The Cypriot Voice

Respect and tolerance for other religions is essential for peace in Cyprus

2008-02-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

Alkan Chaglar

If you can imagine the significance Hala Sultan Tekke holds for generations of Muslim Turkish Cypriots, then you might be able to understand the importance Sourp Magar Monastery has for Cyprus’ 1000 year-old Armenian community. The monastery holds historical, religious and sentimental value to Armenian Cypriots, yet like many Christian places of worship in Northern Cyprus, it has faced desecration and looting since the forced partition of 1974. With every issue now postponed until a political solution, authorities in Northern Cyprus who claim to pursue a policy of “peace, solution and reunification” have failed to address the matter of cultural destruction, and in many cases are hindering any essential restoration work to stop the continued decay of Christian places of worship.
Originally founded by a Coptic Christian recluse Saint Magar in 1642, Sourp Magar through the close relations between Nestorian Christians, together with the increased influx of Armenian refugees from Anatolia in the latter period of the Ottoman Empire, soon became an important religious centre for Armenians in Cyprus. Perched on the Kyrenia Mountains, the monastery has played an important role in the lives of Armenians who have used it for baptism, weddings, healing the sick, for their daily prayers and for funeral ceremonies. More than just a place for worship, Sourp Magar or Makaravank as it is affectionately known in Armenian was part of everyday life for Cyprus’ 6,000 strong Armenian community.
Sadly, with the partition of the island in 1974 and consequent efforts to turn the North into an ethnically homogenous Turkish state, the monastery was absorbed into a closed-off military zone, and has remained off limits to Cypriot Armenians since. To add to its demise, deliberate acts of vandalism and desecration, along with the looting of religious icons has left the monastery in severe decay. Religious groups in the Republic recently brought to attention the fact that a large number of religious icons from the monastery and countless other Christian places of worship have ended up on the international market.
Almost adding insult to injury, developers working on the land adjacent to the monastery have carelessly destroyed a large number of its holy inscriptions, and even more shocking a report in the daily Kibris Gazette in 1998 revealed plans that were underway to turn Sourp Magar into a casino. The plans were only halted when the Vatican personally intervened, but what is perturbing is how any official could even entertain the scheme of turning a religiously sacred and heritage site into a place of gambling!
More recently, Armenian Cypriots accompanied by their community leader Vartkes Mahdessian and Archbishop Varoujan Hergelian was permitted to visit Sourp Magar for the first time in 33 years last week. It was an emotional time for many of the 200 pilgrims who held sentimental childhood memories of family baptisms, weddings and funerals. Ever conscious of the dangers of assimilation, the Armenian community, which has never been party to Cyprus’ Greco-Turkish conflict, are pinning all their hopes on a solution that will arrive in time to save their monastery from total destruction – it may already be too late.
Adding to the tragedy is the fact that, Sourp Magar is no isolated incident; numerous Greek Orthodox and Maronite churches too have been looted and desecrated. Newspaper reports from Northern Cyprus describe how the Church of Ayia Anastasia in Lapta / Lapithos has been stripped of all its icons and converted into a hotel and bar, while the Church of Panagia Tochniou near Mandres / Hamitkoy has been desecrated (Avrupa 25/4/1998). During my last visit to the island I was personally shocked to discover that the church of Kalecik / Gastria village near Bogaz now houses farm animals. I wonder how we would react if a mosque was treated in a similar way.
Careless and senseless acts by a few it may appear to some, but the destruction, looting and vandalism of Sourp Magar and countless other religious buildings could have been avoided if greater priority and care was given by the authorities in Northern Cyprus. Failing to grasp the huge political and symbolic gesture of peace the protection of these historic and sacred properties would have, our past leadership even with their legal expertise failed to take note of the fact that under the Hague convention, it clearly stipulates that in cases of armed conflict, the conflicting parties must “prohibit if necessary, and put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or any acts of vandalism directed against cultural property.” What message are we as a community conveying to the rest of the world if we cannot prevent by law and in practice the destruction of cultural property by mindless vandals and avaricious looters?
Some legal experts in the TRNC point out that “local remedies” should permit the use of Greek Cypriot, Maronite and Armenian property for economic purposes, arguing that Turkish Cypriots should have the right to a livelihood and “life must go on”, but I am compelled to ask, is the conversion of religious buildings into businesses for tourists the way to achieve this?
However, in a bid to save some churches, lawmakers in Northern Cyprus have attempted to convert many into museums; in the case of St Barnabas Church in Famagusta this has helped preserve the building in almost perfect condition. While this can benefit many churches, there is an underlying fundamental flaw in thinking when one begins to consider Christian places of worship as museums of antiquity. Let us not forget, these buildings are not representing an extinct civilisation in the same way that Salamis or Kourium ruins might, indeed these Churches and Sourp Magar itself still belong to the communities who were forced to leave them behind only 30 years ago.
For those who left these ‘museums’ behind, they are not so ancient; in fact there are many people today who still hold in their memory the regular family Sunday prayers, baptisms, weddings, and funerals that took place there and that are part of their own personal history. Considering the personal value to the existence and identity of their respective owners, it becomes sadly apparent that their destruction amounts to the erasing of the mark and memory of a community who once lived around these churches.
Trying hard to ignore our past coexistence, those who seek the recognition of a state built on a graveyard of looted churches should realise that such acts cannot be simply brushed under our carpets; by doing so we are only staining the reputation of our community abroad. If we are to seek a long lasting peace as our leadership emphasizes to all, then we need to demonstrate tolerance to other faiths including their property before a solution is reached – a change in our attitudes and actions may still save Sourp Magar. After all respect for diversity of culture and religion or belief is essential to laying the foundations of peace for a new Cyprus.

