Alkan Chaglar
Generally people regard Cyprus as an island inhabited exclusively by Greeks and Turks, but now providing a new home or sanctuary for tens of thousands of refugees, economic migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa and settlers, the former British colony is experiencing its most diverse multi-culturalism, yet in the mindset of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot politicians, it is still very much a Greco-Turkish Cypriot affair. Long pursuing their own unofficial policy of monoculturalism that has led to the assimilation of traditional minorities such as the Maronites and Latins, now even pro-reunification politicians in both the Republic of Cyprus and the North are pursuing a new goal of biculturalism, itself an offshoot of bizonality. But is this adequate as a sustainable solution for the kind of multicultural state post-1974 Cyprus has become?
EU FACTOR
Cyprus has always been home to more than two communities, but in recent years owing to the strength of the Cypriot economy and the historic accession of the island to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, the Republic of Cyprus has rapidly become a magnet for economic migrants from Asia and a safe haven for refugees from rickety democracies in the Middle-East, while many more trying to enter the Republic often end up living in transit in the North. In addition, an increased presence in recent years of entrepreneurial Russian and Pontian Greek communities, Asian guest workers as well as ethnic Muslim Kurds and Arabs from within Turkey in North, are each playing their part in transforming the character of the island. Following EU membership, there is a new ease at which people from across Europe can study and work in Cyprus, and with thousands of Europeans each year looking to purchase their very own patch of turf beneath the Mediterranean sun each year, the island is continually changing.
UNOFFICIAL POLICY OF ASSIMILATION
However, official policies and attitudes regarding the island’s own cultural diversity remain lost in a time when assimilation was the norm for small minorities in Cyprus. Regardless of how many tens of thousands of economic migrants, and refugees have settled on the island, successive Cypriot governments still pursue an unofficial policy of assimilation, claiming that even traditional communities like the Maronites, Latins and Armenians who have lived in Cyprus since the 9th century ‘belong’ to the Greek Cypriot community. Erroneously interpreting the 1959 agreement, where these communities were put in an awkward position of having to choose whether they wanted to be registered under the Greek or Turkish Cypriot electoral register, Cypriot politicians today exploit this as justification to pursue a goal of monoculturalism. Worse, some Cypriot politicians even in this day and age so obsessed with a majority rule theory are convinced that they alone can claim the name Cypriot; they fail to even come to terms with the fact that Turkish Cypriots are Cypriots, or that even communities smaller than theirs are still equal.
In the occupied North matters are by no-means better. Cypriot Gypsies are not even registered as an official minority community. Moreover, they are presumed to be Turkish Cypriots or a sub-group within that community despite their separate language and nomadic lifestyle. Yet many Turkish Cypriots rather than involve them in sharing power and in the future of the North they view them as common criminals.
But alas, times are changing and attitudes must change also, particularly now Cyprus is anchored into the EU. For those still unable to think of themselves as Cypriots, but continue to struggle for “Turkish Cypriot rights” or “Greek Cypriot rights,” they now have competition. An obstacle to their ethnocentric campaigns, the new arrivals will later become their headache. What will they do when these new growing communities of Kurdish Cypriots, Pontian Cypriots, the target of much racism today on the island will sooner or later organise and too demand their own community rights?
FLAWED GOALS OF BICULTURALISM
Perhaps, a result of physical separation, many Greek and Turkish Cypriots are unaware of the implications of their changing environment, with supporters of pro-reunification busy gathering with friends from the ‘other side’ to re-live old times. But while it is positive to see Greek and Turkish Cypriots unite in their campaigns, some are struggling for a false solution, a future biculturalism or a bi-ethnic state, whereby Greek and Turkish Cypriots will inevitably both share the process of assimilation. In other words, “continue a policy of monoculturalism in your own future component state and we’ll do likewise.” Traditionally, the uneasy final agreement between two communities involved in an ethnic conflict in which neither community has gained absolute triumph; biculturalism is already becoming outdated in modern day Canada, where it was originally introduced to appease the nationalisms of the two main communities there. Ill-equipped to multi-cultural societies, the trouble with biculturalism is that it only works if everybody is from two communities.
Biculturalism to compliment a bi-zonal solution is inappropriate for 21st century Cyprus, as it is merely a marriage between Greek and Turkish Cypriot monoculturalist politics, with everybody else who doesn’t fall into these two labels forced to assimilate or remain socially excluded. The government of Cyprus and northern authorities needs to recognise the more accurate multi-cultural environment and apply to their politics before we can claim to have grasped a solution. Without viewing involving all communities in governance and nation-building, even a reunified Cyprus will fail to achieve social reunification.
DANGER OF NATIVES VS NEW ARRIVALS
Without incorporating the true face of Cyprus into official policies and attitudes, Cypriots can and should expect Cyprus’ ten of thousands of Kurdish Cypriots, Sri Lankan Cypriots, Filipino Cypriots and many other permanent residents of island to soon build their own list of multiple ethnocentric demands. After all, have we Greek and Turkish Cypriots not set fine models for them to follow? Unless we include every community on the island in a peace process and in future nation building by embracing diversity, then frankly we should expect cultural ghettos to form leading to a segregation of the ‘natives’ and the new arrivals.
