By Loucas G. Charalambous
THE HISTORIC developments of the past 12 days, sparked by the decision of the Turkish Cypriot leadership to allow free movement, inadvertently had a startling side effect — thedebunking and ridicule of pseudo-patriotism from our political leadership and all those who have misled people with their vacuous slogans and idle claims for 30 years.
These are the very people who have been peddling the rhetoric of the great struggle, because in reality they were not interested in a settlement at all as the maintenance of the status quo suited them.
The rabid reaction of the main exponents of this school of thought, immediately after the announcement of the Turkish Cypriot decision, proved the point. It was a reaction fashioned by the fear that the status quo would collapse. It is exactly the same reaction that we witness in the big interest groups of the country whenever there is a serious attempt to find a solution to the Cyprus problem.
Consider who automatically took a stance against the free movement decision. Then try to remember who was most stridently opposed to the Kofi Annan peace plan a few months ago. It is the same political parties, the same individuals and the same business interests — all who fear that they have something to lose from the overturning of the status quo.
It is no coincidence, for instance, that among the media the strongest reactions came from the two most powerful groups — Phileleftheros, the largest circulation daily paper and Dias, the owner of a newspaper, TV and radio station.
In the political field, the main critics were the communist party AKEL and the president’s party, DIKO. This time, however, things developed differently: the people ignored them. Neither banner headlines about “Denktash’s trap and provocation” nor foolish claims by government ministers — that crossing to the north was tantamount to treachery — carried anyweight at all with ordinary people.
This time, people closed their ears to the pseudo-patriots’ admonitions and they ignored the platitudes of our incompetent political leaders. They decided to exercise their own judgmentand see for themselves. And they won. Ordinary citizens, through their sensible behaviour, imposed the politics of rationality, moderation and pragmatism. After 30 years of following their leaders they had had enough. They were fed up with vacuous rhetoric and platitudes and decided to take the initiative. Having completely ignored the politicians, the people then forced them to follow their lead. This has been the most significant and most encouraging development of the past fortnight.
A depressing aspect of all the goings-on has been the lamentable failure of our political leadership to handle the consequences of the Denktash regime’s decision, in particular the astonishing way in which people responded to it. From day one, the overriding impressionwas that nobody knew what to do. Our political leadership watched these incredible developments without being able to take the initiative and doing something. For the first time in three decades thousands of people were crossing the Green Line and moving freely on the’other side’ and our government, as if in a daze, watched passively from the sidelines.
President Tassos Papadopoulos, in a quandary over what was happening, was incapable of making even a brief statement, if only to tell people that things were under control. Eight days had to pass before the government could even respond to events on the ground. And when it did so, by announcing the measures for helping Turkish Cypriots, it managed to complete the self-inflicted humiliation.
On the one hand, it advised Greek Cypriots not to ‘recognise’ the Denktash regime by crossing north to see their houses, yet on the other it was announcing measures — such as thesale of products from our ‘stolen’ properties in the north to businesses in the free areas, the employment of graduates from Denktash’s ‘illegal’ universities, and the taking of our tourists to the north. These are measures that our politicians had long maintained would constitute ‘recognition’ if implemented. And the same political leadership, about a year ago, mercilessly attacked the Brussels group of businessmen because they had suggested that we buy milk from Turkish Cypriots as there was a shortage in the free areas.
And what should we say about the AKEL chief Demetris Christofias, who, following the public’s diktats, so audaciously announced that “my party and I were always the pioneers of rapprochement (between the two communities)”. This is the same Christofias who, back in1993, publicly pilloried a small group of Greek Cypriots who had committed the unspeakableact of meeting with Turkish Cypriots for conflict resolution seminars in Oxford and at the Ledra Palace Hotel. He claimed at the time that he was ‘devastated’ when he had heard of these contacts.
But at the Ledra Palace checkpoint, the ordinary citizens of this country have woken up and are now showing their open contempt for the irresponsible sloganeering, the pseudo-patriotism and the hypocrisy of Christofias and the rest of our political leadership. It is nothing more than what they deserve.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