Why an ethnocentric view of human rights is dangerous

2008-02-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR

Sanctions imposed against governments in general seldom achieve their idealistic goal, rather they inevitably lead to the isolation of an entire community, preventing citizens from enjoying their human rights and building for their future. Whether imposed on a supranational level or by one community against the ‘other,’ collective, punitive or reactionary sanctions are contrary to the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Cyprus they are hindering work towards regaining trust and eventually national unity. However, those claiming victimhood of sanctions and consequent isolation must ensure that they too are not imposing their own collective sanctions on others.Who is being sanctioned by whom?
While it is a common sentiment among the Turkish Cypriot community in Northern Cyprus that their inability to establish direct flights and trade with the rest of the world is largely due to sanctions imposed by Greek lobbying, from a Greek Cypriot point of view this lobbying is the only weapon available to dispossessed people to protest against sanctions preventing them from returning to their homes by a powerful neighbour. Equally, Greek and Maronite Cypriots enclaved in North Cyprus since 1974 also complain they too are victims of sanctions imposed by the ‘TRNC state,’ amounting to isolation within isolation, thus depriving them of their basic human rights.Turkish Cypriot isolation
There is no doubt isolation caused by imposed international sanctions is making one Cypriot community; the Turkish-speakers feel as if they are second-class citizens, regardless of whether or not they endorse the ‘TRNC’ and separatism. Feelings are worsened and trust shattered when 65% of Turkish Cypriots endorsed reunification in the 2003 Annan plan referenda, only to see their political will ignored and isolated continue. There is no doubt too that Turkish Cypriot sportsmen, intellectuals, artists, academics and others who are barred from participating in international events are being wrongly discriminated against, and barred from fulfilling their personal potential.
With the 1996 European Court of Justice ruling that effectively barred trade to the ‘TRNC’ and recent refusal of the UK Department of Transport for direct flights to Ercan, those suffering the consequences are not politicians with a separatist agenda but citizens. It is a disgrace to see sanctions originally imposed against the separatist politics of Denktash, destroy the lives of people who happen to have been brought up in Northern Cyprus today. Also it is even more sickening when a Cypriot President Papadopoulos remains insensitive to this isolation. No community deserves this kind of humuliating collective punishment.
Certain ‘human rights groups’ within our community will argue that we should be fighting for “Turkish Cypriot human rights” alone as if somehow our human rights are separated from those of others or more important. But this is a narrow-minded approach to human rights, as it ignores our own short-comings that originally led to the isolation of the breakaway TRNC. It is these short-comings that have kept the cycle of emnity moving and that challenges the universality of human rights. If we employ such an ethnocentric approach, human rights can only ever be secured by the politically mightiest- lessons we have learnt from the past should warn us against this. Double isolation – our imposed sanctions on others
To emphasize my point on the need to view humans rights as a universal right, I invite you to look at sanctions we Turkish Cypriots impose on others. Sanctions that lead to isolation are not an issue confined to the Turkish Cypriots alone, nor do they always lead to isolation, but still cause an equal amount of suffering for the victim of that isolation, i.e. dispossessed Greek and Maronite Cypriots sanctioned against living in their homes now living in Southern Cyprus.
Until recently, Greek Cypriots and Maronites living in Northern Cyprus since 1974 needed police permission to leave their homes just to fetch groceries, with many left dependent on UN aid forcing many to leave. More than a hundred thousand Greek Cypriots living in the Republic are still sanctioned from living in their homes. It is wrong to look at isolation without also paying attention to the enclaved and those forbidden to return.
Even now in the 21st century, very little has changed in Northern Cyprus. There are effectively unofficial sanctions imposed by the TRNC authority against Greek and Maronite Cypriots enclaved in the North. Despite the fact that there is now a Greek school in Karpaz / Karpasia, Maronites are still being continually punished by a refusal of the authorities to open them a single school or allow them to return to three of their closed off villages. Even if you use the argument that war changed the territories of Greek and Turkish Cypriots indefinitely, an argument that is flawed and has no international legal basis, Cypriot Maronites still reside in the North, and were never even involved in the inter-communal conflict of the 1960s and 70s; they were in fact neutral.Human rights are universal
Clearly faced with double standards, the need to end isolation and safeguard human rights requires a certain versatility of one’s understanding of human rights. As a multi-cultural island with communities like Maronites, Latins, Armenians, Roma Gypsies to name but a few, Cyprus is not a mere Greco-Turkish affair and cannot afford to view human rights in such an ethnocentric way. The view that each community of Cyprus is clumsily glued together with their own territory and government is no panacea, because as Cypriots we are all destined to coexist on this small island.
A short-term policy of “I want my human rights but to hell with the human rights of others,” is a dangerous game and will not safeguard the human rights of one’s individual community in the long run, as such rights will only be determined by whichever community happens to be in power. Unless we all fight for the universality of human rights, our own rights will be subject to punitive and reactionary sanctions by those in power with nobody left to speak out against the violation of our rights.
Regrettably with both Greek and Turkish Cypriots each arguing for their own specific human rights at the expense of the universality of human rights, and waiting for the other side to defend their own human rights, there is little hope for groups like the Maronites. The fact that Greek and Turkish Cypriots can only see human rights through their own eyes for their own communities is a worrying sign that Cypriots can casually tolerate each others injustice at will and are prepared to easily brush aside each others human rights when it suits them.

Meet the new Cypriots!

2008-02-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

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!

Cypriot Maronites, yet another casualty of Greek and Turkish Cypriot ethnocentrism

2008-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR

Most people in the West have never heard of the Maronites, yet alone the Cypriot Maronites despite the fact that Cyprus is now an EU member state and major tourist destination. Yet in an island country where every single issue is perceived in either a “Greek” or “Turkish” way of thinking, this small community have effectively been condemned to die without so much of a raise of the eye brow; the tragedy is not just the impending death of their language itself, but that it is largely avoidable. Deep-rooted in their own ethnocentric policies, both the authorities of North Cyprus and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus are too preoccupied protecting their Greek or Turkish Cypriot interests, including a new cheese war (is it Halloumi or Hellim?) to worry about Cyprus’ many silent minorities.
The 1200 year old Cypriot Maronite community are descendants of 9th century Lebanese Maronites Catholic Christians who fled turmoil in their native lands settled in Cyprus, where they had as many as 19 villages in the 14th century. Following the partition of the island in 1974, the entire occupants of three of the four remaining Maronite villages were forced to flee to the areas still controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, while those few who remained under occupation no longer had school for their children; a method used by the Turkish military to encourage them to leave. As a result of the division of the island, Cypriot Maronite Arabic, which has been described as the closest living language to that of Jesus of Nazareth is spoken today by no more than 130 enclaved people in Kormakitis (Kormacit) in Northern Cyprus and under five hundred in the Republic. The language and its speakers are in the ill-fated position of living in a country divided along ethnic lines, where everything rests upon a mutually acceptable settlement between the larger Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
Yet with a majority of the residents of Kormakitis over the age of sixty, and with most Maronite Cypriot children and their parents now living for reasons of schooling in the Republic, the community language that had been preserved for over a millennia is dying fast, while the community itself which is now mostly Greek-speaking is facing assimilation into the Greek Cypriot community. In the North, according to village residents of Kormakitis the language will be completely extinct within 20 years as no Maronite school exists there and therefore few families can realistically return. Three other Maronite villages still remain firmly closed by the occupying Turkish military forcing the inhabitants to live away from their homes in cities in the Republic.
A Turkish Cypriot diplomat once argued that since the Maronites were not ‘TRNC citizens’ that they should not expect a school, basically it was hard luck that they were not Greek Cypriots who through negotiation had already secured their own school in Karpaz / Karpasia. But does it matter if a community who has lived off the soil of North Cyprus for 1200 years are citizens of a 23 year old phantom state? Surely, it is a disgrace and outrage to any country or indeed political entity that claims to identify itself as a democracy and uphold the principle of human rights to deprive a community of a school leading to its dispersal and death of its language.
For the Maronite Cypriots the death of their language in effect means cutting off any remaining links with their past, from which their unique religious sect, its hymns and prayers derive. Language is not just another way of saying the same things; it is a different thought process with new ideas and perspectives, as is commonly said in the Czech Republic: “You live a new life for every new language you speak.” Like a museum, language contains within its cluster of words the story of how we came to our present time, from where we came and who we encountered along the way – essentially it reflects who we are.
Despite the fact that many Maronite elders as a form of defence refused for decades to speak “Romaika” (Greek) with their children, the community’s moribund language is dealt a final blow by a double failure by the Republic of Cyprus to appreciate the resonance of the language to the Cypriot Maronite identity by teaching it in schools. Within the Greek Cypriot community who have a monopoly over the Cyprus government since the withdrawal of Turkish Cypriot deputies from the House of Representatives in 1964, attitudes are shaped by an unofficial assimilation policy whose undercurrents are a yearning by some for Hellenism. When I questioned a Greek Cypriot politician what is being done to reverse the death of a language spoken by Cypriots, his response astounded me. “Maronites belong to the Greek Cypriot community,” he asserted. It was as if I had over stepped the mark by daring to ask him about ‘a piece of property’ of the Greek Cypriot community. The politician was not in the slightest interested in the death of Cypriot Maronite Arabic, he had never heard of it, pointing out “Maronites speak Greek, they don’t speak…eh…this Arabic - they are Greek.”
Following this incident, a Greek Cypriot colleague asked me: “Who cares about the Maronites anyway? Are you Maronite? He asked me.” Sadly, such attitudes reflect for me the crux of the Cyprus problem, that each of the main communities can only see matters through their own ethnocentric eyes. Unless you are a Maronite, you are not expected to challenge any injustice against that community, and vice versa. The expectation of many for a solution is that human rights will eventually be secured when each of the two main communities enters dialogue and negotiates their human rights using bargaining chips and powerful ‘motherlands’ to exert pressure.
Naturally the problem with this is the lack of equality, as the most militarily, politically and economically powerful negotiator will always secure greater rights for their own ‘people,’ Annan Plan anybody? And I’m curious with these expectations, exactly what ‘motherland’ will help communities like the Cypriot Gypsies?
The bitter truth is, regardless of the multitude of ‘other’ ethnic and religious communities, and claimed universality of human rights, unless you are either Greek or Turkish Cypriot in Cyprus, you simply do not stand a chance of getting anybody to listen to you and take you seriously. Perhaps Maronite leaders should react to this Greco-Turkish ethnocentrism by using the religion card, seeking ‘divine intervention’ from the Vatican and enlisting the help of hundreds of millions of world Catholics to see the reopening of their villages and school, and to get the government to treat the death of their non-Greco-Turkish language as a priority.