MEET THE NEW CYPRIOTS
For those still in doubt to the true face of Cyprus, I invite you to simply walk around the island’s towns, to places like Famagusta where Kurdish Cypriots as well as Arab Cypriots from Hatay (Turkey) argue over taxi fares or sip tea outside tea houses as they do in Anatolia. Or to the countryside, where Laz Cypriots conscious of the Black Sea mountains and valleys they left behind escape to cool forests to avoid the heat of the Mediterranean sun, or outside a Nicosia café, where a Senegalese man flirts uncontrollably with a native Cypriot girl, while in the adjacent park, Sri Lankan Cypriots gather to peel mango and talk in Sinhala or Tamil about recent political events in Colombo. Meet the new Cypriots!
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Manifesto for a virgin birth based on the Principals of our Constitution (that of 1960) for a Governance which is Bicommunal, and a redress for all Displaced Persons.
A letter to:
Christofias Demetris, President of the Republic of Cyprus
Mehemet Ali Talat, Cumhurbaskani (KKTC)
To all the Citizens of the island of Cyprus
I offer my humble observations in the hope that they may be a guide toward a solution which is a demonstration of our Humanity, as Cypriots.
As a basis of negociation there is a long history of resolutions, and proposals toward the Problem and its Solution which this proposal shares.
For close to half a century we have struggled to define the meaning of that basic principal in our Constitution which makes our identity bicommunal. Bizonal has been less clear to us, as to meaning, and although it is the most important issue, land, we are far from clearing this impasse.
In my Cyprus the meaning of these words are clear.
And I believe, their consideration was well chosen by Makarios and Denktash.
Bizonal means two parts; with each part made up of components.
Bicommunal means two levels of government; in our case three governing bodies.
Cyprus, the Republic of Cyprus, has had a dysfunctional government from its advent. For whatever reasons, enclaves became a part of our geography, allowing for distinctions to form where Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots would grow, and grow apart. Now the displaced are measured in hundreds of thousands and the occupation by the Turkish Army remains, with the hope it will withdraw, when there exists reforms that Cypriots make for themselves as equal with a sense that their governance shall sustain them.
In my Cyprus the line which divides it in two would remain.
In my Cyprus some of the displaced shall return as communities, and all displaced shall have the Right of Return.
In my Cyprus in voting, in any election, people are defined by their residence, not by their ethnicity.
In my Cyprus a strong Central Government, with its Executive, and an Independent Judiciary will be Sovereign in defending our identities as individuals, our Individual Rights, and the Heritance which makes the island’s culture wealthy, beyond the interests of any single community of persons.
In my Cyprus there are two National Assemblies, where citizens represent themselves as persons, to have Jurisdiction over Territories defined, each as a Zone, providing to these electors the services they need in their daily lives in a manner where, they can as a majority sustain themselves first, while recognising their grace and providing for the special needs of minoroities amongst them.
In my Cyprus, enclaves, like jewels will be scattered across its map. Famagusta will be opened, Girne will remain, Komi Kebir will thrive, and a new township will be founded by Turkish Cypriots near Paphos.
In my Cyprus there is no need for the Military, even if there are many frontiers, there will be no borders.
A Unitary State exists which is in need of reform. The Principal of Bicommunality is inherant in its Constitution, yet it must be demonstrated as a useful political tool when people share a land having a pluralistic identity between them.
I imagine a Bicameral Legislature for the Government of our State. I imagine an Upper House, its seats divided equally between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot representatives. I imagine a Lower House whose seats are filled by representatives Independent of National Parties, proportionally elected, who through their speaker choose amongst them voting members for all the Government Committees where they have seats, debating Legislation, and voting by consensus
A Leader, to win the Presidency, through his Party must gain a majority of seats in the Upper House. Thus, his/her ethnicity is of no importance having to provide candidates to fill all the seats.
The voter shall vote thricely, once from each of three slates: an Independent, a Turkish Cypriot, and a Greek Cypriot representative.
Futuristically, over 200 years, we must consider having a population of 12 million. The mono clonal tendancies of today, when isolation is removed, and when our EU membership is beyond its advent, will no longer resist the changes of a world far more associated, and I hope at peace in the Middle East, and Africa. Bicommunality will allow us to choose as persons our identity, while as individuals we will seek to work together toward our betterment as Human beings embracing the changes the future brings in our demographics as the most Socialised Country in the World..
Without our representation in National Assemblies we cannot provide to our culture another facet which enriches it, nor can its two counterparts be sustained any other way.
With a Unitary State we represent ourselves as this island’s dwellers, our expression as Human beings toward acts of betterment above any Nationality. As an expression of our Love for this island, as the Stewards for this Heritage, for the love of its trees, and of its relics, that are even older than the cultures in which we wish to sustain ourselves, (to Neolithic times), we need a State where we remain undivided. This history of Cypriots is interwoven in our own, but it is a power which I’m afraid cannot sustain itself this time. It is a single line unbroken; we can remain great cooperators, yet for the first time in thousands of years, we can be free from subjugation.
Rise up citizen, if you disagree with my proposal, choose one that is better, and more Just.
Send yours to our leaders, they need our help now.
My name is repulsewarrior, and as a citizen of the world you can find me on google.
Cyprus: three governments; One Capital, and Free.
...dear mr. chaglar, your blog is a great container of hope, and reason. (it made me cry). i include this manifesto which i hope you will support. in the least i would very much appreciate your evaluation of it. i too, realise that changing demographics and the changing politics of our world toward inclusiveness makes the Cyprus Problem all the more important to solve in a manner which inspires others in a similar impasse to consider and emulate toward the betterment of the Human Condition. thank-you for your efforts and i have included this blog in my favourites.
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