Have these week’s events taken their toll on the national psyche? Alexia Saoulli seeks professional help
IT’S BEEN exhausting couple of weeks: Greek Cypriots have experienced an overwhelming multitude of emotions – anxiety, fear, confusion – in the run-up to yesterday’s historic referendum on the Annan plan.
People of all ages have found themselves waking up and thinking about the plan, going to work and talking about the plan, meeting with friends and discussing the plan and going to bed and still thinking about the plan, even dreaming about the plan.
Psychologist and psychotherapist Markos Markides, said the referendum campaign had highlighted how people reacted to change.
He said younger people had been especially concerned about adopting the changes brought on by the culture shock of the Annan plan. “They haven’t experienced the friendships that existed in the mixed villages. While older people can hope they can be regained, people under 40 have been left with the prejudice and history. They are therefore very afraid and very uncertain,” he said.
Markides pointed out that the psychological issue of change had been handled very badly.
“A major change is happening on May 1 when we enter the EU. People already feel burdened and anxious about that, as well as the economic consequences and hardships they are asked to face. It’s not the time for another major change at the same time, let alone one that has opened up wounds and reawakened major fears for those who experienced violence,” he said.
Markides said people should have been allowed time to adjust to entering into the EU and feeling safe before the referendum was held. He explained that any change in life brought on feelings of anxiety and stress. “Even if you win the lottery you feel joy, mixed with anxiety, confusion and stress of how to deal with the situation.
“To ask people to change their government, to reunite the Turks and Greeks, is too much to bear and take in and absorb. It’s too much at one time, which is one of the major reasons so many people are voting no. They’re saying: ‘I can’t take so much change in one go. It’s too much’.”
Markides added he believed most people had decided fairly early on how they would vote. “People are not confused. They are very well informed. Never before has there been so much information. Psychologically speaking they had decided whether they would vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The rest was just reading up on the view that sustained that decision.”
He said that people had gravitated towards those with similar views, “fuelling all their energy into reading and attending rallies and demos, which release their feelings en masse with other people. This is good because it releases anxiety.”
But psychiatrist Yiangos Mikellides said that when all was said and done, Greek Cypriots were driven by their deep-rooted fear of the Turks; their vote had been cast on emotion, not logic, he insisted.
“People don’t vote on what they think. They vote out of fear. The more they are afraid of the Turks, the more they vote no. The less they fear the Turks, the more they vote yes,” he said.
He added: “Simultaneously, the more frequently people have been to the north, the more likely they were to vote yes. Those who have only been once or not at all probably voted no.”
He said that few could forget the 1974 invasion, the killings of Greek Cypriots and that they were still afraid. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s past policy of shooting people who crossed the Green Line had only increased this fear, he said.
“Despite what people say, no one was really thinking about the Annan plan. They don’t care about he legalities or the political parties’ influence. It’s all a façade. When you talk to Greek Cypriots what rings clear is this deep-rooted fear of the Turks.”
Mikellides said: “Cypriots are afraid by nature. This is why eventually the referendum will have a ‘yes’ result. On Saturday the answer was ‘no’. It will go to referendum again and when pushed, the people will say ‘yes’, because their fear of the ‘no’ – and its subsequent consequences from international powers – will be greater than their fear of the Turks.”
Antonis Raftis, a sociologist-psychologist, agreed with Mikellides on the issue of fear, but said it was more a fear of change that drove people to say no.
“Greek Cypriots like stability and are afraid of big, unknown changes. They tell themselves, tomorrow we are going into Europe, why rock the boat? They feel secure.”
He said people had appeared to be very confused and worried about the referendum, based on fear of the future, major life changes and the unknown.
Raftis said people’s fears were widespread and involved changes in the economy and culture.
“They are still living with the trauma of 1974 and were afraid of the yes vote because it would have been a new change. They were afraid and insecure of what would happen to their economic status. They were afraid the Turks would take their jobs and lower standards, and on top of that they’d have to pay for them as well. They were also afraid the culture was going to change because a wall of prejudice had been built in their subconscious concerning the settlers, who have a different and new culture compared to the Greek and Turkish Cypriots because they are from the depths of Anatolia. Knowing the settlers are going to stay forever unsettled people.”
He said the majority of Greek Cypriots were worried about their children’s futures. “They ask themselves: are they going to have a good future with the new change? Is it worse for them? In fact, they worry more about their children’s future than their own. They ask themselves if it’s going to work or not.”
To make things worse, “the messages they receive from the politicians do not make them feel reassured that everything is going to be okay,” he said. “The politicians, who are meant to be the experts, are divided on how to vote and fight and try to impose their views. This makes things more difficult for the simple citizens because they don’t know who is right or wrong. Some people are also angry with the politicians for confusing them and wish they had one voice. This would make things easer and put them at ease psychologically.”
Raftis said the Annan plan had become a national obsession, with people addicted to political talk shows every night. On top of the mounting tension, the topic had also divided families. “Spouses, siblings and parents and children argue if they have different opinions,” he said.
“This week was the climax. Now it will be the anticlimax and there is going to be confusion and depression because it’s not something we do every day. It’s once in a lifetime and involves all our futures.”