Be wary of those who speak of Motherlands!

2008-02-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR
Cypriots repeatedly speak of their ‘motherlands’ –to refer to our neighbours Greece and Turkey. Like an adult who has never grown up there is a paradigm in our thinking where we believe everything our ‘motherland’ tells us and even get impassioned to defend the ‘motherlands’ against any criticism. Acting more Turkish than the Turks or more Greek than the Greeks, Cypriots often disregard the fact that EU Cyprus is a sovereign state in the international community and a partner of both Greece and Turkey at international organisations. So why do we continue to speak of ‘motherlands?’

COUNTRY OF BIRTH
One connotation of the term ‘Motherland’ is one’s country of birth. One definition I located on the internet described the ‘Motherland’ as the place where one grows up, with the country being respectfully viewed by its citizens as a “benign mother nurturing its citizens as her children.” Since most Cypriots with the exception of the diaspora were born and raised in Cyprus this I assume disqualifies Greece or Turkey as a motherland. But if such talk is aimed at uniting Cypriots, the stumbling block of this definition is that many diaspora Cypriots cannot call Cyprus their motherland since they were born and raised abroad. This is most notably the case of the British Turkish Cypriot community who now far outnumber their fellow Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus.

ANCESTRY
However, some go further arguing that ‘motherland’ can also refer to a land where our ancestors came from centuries ago. In Spanish-speaking countries one often hears the term “Madre Patria” (Motherland), which is generally used to refer to Spain since most White Latin Americans came from Spain. But can the term with the same definition be applied to in Cyprus? I think not, Ottoman Anatolia was not known as Turkey back in 1572; Turkey is a new term in modern history. And although there was limited Ottoman settlement, there was also large scale proselytism to Islam and other emigration to Cyprus. In the same way that not all Greek Cypriots derive from the two thousand year old Ancient Greeks, not all Turkish Cypriots derive from those that settled in 1572. In fact I doubt many Cypriots would be able to find a straight uninterrupted line of Greek or Turkish ancestors without finding instead an Arab grand father, Armenian grand mother, Sudanese great uncle, or some Circassian or Bosnian great aunts!
In response to this insanity of worshipping a land we may or may not have come from hundreds of years ago, Petros Katsouloudes, a Maronite Cypriot friend once asked me: “Aren' t there, any Cypriot Cypriots?” He said: “My community, the Maronite Cypriots, do not consider Lebanon, our country of origin, of nearly 15 Centuries ago a fatherland or a motherland, even though we maintain ties with Lebanon, mainly religious ones. “We do not adore it, worship it, we have only one home, and this home is Cyprus. This is our land, the land of our ancestors, and we love it as such!”

LA TURQUIE METROPOLE?
In France the term ‘Motherland’ can be used to refer to La France Metropole or the main geographical part of France, since there are French overseas territories that are part of the French Republic throughout the World. From French Polynesia to La Reunion and from French Guyana to the small Islands of Saint Pierre et Miquelon you can find the bust of Marianne beneath French tricolour. But in Turkey now, there are a growing number of people who believe that Northern Cyprus is their Overseas Territory. I have heard Turks talk among themselves of the “Yavruvatan” (Baby homeland); a term which rather amusingly is equally patronising for both those Turkish Cypriots who seek reunification and even those who struggle for the recognition of the TRNC. Even so, it certainly gives us an idea of where terms like ‘Motherland’ can lead to. Thinking of those who use such terminology, it makes one speculate how a sovereign people can reduce themselves to a position of an unofficial overseas territory? La Turquie Metropole, ah non Monsieur, nous sommes Chypriotes!

CULTURAL FATHERLAND & POLITICAL MOTHERLAND
Yet still people cannot abandon the notion of motherland. Some even argue that both Greece and Turkey are the cultural fatherlands but the political motherland is Cyprus. But I do not accept the notion that the two main Cypriot communities are extensions of Greece and Turkey. Greek and Turkish Cypriots have not ended up on the ‘wrong side of the border.’ This may be the case in other parts of the globe but Cypriots whatever their language after half a millennia of coexistence have much more in common than they do with neighbouring Greece or Turkey. In fact, culturally there is very little that divides the communities of Cyprus.

CONTROL
Suspicious of terms like ‘motherland,’ in his article “Death to the Motherland,” Vled Melamed the President of the organization New Tradition writes that powerful patriotism often employs terms like “Love of ones country, devotion to the nation, the great Motherland and so on” to connect with human emotion and instincts in order to make citizens “more controllable.” Melamed argues that the notion of country is not at all as “natural” since every “country is per se a political association, and, when they say: I love my country, this, using the strictest standards, is just as strange as to say I love the United Nations or I adore the lower house of parliament” Believers of this propaganda are according to Melamed the “the primary bearers of national propaganda, mistakenly equating patriotism with political association with the country.” So engrained are these ideas into our subconscious that “loss is equivalent to the destruction of the family” claims Melamed.

