OUR ESTABLISHMENT had initially considered not writing anything about the bizarre theft of the Ethnarch’s remains, for fear of not getting the tone right, and leaving itself open to charges of insensitivity and lack of respect for the dead by the pious custodians of his memory.
After much soul-searching and a couple of stiff drinks, we decided that we would be letting our customers down if we did not offer our worthless views about the freakiest local story of the year, perhaps of the decade. Digging up a grave and running away with the remains of a former president, was a unique event in world history that put Cyprus in all the international news. How could a local, weekly column ignore it?
There is also the danger that you could be made to look very foolish by writing things that would be superseded by events, as there is an ongoing police investigation, that surface after the paper has gone to the printers. So we have to exercise all-round caution, to avoid any embarrassing blunders that would destroy our establishment’s reputation.
What we can safely say is that this was sick act, perpetrated by sub-humans with sick minds.
DIGGING up a grave and running away with the remains is a very unusual crime, even in a country in which irrationality and lunacy are part of daily life.
Nobody here believes in voodoo, witch-doctors and zombies while the black magic worshippers are usually stupid, dope-smoking kids who believe there are satanic messages in Black Sabbath songs.
Having ruled out the possibility of resurrection, presumably after consultations with the Church, the cops had precious little to work on. The digging up of the grave was apparently a professional job, the sickos who did it having lifted a 250kg granite slab, removing the remains from the coffin, which they left in its place, and covering everything with lime powder.
Three young men serving in the National Guard were taken in for questioning by the cops but were subsequently released as they all had alibis.
IN THE END, the only person who had a lead about the perpetrators’ motives was multi-talented, former foreign minister and Tassos sidekick, Giorgos Lillikas. Apart from being a very capable able diplomat – as he reminded us on Wednesday when he slammed his successor Marcos Kyp’s failure to impose sanctions on Turkey – he is also a quite brilliant criminal investigator.
Lillikas rushed to the scene of the crime, as soon as he heard the news, and after talking to the cops and investigating all the evidence, announced his findings.
“The people who did this, on the anniversary of his death and the eve of the memorial service, wanted to send a message to Cypriot Hellenism – that they had eliminated the symbol which embodied the resistance of Cypriot Hellenism to catastrophic plans.”
The obvious question, which Chief Inspector Lillikas should have asked in order to get his list of suspects, would be: ‘Who would want the symbol of resistance to catastrophic plans eliminated?’ Was it the Brits, the Yanks, the Swedish presidency of the EU, the Downer team or the Turks? I did not mention local supporters of catastrophic plans because Inspector Clouseau said he did not want to believe that Greek Cypriots committed such a crime.
A news-hound of Sigma TV, who had conducted his own investigation, reported that the Turkish secret service MIT had taken the remains, which was perfectly consistent with the findings of the chief inspector.
THE POLITICAL exploitation of the crime by the late Ethnarch’s supporters was a bit cheap whichever way you look at it. His former spokesman Vasilis Palmas told us that his “legacy and policy are still present and will continue to guide the Cypriot people”.
Lillikas said that Cypriot Hellenism would “adhere to his visions and the continuation of its struggle, further strengthening its resistance”. He also used the crime in order to advertise yesterday’s memorial service for Tassos, as attendance was the only way to show that “we would be the upholders of what Tassos Papadopoulos embodied”.
The DIKO spokesman Fotis Fotiou also marketed the memorial service, after expressing his abhorrence, urging people to turn up in numbers so as “to honour the leader and to renew our faith in the legacies he left us”.
There was a good turn-out for the memorial service in Deftera yesterday, as a result of its promotion. However it did not have the desired effect on comrade president who, for unknown reasons, did not show up. Perhaps the frosty reception he received at last year’s funeral and the merciless attacks from Junior about the Cyprob, made him stay away.
CHIEF inspector Lillikas was on the news again yesterday evening, the second time in two days, calling for unity and expressing the hope that the desecration of the Ethnarch’s grave would not cause divisions in the home front. Why it would cause divisions nobody is saying. Everyone, quite rightly, has been united in condemning what happened, so why is there a risk of division?
I suspect we will hear a lot more about the need for unity now that Lillikas has found an opportunity to return from the political wilderness and kick-start his stalled career.
THIS IS no time for gloating, but we predicted that our much-trumpeted intention to impose sanctions on Turkey would end in total disappointment, as had happened three years ago. The newspapers deployed their favourite cliché about the “thriller in Brussels” but that was a pretty misleading description of the proceedings.
It would have been a thriller if there had been the slightest doubt about the outcome of the meeting of the foreign ministers. But unfortunately everything went according to the script, with Marcos Kyprianou failing to get support for sanctions from any other member-state – not even Greece. He did manage to change the wording of a couple of paragraphs of the conclusions, but that was it.
