Troika’s reaction to their chopping and changing that would ensure the foreclosures law would be unenforceable.
THE ONLY person who tried to introduce a note of sanity to Thursday’s meeting was finance minister Harris Georgiades. He tried to argue that the changes being proposed would never be approved by the Troika, but after being overruled by Nik a couple of times at the start of the meeting, he gave up and stayed completely silent the rest of the time.
In the last week or two there has been a nasty whispering campaign against poor old Harris, who is by miles the ablest and most sensible of Nik’s ministers. He is being accused of having let down the country by not negotiating forcefully enough with the Troika over the foreclosures bill. The source of this campaign is unknown, but it is gathering steam.
Could there be a plan to hang Harris out to dry in order to cement the new-found harmony between Nik and the party leaders? It would be sad day when this happens.
IN ANOTHER part of today’s paper you will read about an attempt by Greek Cypriot businessmen backed by deputies, to get their hands on 3,500 donums of land near Kalo Chorio village. The only obstacle is that the land belongs to Evkaf, the Islamic charity organisation that owns huge expanses of real estate that its charter does not allow to sell.
The resourceful Geek Cypriots, however, have found a way to bypass Evkaf – a Turkish national claiming the ownership of the land. Her name is Susan Dikraz and she has visited the Republic in the hope of reaching a deal with the businessmen, before Evkaf interferes and blocks the transaction; the two sides are discussing the leasing of the land for 99 years.
One of the politicians that acted as Dikraz’s chaperone on her visit was the bash-patriotic EDEK deputy Giorgos Varnavas, who has been very quiet recently. We have not heard him say a single word against the foreclosures bill, in contrast to his party comrades that have been railing against it. Varnavas, in the past, zealously embraced noble causes aimed at protecting the poor and vulnerable, but not this time.
Could this be because he does not want to upset prez Nik, whose help is necessary for the land deal to go through?
IF YOU can’t beat them, join them, goes the old saying. This is exactly what the Bank of Cyprus’ happy bunny chairman is doing. Having spent the last three months pulling out all the stops to prevent the capital issue that would save the bank but threaten his position as chairman, at Thursday’s EGM he was its most fervent supporter.
He told shareholders about the new era that would be created by the injection of one billion euro into the bank and even made a joke about his long hair. Having conceded defeat, like a good Cypriot, he joined the winners and became a happy bunny again, after a long period as an unhappy one.
Now it would seem he is focusing his attention on keeping his seat on the board. And he obviously decided that the best way to do this is by buttering up the new main shareholder – American billionaire Wilbur Ross who will control 18 per cent of the bank’s shareholding. On Friday the happy bunny put in a request to the Central Bank for the appointment of Ross to the board, presumably in the hope that the Yank would show his appreciation when he takes control of the bank.
EVERYONE felt sympathy for the way Omonia was knocked out of the Europa League last Thursday, conceding a goal in the fourth minute of injury-time to Dynamo Moscow in Nicosia and losing 2-1. A draw would have been enough to see Omonia through, after the club had secured a 2-2 draw in Moscow.
Needless to say, the defeat was attributed to a conspiracy. This was not just the view of brainless fans but it was shared by Akelite apparatchik Christos Christofides who posted his conspiracy theory on his Facebook page. It went like this:
“Now to the reasons for being knocked out. A few days ago I took a call from a friend who is in the know, closely follows Cypriot and European football matters. He told be me, ‘Friend, Omonia will not go through….did you see who the referee is?’ I replied that it was a Romanian but I was not too sure. He said ‘friend it is not a Romanian, it is the guy who killed Ael against Zenith. These people serve special missions: they take orders and execute them, not to mention that they have a reputation of being selling themselves for a sandwich..’ I heard this in disbelief…Of course I know the European federation is not saint, that cash counts more than anything, I was also worried because our little people here talk to them…
“I told many friends that I was worried about the refereeing… Unfortunately I was proved right. Omonia scored three goals, conceded one and was knocked out because of a referee on a special mission, possibly with Cypriot encouragement. This is clear.”
This guy is meant to be one of AKEL’s promising young politicians. It was worth noting that he did not blame the Russians for bribing the referee with a sandwich, even though it was a Russian club that benefited from the refereeing bias. He obviously did not want to upset the Russian embassy. But it is to his credit that he resisted the temptation of blaming this shameless conspiracy against Omonia on NATO.