COMMON HOME
By this stage you would expect me to say that Cyprus is our ‘motherland.’ But I’m not going to say that. There is no ‘motherland,’ Cypriots have no motherland; a myth created as nationalist propaganda, this myth is merely used as a tool to gain your endless and blind folded loyalty to an ideology that benefits the interests of a larger neighbouring country. As much as Greece or Turkey are not motherlands, Cyprus is also not a motherland. Cyprus is a Common Home, but as a state it does not nurture its citizens like a mother or father. States do not function to nurture their citizens, as Franz Oppenheimer argues the state is a “vehicle of capitalism” and in Cyprus as in most of the world “if you want to eat you have to work.” And Cypriots must wake up to the reality too that in the world of states there is no concept of “family” either, such loving terms do not exist and even friendships between states and peoples are subject to change over time. States form their relationship only due to their political and economic constraints that make up their individual strategic interests. But as long as they are wretchedly distracted by foreign nationalist propaganda Cypriots can never fully expect to exert theirs.

The Cyprus problem is not ethnic but philosophical

2008-02-22T17:09:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR
In its earnest efforts to resolve the Cyprus question, Britain has for decades done everything to comprehend the concerns of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus. British foreign policy and international peace plans Britain has endorsed for the war torn island country has always centred on the hypothesis that the Cyprus problem is an ethnic issue. This notion that dictates that the only people residing on the island are either the conflicting Greeks or Turks has in more recent times led the British government to play political hopscotch, frantically currying favour with one community before hastily sucking up to the other in order to find the so-called ‘middle ground.’ But to believe the Cyprus problem is divided along ethnic lines is an illusion, the Cyprus problem is as much philosophical as ethnic.

ORIGINS
As a British crown colony, Cyprus was commonly known as an island of Greeks or Turks. Were they ignorant of the Cypriot identity and culture? Not at all, according to a great many academics, the origins of Britain’s characterisation policy stems from a colonial politics of divide and rule, when these such perceived divisions would have acted as a useful control tool for the island’s colonial administration. The principle of “Divide et Impera” has always been a common feature to empower the colonial power to control its subjects, and has been a policy of past imperial powers worldwide. In fact according to Machiavelli, good leadership requires a leader to forcefully divide and separate its opponents or those that oppose his / her rule in order to weaken them.

HISTORICAL ERROR
But in Cyprus’ case categorization coupled with a divide and rule politics led from one historical mistake to another. There was hardly any mention of the “Cypriots” in the 1960 London and Zurich Agreements that laid the foundation for an independent Cyprus. This failure and the fact that everything in this Republic was categorized as being either ‘Greek’ or ‘Turkish’ themselves terms that do not necessarily apply to both communities meant that the newly independent Cyprus was effectively a “Cypriot Republic without Cypriots.”
To avoid any confusion, even the millennia old Maronites, Latins and Armenians were put in an awkward position where they had to choose which community they would ‘belong’ to.
Not to be too harsh, perhaps a mention that in Cyprus there are indeed Cypriots living there was to be added later? But undoubtedly, these chain of historical errors hindered the development of an island-wide identity in the Republic days; in fact some may argue that it was this very policy that may have even helped laid the foundations of partition.

SUPPRESSED
Predictably with the denial of the existence of Cypriots coupled with outside influence by Ankara and Athens, Cypriotness among Cypriots has remained suppressed. By contrast, it was common for members of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to define themselves as Greeks or Turks, not as Cypriots. To say one was a Cypriot then was unthinkable and hitherto to most elderly Greek and Turkish Cypriots is still unimaginable. This low esteem maintained by Cypriots for Cypriotness was not the result of informed free choice however, but was historically due to the fact that a sense of Cypriotness was never allowed to be developed in modern Cypriot history since the island had until recently always been ruled by outsiders. Importantly, in addition neither externally backed EOKA nor TMT would have tolerated talk of such ‘nonsense’ in the zenith of their terror campaigns.

CYPRIOTNESS EXISTED IN PRE-NATONALIST TIMES
Long in a deep freeze and even with lack of promotion a Cypriot identity has continued to exist. In fact, some may argue, the Cyprus problem needed to get worse before it could get better. Surrounded by the turmoil caused by inter-communal conflict amid the rubble and graves of the dead, Cypriotness has resurfaced again. As if unconquerable, Dr. Hubert Faustmann said in his article “Cypriotness in a historical perspective,” Cypriots have always had a Cypriot identity even in pre-nationalist times. Indicating deep origins, Faustmann continues: “The origins of a Cypriot identity are rooted in the link between human nature, geography and culture. “On any clearly defined geographic unit and particularly on islands, people inevitably develop an identity as inhabitants of this territory. “Moreover, the territorial separation of an island encourages the development of specific ties and customs as a cultural source for a distinct island identity,” he adds.

CHANGE IN THE PARADIGM WAY OF THINKING
Faustmann is right to cite the geographical importance to Cypriotness, but philosophy too plays a momentous role. To understand the change in the paradigm way of thinking, one needs to appreciate that the Cyprus problem today is constantly changing and is far removed from the time of inter-communal conflict. No longer can we speak of a ‘Greek’ or ‘Turkish’ side in the Cyprus problem. Independent from the disingenuous notion of an ethnic conflict, the Cyprus problem has become a philosophical problem today.
Cypriots have over the past 47 years undergone an enormous change in their paradigm way of thinking. Faced with the sickening crimes of ultra nationalists, incompetent governance and open interference from the ‘motherlands,’ a sense of Cypriotness has been revived in all communities in Cyprus. This revival has led to the emergence of a progressive group of Cypriots on both sides of the Green Line who work closely together to increase Cypriot cultural activity, be it films, novels or poetry. With some suppression still in place, art has found itself as the tool for expressing this revived Cypriotness. Also politically, for the first time, there are Greek Cypriots who are fighting for the rights of their Turkish Cypriot compatriots, Turkish Cypriots who are raising awareness of the Maronites, Latin Cypriots who are campaigning for the rights of Armenian Cypriots and so on.
These past weeks I have heard Greek Cypriot lawyer Costas Apostolides complain that not enough information was available in Turkish for the introduction of the euro, while Serdar Atai, a Turkish Cypriot criticised the looting of Greek Cypriot properties. New colourful characters in Cypriot society as poet Neshe Yashın, Journalist Sevgül Uludağ and Academic Alev Adil, as well as film-director Panicos Chrysanthou, writer Tony Angastiniotis and novelist Andreas Koumi, frequently challenge the narrow communal perspective of the Cyprus problem. Are they all traitors perhaps? Not so unusual or marginalised, this is called being and thinking as a Cypriot.
A class of Cypriots has been born. Yet in the last Annan Plan there was no mention of Cypriots again! Another mistake?