The government was more successful in presenting its failure as a respectable success at home, which was no mean feat. It fooled Garoyian and Omirou who expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the thriller. It did not however fool the smart politicians like Junior, Syllouris, Perdikis and Lillikas.
‘SUSPICIOUS propaganda’ was how the bash-patriotic Antenna TV news reported the government plans to publish booklets explaining to people how a federal political system would work. The station’s supreme ruler Loukis P, I suppose, has not heard the saying about people in glass houses.
All the political parties, apart from AKEL, were opposed to the government’s initiative, reported the station. It even featured a statement by the DISY vice-president Lefteris Christoforou, who did not object to the initiative, cleverly edited to give the impression that he did. There is nothing suspicious about Antenna’s propaganda because it is done in an open and transparent way. Just ask Big Al.
TO BE FAIR, Antenna’s propaganda is for a noble cause – preventing an unfair and unjust settlement of the Cyprob. It is geared at maintaining public opposition to a solution and keeping alive the desirable level of hostility towards the Turks that was cultivated during the Ethnarch’s enlightened rule.
Tuesday night’s news show was a brilliant example of the genre. “Turkish troops to stay in Cyprus, says Erdogan,” we were told by the station’s newscaster who was relaying a report about the Turkish PM’s comments during a visit to the US. It made you wonder, why were we even bothering having peace talks if the troops were staying.
Erdogan had said that the troops would only leave after a settlement, but the report did not deem it necessary to make this clear, because it would have highlighted a positive consequence of the unfair and unjust solution that Loukis P is so valiantly fighting against.
TURKISH Cypriot columnist Sener Levent took great exception to our item last week about the greed of Turkish Cypriot civil servants, expressing his shock and revulsion at the idea that there could be Greek Cypriots who would want the occupation troops to stay so they would not have to pay the north’s public sector wage-bill. We will respond to Senor Sener, next week when we have more space.
We have learnt that in the north public parasites are even more problematic than on our side. Apparently, when there is a change of pseudo-government all the top pseudo public officials in the civil service, Bayrak etc are sacked and replaced by members of the ruling party. But the people sacked continue to be paid their salary in full indefinitely. There are currently about 350 people collecting a big pseudo-state salary as they were all high-ranking pseudo-officials, without having to go to work.
SPEAKING of state finances, our good friend Charilaos, in his zeal to clamp down on tax evasion, may have overstepped the boundaries. One his 22 proposals approved last week by the Council of Ministers is a police state measure.
Apparently, people who provide the authorities with information and evidence that would lead to the uncovering of cases of tax evasion would be rewarded by the state. He is giving incentives for people to behave as informers, all of which suggests that he has not given up on his dream to set up a fairer society.
PERSONALITY of the Year, House President and DIKO chief Marios Garoyian seems to be thoroughly enjoying playing the big-shot. Like most people from humble beginnings who manoeuvre their way to the top, he allowed his power to go to his head and loves to advertise the fact that he is a very important man entitled to preferential treatment.
Twice he has reportedly kept Cyprus Airways planes, ready for take-off, waiting for him at Larnaca Airport, because he is such an important man and is not obliged to board at the same time as mere mortals. Apart from inconveniencing the other passengers, his delayed boarding also caused problems to the airline, reported Politis on Wednesday.
The following day, however, the paper carried a correction, the source of which was, presumably, the personality of the year. According to Thursday’s report, Garoyian is always on time when flying and “never causes delays”. On the two occasions there had been delays in departure of a few minutes, but it was not the fault of Marios, the paper informed us. How could it be the fault of the last person to board the plane?
ON BOTH occasions, he was in the building of the new airport on time but was delayed getting on the plane because of mistakes by “officials of the relevant government department”. On the first occasion, the officials mistakenly took him to the air-bridge leading to the wrong plane and he had to rush around to find the correct one.
On the second, they led him to an air-bridge the door of which would not open so he had to walk “quite a distance” and board the plane via the “steps for the engineers”. Was it possible that the air-bridge door was locked because the boarding had been completed and the plane was getting ready for take-off?
What expectations should we have from a leading politician who resorts to these pathetic schoolboy excuses? And what’s worse, like a cowardly schoolboy he refuses to take responsibility for his lack of consideration, blaming some hapless official, for taking him to the wrong air-bridge.
THERE was a third instance he delayed a plane, but it was not mentioned by Politis. This took place in October, before the new terminal was opened. What was his excuse for delaying the flight then, considering there were no air-bridges in the old airport?
Did the official of the relevant government department put him on the wrong bus, or did the driver of the VIP bus take him to the wrong plane?
