Andreas KOUMI
Twenty two centuries ago, a great Cypriot, in whose stoical shadow we still stand, declared that man can conquer the world by conquering himself. This momentous decree was a great beacon light of hope to tens of thousands of Cypriots who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It offered a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But over two thousands years later, we must face the tragic fact that Cypriots are still not free.
Today, the life of the Cypriot is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of division. All these years later, the Cypriot lives on a lonely island of estrangement in the midst of a Mediterranean sea of materialism. Over two thousand years later, the Cypriot is still languishing in the corners of society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we come together to dramatise an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to cash a cheque. When the guarantors of our republic wrote the words of the Constitution, they were signing a promissory note to which every Cypriot was to fall heir. This note was a promise that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of everyone on the island would be secured. It is obvious today that Cyprus's guarantors have defaulted on this promissory note.
Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, they have given the Cypriot people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we have come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to remind our guarantors and the world of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of the island's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the world to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Cypriot people. The Cypriot's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Those who hope that the Cypriot needs to blow off steam and will be content will have a rude awakening if the world returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility on this island until all Cypriots are granted their full citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of the European Union until the bright day of justice emerges. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Cypriot community must not lead us to distrust of Greek or Turkish people, for many of our Greek and Turkish brothers have come to realise that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of Cypriot human rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of exile, cannot return to their ancestral homes. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Cypriot's basic mobility is restricted. We can never be satisfied as long as a Cypriot in the south cannot vote as a Cypriot, and a Cypriot in the north believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come to this point out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Larnaca, go back to Limassol, go back to Famagusta, go back to Kyrenia, go back to the isolation of all our northern towns and villages, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the stoical dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its status as the island of love. I have a dream that one day on the red villages of Amohostos region the sons of orthodox Christians and the sons of Sunni Muslims will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the region of Karpasia, an area, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their religious heritage but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day this island, whose leaders's lips are presently dripping with the words of Hellenism and Kamalism, will be transformed into a situation where little Muslim boys and Christian girls will be able to join hands with little Christian boys and Muslim girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is our faith. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go forward together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Pentadaktilos. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Troodos. Let freedom ring from the the wild landscape Akamas. Let freedom ring from the fertile valley of Morphou. Let freedom ring from the sun-kissed beaches of Ayia Napa. But not only that; let freedom ring from Paphos, the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite. Let freedom ring from the mosque of Umm Haram. Let freedom ring from the monastery of Saint Andreas the Apostle. From every corner of Cyprus, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every town and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children will be able to join hands and sing the new words of an old ode, "I recognise you in the ball-point spreading wisdom all around. I recognise you in the figure moving swiftly over ground. From the holy bones extracted of Cypriots through history, And with courage rediscovered, we salute you, Liberty!"
With acknowledgements to Martin Luther King...
Twenty two centuries ago, a great Cypriot, in whose stoical shadow we still stand, declared that man can conquer the world by conquering himself. This momentous decree was a great beacon light of hope to tens of thousands of Cypriots who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It offered a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But over two thousands years later, we must face the tragic fact that Cypriots are still not free.
Today, the life of the Cypriot is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of division. All these years later, the Cypriot lives on a lonely island of estrangement in the midst of a Mediterranean sea of materialism. Over two thousand years later, the Cypriot is still languishing in the corners of society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we come together to dramatise an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to cash a cheque. When the guarantors of our republic wrote the words of the Constitution, they were signing a promissory note to which every Cypriot was to fall heir. This note was a promise that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of everyone on the island would be secured. It is obvious today that Cyprus's guarantors have defaulted on this promissory note.
Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, they have given the Cypriot people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we have come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to remind our guarantors and the world of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of the island's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the world to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Cypriot people. The Cypriot's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Those who hope that the Cypriot needs to blow off steam and will be content will have a rude awakening if the world returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility on this island until all Cypriots are granted their full citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of the European Union until the bright day of justice emerges. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Cypriot community must not lead us to distrust of Greek or Turkish people, for many of our Greek and Turkish brothers have come to realise that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of Cypriot human rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of exile, cannot return to their ancestral homes. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Cypriot's basic mobility is restricted. We can never be satisfied as long as a Cypriot in the south cannot vote as a Cypriot, and a Cypriot in the north believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come to this point out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Larnaca, go back to Limassol, go back to Famagusta, go back to Kyrenia, go back to the isolation of all our northern towns and villages, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the stoical dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its status as the island of love. I have a dream that one day on the red villages of Amohostos region the sons of orthodox Christians and the sons of Sunni Muslims will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the region of Karpasia, an area, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their religious heritage but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day this island, whose leaders's lips are presently dripping with the words of Hellenism and Kamalism, will be transformed into a situation where little Muslim boys and Christian girls will be able to join hands with little Christian boys and Muslim girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is our faith. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go forward together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Pentadaktilos. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Troodos. Let freedom ring from the the wild landscape Akamas. Let freedom ring from the fertile valley of Morphou. Let freedom ring from the sun-kissed beaches of Ayia Napa. But not only that; let freedom ring from Paphos, the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite. Let freedom ring from the mosque of Umm Haram. Let freedom ring from the monastery of Saint Andreas the Apostle. From every corner of Cyprus, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every town and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children will be able to join hands and sing the new words of an old ode, "I recognise you in the ball-point spreading wisdom all around. I recognise you in the figure moving swiftly over ground. From the holy bones extracted of Cypriots through history, And with courage rediscovered, we salute you, Liberty!"
With acknowledgements to Martin Luther King...
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