CYPRIOT IS A STATE OF MIND
Overshadowed by the political dimensions of the unresolved Cyprus question, Cypriots nevertheless exist. The Cypriot is not just a Greek Cypriot nor is it a Turkish Cypriot, nor a Maronite Cypriot, an Armenian or even a Latin Cypriot but all of these communities combined. How? By taking ownership of all these communities while embracing Cyprus’ true multi-cultural heritage and identity- this is what being Cypriot really denotes. Whereas some Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriots may think communally, being Cypriot is the ability to think nationally. A Cypriot is somebody who puts the interests of Cyprus as a nation before the interests of the community from which they stem.
Being Cypriot is not treachery nor does it depend on your birth, lineage or your religion or language, it is not a matter for the Church to decide or a constitutional arrangement, it is completely and unconsciously the product of the Cypriot people themselves. Unlike Greek and Turkish Cypriots, or Cyprus Greeks and Cyprus Turks, the Cypriots do not constitute an ethnic community but a state of mind. Based entirely on philosophy, Cypriots are not delimited like ethnicity or religion, and therefore can grow faster than any of these groups. From my own experience Cypriots tend to be young, university educated and many will have had a philosophical change in their life with regard to their perception of the Cyprus problem. This philosophical revolution is bringing more and more converts daily. A future force to be reckoned with, few Cypriots ever revert back to being Greeks or Turks of Cyprus.

CYPRIOTS – A NEW VOICE
If Britain is serious about resolving the Cyprus problem and if its policy towards Cypriots is sincere, then Britain must update its perception of the Cyprus problem by beginning to look at the Cyprus question no longer from the perspective of a Greco-Turkish dispute but as a philosophical dispute. In its bid to help Cyprus, by surrounding itself with either Greek or Turkish Cypriot advisers, Britain will only alienate chunks of both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities who view themselves as Cypriots. What one Greek or Turkish Cypriot says is not necessary what a Cypriot who may also be a member of either community will endorse. Equally, Britain too must not fall into the trap of dismissing those progressive Cypriots today as simply ‘free thinkers’ or ‘peace activists,’ while it is true that they fight for peace, they are the more importantly the voice of the Cypriots speaking. It is time Britain as a guarantor power and active player in the resolving of the Cyprus problem recognises this revived voice.

There is no separate justice to a shared tragedy

2008-02-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

Alkan Chaglar (archive article - Sunday, July 29, 2007)

IN A SPEECH made last week on July 20, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat thanked the Turkish Army for its ‘peace operation’, urging Turkish Cypriots to fight for “Turkish Cypriot Human Rights” and to continue the “Turkish Cypriot struggle”.As if their struggle or fight for human rights was different to that of all Cypriots, Mr Talat erroneously elevated Turkish Cypriots as the sole victims of the Cyprus problem, insensitively and recklessly ignoring the enormous suffering and decades of pain brought about by the invasion for those Cypriots of Greek, Armenian and Maronite origin. What is sad is that Mr Talat’s speech was made just as the United Nations were still exhuming the bodies of Cypriot civilians taken from their families and murdered in 1974. Steering dangerously towards ethnocentric bias, Mr Talat exposed a familiar yet extremely contradictory and dangerous trend of thinking among the Turkish Cypriot community – Exceptionalism.As a Cypriot but above all a human being, I felt disturbed by Mr Talat’s rhetoric. Precisely what are “Turkish Cypriot Human Rights”? Does the term “human” not sufficiently cover Turkish Cypriots as far as Mr Talat is concerned? According to the preamble of the UN General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948, human rights is the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” And my perception is that Turkish Cypriots, like Greek, Maronite, Armenian and Latin Cypriots are an integral part of that human family. So why would anybody with any degree of good will attempt intentionally to set up their community above this universal rule?Perhaps while preaching selective human rights, Mr Talat was oblivious to the suffering of Greek, Maronite and Armenian Cypriots? But if this is the case, should he not refrain from dismissing suffering he has not personally witnessed himself? To take you back in time, the invasion was no ‘peace operation’. Over 200,000 Cypriots (a third of the population) were displaced and had to seek shelter in makeshift tents, thousands of innocent civilians were killed, thousands more injured and nearly 2,000 are still missing even to this day, while those who perpetrated these killings – whether Greek or Turkish Cypriots – are still free today. Since then, Christian places of worship have been desecrated, cemeteries destroyed, homes looted, land stolen and built over, while the island remains heavily militarised. Is this the ‘peace operation’ Mr Talat is so grateful for? For a leader who led the Turkish Cypriots to vote for peace and reunification in 2003, and for a politician who prided himself on his dialogue with Greek Cypriot leaders, Mr Talat’s justification of the invasion is totally insensitive to the common suffering during this period and more importantly, a contradiction to the claim that he seeks dialogue and peace. Claiming that “the aims of the July 20, 1974 operation are completely in line with the peace oriented Settlement Plan of the United Nations”, and treating the past inter-communal conflict as a pretext to a brutal invasion and a collective punishment of Christian Cypriots, Mr Talat attempted in his speech to maximise the suffering of his community while dismissing and ignoring that of other Cypriots communities. But such a game of blame, politics is fruitless. Mr Talat should realise that for every Turkish Cypriot story of injustice, there is a Greek Cypriot one. So what purpose is served other than division and distortion by the singling out and attempt to create the impression that one group of people, sui generic, are the sole victims of the Cyprus problem? Unquestionably in my mind, the main issue ought to be not how we best present ourselves as victim and convince the world of it to seek their pity, but how can we now come to terms with what has happened and reconcile with the aim of a lasting peace. Regrettably, Mr Talat is not alone in this exceptionalist way of thinking. Many Turkish Cypriots, among them self-styled human rights defenders, unashamedly and illegitimately assert the historical necessity the 1974 invasion and war crimes in the wake of attacks against Turkish Cypriots. Contradicting their own struggle for human rights, they subscribe to the extra-judicial view that one crime can be cancelled out by another, and thus they direct their compassion selectively. With more interest in blaming the Greek Cypriots, while desperately turning the tables around in a bid to reassure themselves of their righteousness, they snap: “What about our suffering!” “Why don’t you write about our atrocities committed by the Greeks?” But Turkish Cypriot refugees like my family know only too well their own suffering at the hands of a few Greek Cypriot militiamen, they do not need to be reminded of it, nor do they need to reconfirm it. No amount of repetition by Turkish Cypriots will address any of the injustices, but we can learn from our own errors and hope that Greek Cypriots will learn from theirs by openly and frankly admitting and talking about them. And yes, these include crimes committed by our ‘saviours’ and by our own irregulars against those we blame. As a community, we talk of “embargoes” on our community, but how about our embargoes on Greek, Maronite and Armenian Cypriots from returning to their homes? In the Republic, the custodian of Turkish Cypriot properties pending a solution protects Turkish Cypriot properties, yet our ethnocentric bias has led us to sell Greek Cypriot properties to tourists. While mosques are generally kept in good condition in the Republic, we desecrate churches, remove and sell their crosses and artifacts and use them as barns. Still there are Turkish Cypriot human rights activists who will argue, ‘but Turkish Cypriots were refugees in 1964!’ So was this crime justification for another crime? Can they try and explain this extra-judicial way of thinking to the entire world?Mr Talat demands the lifting of ‘embargoes against the right of Turkish Cypriots to trade and fly directly into Ercan’, but refuses to return Varosha to its 30,000 owners. Is the right to sell items such as potatoes in his view more important or more urgent than lifting the embargo we impose on Greek, Armenian and Maronite Cypriots from the right to return to their homes, the right to a school for the enclaved Maronites in their language, the right for information on the missing? Mr Talat obviously believes these issues can wait another 33 years. It is great to see where his priorities lie in terms of human rights.Echoing a distorted history of events, fighting for selective human rights together with an unashamed ethnocentric bias to one’s own community amounts to moral corruption and is not a solution to the Cyprus problem, nor is it a road map to peace. Above all, it demonstrates our inability to acknowledge the suffering of others caused by our own ‘saviours’ or irregulars, and exposes just how much Cypriots under-value the suffering of those with whom they seek dialogue for peace. Turkish Cypriot human rights and their struggle for justice is no different from those of other Cypriot communities. Calls for restoring these rights are just, but must be achieved within a wider solution that will benefit all Cypriots. Seeking a separate justice to a shared tragedy by focusing solely on Turkish Cypriot human rights is highly contradictory and will only entrench division.

