IN AN INTERVIEW given to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Mehmet Ali Talat was asked whether he would agree to one of his children marrying a Greek Cypriot. He gave the following reply:
“Possibly, neither my wife nor I would be satisfied from something like this. Our desire is for them to choose a Turkish Cypriot partner. But you know, as a father, this is just a preference and that, in the final analysis, they are your children. So you cannot act very harshly because it is their life. After all, they will not listen to us when they fall in love.”
This was an honest and perfectly reasonable reply. Most parents would like their children to marry within their community, for a variety of reasons, and in this respect Talat expressed the prevalent view. For the Cyprus government, however, which seems intent on deconstructing every public statement made by the Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ as part of its transparent campaign to prove that he is the new Denktash, Talat was revealing his true intentions.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides immediately took the moral high ground, saying at his press briefing on Tuesday: “I think Mr Talat’s statement does not reflect modern political thinking and modern social thinking.” In addition to this, Talat’s view “means that it confirms his secret desire to maintain the separation.” Apart from arbiter of modern thinking, Chrysostomides, it appears, has taken on the role of government psychoanalyst as well, identifying the secret hopes and desires of politicians through their speech.
There are obviously no depths to which this government is not prepared to sink in order to discredit Talat – even an innocuous comment like the above had to be exploited, even though it is not Talat who ends up looking ridiculous. What the government fails to comprehend is that by resorting to such pitifully idiotic arguments it is inviting everyone’s ridicule and destroying the last shreds of credibility it may have.
It is quite amusing how the Papadopoulos government, which has taken political behaviour and discourse back to the early sixties, considers itself eligible to pass judgment on what constitutes modern thinking. For instance, President Papadopoulos and Chrysostomides, who are, by implication, modern thinkers and are consumed by a sincere desire to reunite Cyprus, would immediately give their blessing if one of their offspring decided to marry a Turkish Cypriot. In stark contrast, Talat, who is socially and politically backward, and is opposed to reunification, would rather his offspring chose Turkish Cypriots for partners.
This is what Chrysostomides expects people to believe. Surely the government, which is in tune with modern political thinking, can come up with less absurd arguments to convince us that Talat is the new Denktash and wants to maintain the separation of the island.
