I AM a Turkish Cypriot. I spent 42 years of my life in the UK, Canada and US and came back in 1998 to spend my retiring years in my country of birth.
I have seen and observed what changes the world has gone through during the last for five decades.
As mind-boggling as the social, economic, structural and technological changes have been, equally amazing has been the humans’ quick adoptability to new conditions and their willingness to carry on with their desire to live a fulfilling life in peace and harmony. Even the regimes have changed to accommodate the new world order, changing the map of the world. In the case of the EU, ‘Empowerment by inclusion’ has become the steering policy.
So why are we still stuck with the mentality that prevailed in the mid-fifties?
Is keeping the mistrust and hatred alive the only lesson we have learned from what we both have gone through? It could not be the moral choice of the majority.
Is it not the time to put aside the mistrust and start channelling all of our energy and rationality into determining where our mutual interests lie and above all live in peace?
In fact I think it is long overdue.
In this crucial year I ask myself :
“Will we be able to solve the Cyprus problem and unite the island by creating the United Cyprus Republic?”
What is preventing us from genuinely and enthusiastically engaging ourselves to discuss the details of the formation of United Cyprus Republic taking the Annan Plan as a base, upholding at all times “mutual respect” as well as “mutual benefits” as our guiding torch?
I must, however, admit that the size of the ‘no’ vote for the referandum in the south, conveyed an alarming message to me personally. I cannot help feeling that there is something much deeper than the disagreements in the Annan Plan involved here. Seventy-five per cent ‘no’ vote? I really am puzzled.
Please allow me therefore to pose the following questions to those ‘no’ voters in the referandum so that we understand each other before going any further.
l Do you accept the fact that Cyprus is just as much “my country” as it is “yours”?
l Does your ‘no’ vote imply that your old misguided belief about Cyprus being a Greek island still pesist?
l Is your ‘no’ vote the reflection of misconstrued notion that we the Turks can and should exist only with given minority rights?
It is only you, the individual ‘no’ voter who can answer these questions.
I somehow refuse to believe that the hate and mıstrust factor is so engrained that you would want to deny our existence here.
If you do accept the reality of our existence and accept the fact that this is just as much “my country” as it is “yours”, then we have eliminated one key obstacle.
I also am correct in believing that most of you do have the full or adequate consciousness, conception and perception about the meaning of “human rights”. Because most of you are aware that in the club you have just joined, there is no such a thing as “minority rights” ; that the “human rights” of a “minority” are not vote bound, thus cannot be put to a vote by anyone. Especially by any majority government.
Most of you again are aware that in the EU club you have joined there is no such concept which allows a majority the right to deprive a minority of its own human rights. It negates the moral code of justice of your club, the EU Institution itself.
The EU upholds the premise which allows no one (neither an individual nor a member nation’s government) to put on another a “claim” that he wipes himself out of existence.
So I do believe that not all of you ‘no’ voters would therefore disagree with me.
Hence I am extending my hand, not only as a goodwill gesture, but also in good faith and urge you to help to create together the United Cyprus Republic.
To the extent we make “justice for all” our “moral choice and commitment” and strive to achieve it, we can build a lasting peace for the benefit of both communities.
Let us make achieving this be our agenda for this year.
Let us make a commitment to that agenda.
Let us work together to make it happen.
Let us give peace in our mutual country a chance to bloom and flourish.
Let us dwell on reaping the mutual benefits rather than ripping each other to pieces.
Let us be guided by “reason” and “rationality”, keeping the torch of “Mutual Respect” and “Mutual Benefits” lit at all times and with dignity.
That is what should prevail.
To do the contrary as has been the case for so long, would be equal to admitting that we are neither mature nor rational enough to measure up to the task awaiting us.
May I please also humbly suggest one thing to President Papadopoulos ?
Please try to extend and expand yourself to be more accommodating so as to embrace all. As hard as it may seem, try to empower all (both Greeks as well as Turks) by inclusivity rather than empowering one to the exclusion of other. It is the right thing to do, and as a leader you are expected to do the right thing.
History can only reward you for your role in uniting the island and creating the United Cyprus Republic.