Why Turkish Cypriots have no reason to celebrate 1974

2008-02-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Alkan Chaglar (archive article - Sunday, July 22, 2007)

THIRTY-three years ago this week following a coup d’?tat that overthrew what remained of the Cypriot government, Turkey launched an invasion that has partitioned Cyprus along ethnic lines since. Described as a “tragedy all round”, the anniversary of the July 15-20 period is a time of mourning and grief for most Cypriots, but also a time of celebration for some Turkish Cypriots and an opportunity to incite xenophobia by some Greek Cypriots. This year is no exception to this trend, even when in recent weeks the bodies of those missing from this dark period are in the process of being exhumed. Following the coup d’?tat of July 15, 1974, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit launched a “Peace Operation” on July 20 to protect the Turkish Cypriot community. Despite Mr Ecevit’s guarantee the operation would benefit all Cypriots by restoring order, Greek, Maronite and Armenian Cypriots were collectively punished under the assumption that they were all, every single one of them, guilty for recent crimes committed against Turkish Cypriots by EOKA B. Clearly for some paramilitary irregulars, the event was equally an opportunity for vengeance. While there is no doubt that atrocities were committed against the Turkish Cypriots during 1964-1974, within days of the ‘peace operation’, 162,000 Greek, Maronite and Armenian Cypriots fled their homes, while 55,000 Turkish Cypriots fled north. Some 1,900 persons, including many civilians, are still listed as missing persons. Cyprus was facing a crisis on all fronts; for the first time the conservative pastoral society with its mostly rural population was forced to legalise abortion to cope with the sheer numbers of cases of rape against Cypriot women by the invading army. Amid the debris caused by extensive bombing, the human cost was phenomenally high; 6,000 were killed, one third of all Cypriots lived dependent as refugees with no certainty about their future, thousands left the country like my family, while thousands remained enclaved away from their families. Recently Cypriot filmmaker Antonis Angastiniotis directed a historical documentary Voice of Blood portraying the mass killing of Turkish Cypriot civilians in the villages of Attilar, Muratag and Sandallar in 1974, and as a result countless Greek Cypriots accused him of treachery. Meanwhile, Turkish nationalists have repeatedly exploited his valuable work for peace to make a cheap point, failing to grasp that Angastiniotis also reports the massacre of Greek Cypriot civilians or POW by Turkish Cypriot irregulars. But despite the fact that many Turkish Cypriots celebrate this invasion, while many Greek Cypriots hijack the time of mourning to incite ethnic hatred of Turks and Turkish Cypriots, the fact remains that the human costs of the coup and invasion can be found on all sides. In my own community here in London and in Cyprus, leaders from both left and right lead annual celebrations involving the recital of heroic poems by children and a floral ceremony to thank those who struck the ‘enemy’ a final blow and tore the island country into two. Subscribing to the logical fallacy that “Two wrongs make a right,” for many Turkish Cypriot leaders the action was deemed necessary to halt a civil war, but in effect has proved to have imprisoned those they have ‘saved’, while committing the murder of Greek Cypriots, the looting of their homes, desecration of their religious buildings, while depriving the entire island of its human rights. Who are they fooling? Since when, can such acts be considered a peace operation?The son of a family of refugees myself, I am ordered to express my appreciation to those who ‘saved us’. Lest I am ungrateful, I am reminded that my family’s ancestral villages were both attacked by Greek Cypriot militia, and that my father’s cousin was among those massacred in Tochni. But as the child of the survivors of Cyprus’ civil war and as a British Cypriot living in London, where I have grown up with British Greek Cypriot refugee families, I am fed up with hate. I cannot thank a ‘saviour’ who at the same time expelled those with whom my community had coexisted for half a millennia. The indiscriminate expulsion of Christian Cypriots does not ease the suffering on my refugee family or indeed on other Turkish Cypriot refugee families, but only adds to Cyprus’ tragedy. From the many positive memories of our grandparents that have been almost erased by a focus on the negatives, we know that not all Greek Cypriots are murderers. So how can I feel gratitude to those causing 33 years of pain and suffering to the neighbours with whom we have co-existed peacefully like brothers for centuries?Yet for many people in my community, it is justifiable to punish those who personally had no part to play in the civil unrest of 1964-1974. Based on sheer generalisations and stereotypes of what the ‘other’ side must be like and what they think of us, many of us must develop from such paranoia, contempt, where we actually believe the Greek Cypriots deserved to be treated in this way. Learning no lessons from our own suffering and crimes committed against us, many Turkish Cypriots, including our own self-styled human rights activists, demonstrate no feeling or understanding when others are in the same position of suffering that they were previously in. Through celebrating this collective punishment, Turkish Cypriots are condemning until their dying day people who happen to be of Greek, Maronite or Armenian descent from the right of return.Certain community leaders and hardliners claiming to be leading victims will tell you that the Greek Cypriots deserved it, but how can one victim justify the slaying of another victim? Regardless of what these honourable ‘patriots’ will tell you, in the eyes of humanity and under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishments constitute a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention clearly states: "No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed," and "collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” The Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Geneva, 12 August 1949, Part III: Article 33 also prohibits “any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State.” Yet there are those who use the excuse of our own suffering to justify these war crimes and at the same time to seek recognition of their entity to legally sell off the remaining land of those refugees. The widespread suffering and injustice brought about by the coup and invasion clearly transcends ethno-religious lines in Cyprus; in fact it is fair to say that all Cypriots have suffered from the events of 1974. Yet rather than learn lessons from joint suffering and say enough is enough, some Cypriots celebrate the events of 1974 to gloat of victory, while others exploit feeling to incite ethnic hatred for political reasons. In my view, Cypriots whatever their language or religion should resist such exploitation of tragedy and instead make the 33 year anniversary of the coup and invasion a day for the mourning of the dead, a time of reflection and reconciliation. The anniversary should equally be a time for personal space for families who want to grieve. At this time, when Cypriots seek to locate their missing loved ones so they can move on with their lives, such celebrations of these war crimes are inappropriate.

Why Cyprus cannot afford to exclude Turkish settlers

2008-02-22T16:52:00.000-08:00

By Alkan Chaglar (archive article - Sunday, April 15, 2007)

THE NEW ‘demonised other’, Turkish settlers in northern Cyprus, represent to some past crimes against Cyprus, but over 33 years can they still be called settlers? While Greek and Turkish Cypriots join hands in bi-communal activities that will facilitate a future reunification, the settlers and their offspring remain excluded. But how can a sustainable peace be grasped and how can Cyprus really be free of outside meddling if one excludes a major political and economic force on the island?Long the butt of jokes, many ordinary Turkish settlers and their children are held responsible by native Turkish Cypriots for increasing levels of crime, moral corruption and pollution in northern Cyprus. Treated with scorn by some Turkish Cypriots for whom they are a reminder of the chauvinism of Ankara, settlers are blamed for every ill in northern Cyprus’ society, from forest fires to petty crime and drug-related shootings. A Turkish Cypriot Famagustan suffering from a superiority complex once admitted to me over dinner that he avoided certain areas of his town that was “Karasakal” territory as he didn’t trust those mainlanders. A highly derogatory and insulting term, “Karasakal” or even the newer term “Ficca” meaning seaweed are no different to terms like “Paki” or “Nigger” used by British racists, yet they are far too commonly used by Turkish Cypriots. In the absence of Greek Cypriots in the North, it appears that it is the settlers who have become the new demonised other. In the Republic of Cyprus, similar insults and stereotypes are made about the 30,000 Pontian Greeks living there. Occasionally united in their disdain for non-Cypriots, Greek and Turkish Cypriots see it as acceptable to hate their immigrants or settlers; some have forgotten that a similar hostility towards each other is the raison d'?tre, why they remain divided today. As a Londrali Kibrisli or Charlie, I cannot help but draw parallels with such views with those of British racists who hold asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrant communities responsible for all that may be wrong with modern-day Britain. For a troubled island country for which the Americans and international community are spending millions on a "peace process", very little is being done to reverse deep sentiments of xenophobia prevalent in both main communities. The failed Annan plan did not even mention it or have a strategy for dealing with it, even though it is at the root of the current division of the island. But do politicians really want to tackle xenophobia? For those who genuinely believe the day will come for them to deport a family of four back to Anatolia, unrelenting Turcophobia acts as fuel to maintain their pursuit of idealistic goals. After all, Greek Cypriot politicians keen to hold on to their votes need to keep dreams alive. Forced to deceive their own voters by promising to repatriate settlers from Turkey even after 33 years of living there, they recognise only too well how swiftly they would lose votes if they said otherwise. But with the rhetoric of a smaller number of politicians it is apparent to me that they are not interested in restoring the human rights of their own community, but more in a form of revenge or punishment of their invaders. In their eyes it seems is as if human rights violated can be suddenly cured if one violates the rights of others.Nobody can deny that the arrival of settlers was marked by the illegal looting and theft of Greek Cypriot owned properties. It transpired after a harrowing civil war, the memories of which are still fresh and the consequences devastating. I do not propose that true property owners remain dispossessed; in fact, every effort should be made to restore their rights where possible, but feeding the masses improbable notions of restoring a past pre-1974 Cyprus and offering false hopes of repatriating 30-year settlers is deceptive and without purpose. Whether some Cypriots can stomach it or not, Turkish settlers are at this moment an important ingredient in this character of the island and very few if any will be repatriated even if it is agreed on paper. A Republic of Cyprus diplomat once told me “they [the settlers] are Turkey's responsibility as citizens of that country, they are illegal.”Without justifying Turkey’s action, I ask how can a human being be illegal? Perhaps the settlers may still be citizens of Turkey, but is it accurate to assume Ankara represents their voice? Surely, the settler community has over 33 years of living in Cyprus developed its own list of issues. Furthermore, if the issue of contention is the interference of Ankara, then surely the exclusion of this community is giving impetus to Ankara to defend ‘its citizens’ in Cyprus? Is this also not contrary to forming a Cyprus that is no longer a playing field for Ankara and Athens? Sooner or later, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have to realise that the island in the 21st century is now home to many other communities. Before even considering the settlers, tens of thousands of Thai, Sri Lankans, Filipinos, and Indians workers, and Iranian and Lebanese refugees have made the island their new home. In the north, stowaway Syrians, ex-student Pakistanis and Bulgarians Turks are all adding to this mixture. Yet still the official face of Cyprus depicted by the policy and attitudes of the government of the Republic of Cyprus and the northern authorities still paint the picture of a Greco-Turkish Cypriot island. Is it not time the government and northern authorities recognised the true face of Cyprus as it is? When are official policies and attitudes going to reflect a more accurate multi-cultural Cyprus? When are non-Greek and Turkish Cypriots going to be invited to play a part in the future of the island? If Cypriots are genuine about reaching a solution, they cannot afford to leave out in the cold a large proportion of their population who do not happen to be Greek or Turkish Cypriots.Marginalisation of settlers is not an option, as the group is an important political and economic force, and one of the fastest growing communities on the island. The reasons for their arrival may be painful and marred by injustice, but they are now after nearly half a century an ingredient in the mixture that is Cyprus. Their exclusion from North-South dialogue is both dangerous for long-term inter-community relations and an invitation or door wide open for Turkey to interfere in the internal affairs of Cyprus.

Papadopoulos' talk of defending Hellenism is alienating Turkish Cypriots

2008-02-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR (archive article - Sunday, April 22, 2007)

AS PRESIDENT of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos should be doing all he can to promote the Cypriot nation and the unifying ideology of Pan-Cypriotism as the path to social reunification. Regrettably, drunk on the idea of Hellenism the Cypriot President is far too busy metamorphasising Alexander the Great, while sending out contradictory messages to the rest of the world and alienating thousands of Turkish Cypriots.In traditional democracies, the role of the President is above partisan politics, beyond inter-community disputes; the President is a representative figure who strives to represent all his citizens, from every political affiliation and religious-linguistic group. But clearly the mind of the President of the Republic of Cyprus was elsewhere on July 14, 2006, while visiting Greece. In his speech to the Greek head of state, President Papadopoulos stated loyally: “We [Cyprus] do not want, nor do we seek to transfer the weight of our problems to the shoulders of Greece. But, we do want our Greek brothers to realise that we in Cyprus, as we resist Turkish expansionism and fight for the national and physical survival of Greek Hellenism, are forward defenders of Hellenism in its widest meaning and dimension.''Like thousands of Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Latins and Armenian Cypriots, as well as thousands of Greek Cypriots who believe themselves to be Cypriot above all, I could hardly believe my ears. Greek brothers? Fighting for the survival of Hellenism? Does the Cypriot President who claims legal and moral justification for this very title abroad forget which country he is the head of state of? Did he not imagine how his irresponsible message could be interpreted by Cyprus’ Turkish Cypriots and other religious-linguistic groups?But it was not the first of such ill-chosen terminology. President Papadopoulos later asked a crowd of Greek Cypriots in Nicosia to “judge” if they were helping the “Hellenism of Cyprus”. Helping Hellenism seems to be a priority in his presidency, where simultaneously he tries to convince Turkish Cypriots that the days of his involvement with the Akritas Plan are over. Perhaps President Papadopoulos needs to be informed that the Republic of Cyprus is not a carbon copy of Greece. It is a Cypriot state co-founded by Turkish Cypriots, where Turkish is one of its official languages and where no less than 26 per cent of the population of Cyprus are Turkish Cypriots. It is a country that has historic ties not only with Greece and Turkey but with the entire Near East. It is a land where Christianity and Islam are the two main religions, and where its flag under which his cries for Hellenism are echoed was designed by a Muslim Turkish Cypriot.To those who proudly claim to have voted ‘OXI’ under the false notion that they were preventing Cyprus from becoming a Greco-Turkish country, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee; Cyprus is and will always be the home of Turkish Cypriots, and Cypriot culture will always have a generous Turkish ingredient among many others, whether they can stomach it or not. As a proud citizen of this state, I ask President Papadopoulos who on earth has given him the right to pronounce himself the defender of Hellenism while using the title President of Cyprus? Where in the 1960 constitution is this right afforded to the head of state?I ask President Papadopoulos, is he representing an electorate of an Athenian suburb or bi-lingual Cyprus? For me as a citizen of the Republic, it is completely unacceptable and scandalous that my head of state carries on presenting himself to the world as Cypriot President while manipulating this title to lend support to the nationalism of another country! It is equally unacceptable to try to justify this action by pointing the finger across the Wall of Shame and measuring one’s own actions by those of others. As a Cypriot President, Mr Papadopoulos does not have the luxury of Mr Talat to define himself as solely the leader of one community.Alienating Turkish Cypriots and no doubt thousands of Maronites, Armenians and Latin Cypriots with his Greek nationalist rhetoric, the President is actually helping to preserve the status quo and pouring the cement that will finalise irreversible partition. Despite tears shed for Hellenism, the President faces a huge responsibility on his shoulders as a Cypriot head of state. Every time he forgets his role, Turkish Cypriots who are pitting themselves against their own hardened nationalists, some risking their lives, receive a big slap in the face. Their timely and commendable efforts to build a better future for all Cypriots are shattered by a President who cannot separate himself from Greek nationalism. Inevitably, this leads many Turkish Cypriots out of frustration and humiliation to give up their struggle. The President of Cyprus should pay greater attention to avoid alienating Turkish Cypriots. His hand of friendship should not be as that of a negotiator trying to get Turkish Cypriots to a table, where he will try to bargain with them, but as a President reaching out to his citizens, and inviting them to rejoin other Cypriots in the Republic and its institutions, regardless of when a political settlement will take place. After all, are Turkish Cypriot rights as citizens of the Republic of Cyprus held hostage to a political settlement?Whether there is a political settlement at present or not, there is no justification for President Papadopoulos to manipulate powers entrusted to him. As President, if Mr Papadopoulos genuinely believes in reconciliation, peace and reunification, he must be prepared to manifest his sincerity by being more representative of his people, otherwise his presidential legacy will be remembered for entrenching partition and his messages of defending Hellenism will be construed by the entire world to mean that the Republic of Cyprus is nothing more than a Greek Republic of Cyprus. A presidential balancing act between being a Greek Cypriot leader and “President of all Cypriots” is a dangerous game, particularly if one tries to defend Hellenism while promoting Cypriot unity. Naturally, when Hellenism is promoted in Cyprus, Pan-Turkism and a new Turkish Cypriot nationalism are quickly formed to counter it. As President of Cyprus, Mr Papadopoulos has to embrace the full diversity of Cyprus, even while standing in front of the Greek head of state. And if the President still feels the needs to be patriotic, then he should opt for Cypriotism, a more inclusive ideology which captures all the communities of Cyprus.

‘We’ll go to the Vatican for justice’

2008-02-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

By Jacqueline Theodoulou (archive article - Thursday, January 26, 2006)
A LARGE number of Maronite properties in occupied Ayia Marina of Skilloura have been illegally transferred to Turkish Cypriots, with Maronite representative to the House Antonis Hadjiroussos saying he will go as far as the Vatican to find justice.As Hadjiroussos explained, when ‘foreign minister’ Serdar Denktash recently announced that refugee Maronites were now entitled to use their properties, the refugees went to rent them out, only to be greeted by Turkish Cypriots claiming to be rightful owners of them. Producing ‘title deeds’ signed over by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat’s ‘government’; Maronites were told that the properties no longer belonged to them.“When I was notified about the problem, I investigated further in order to determine the exact dimensions of the problem. I found that, especially in Ayia Marina, many properties had been illegally signed over to Turkish Cypriots.”Community members are exasperated and are now considering legal action. Hadjiroussos said that he will reach the highest levels, in cooperation with the government, to resolve the situation. “We will address ambassadors in Nicosia as well as Europe and we will even reach the Vatican and ask for the Pope’s intervention,” he warned. Affected Maronites gathered at Hadjiroussos’ office on Tuesday and heard information given by a Turkish Cypriot lawyer, who confirmed that a large number of Maronite properties had been handed over to Turkish Cypriots. It also emerged that the embezzlement had began in the years 1999-2001 and continued until recently.

Forget expensive UN plans Cypriots need lessons in philosophy

2008-02-22T16:41:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR

Forget expensive UN plans! Cypriots need lessons in philosophyA deal signed and sealed on paper is not enough to sustain peace on Cyprus, Cypriots require a fresh new way of thinking.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDES
Complicated United Nation (UN) plans ranging from the Galo Plaza plan to the Boutros Ghali set of ideas to the more recent 9000 page Annan Plan have all placed to much emphasis on a political deal without formulating a strategy to change the psychology of the Cypriot people so that their plan for peace will actually stand a chance of success. At the same time blind to the root of the Cyprus problem, few if any of these international plans, however good the intention have ever sought to curb the highly divisive Greek and Turkish nationalisms that are responsible for the current division of the two main communities today. In spite of the importance of politics, psychology is equally vital to both the pursuit and longevity of peace on the island.
Despite the clear good will of these proposals, seldom have they formed a strategy for confronting Greek and Turkish nationalism, which is the root cause of dangerous and divisive attitudes today in both communities. Instead of promoting a sense of unity, peace plan after peace plan has tried to make a solution work around Greek and Turkish nationalism.
Peace-seeking Cypriots themselves have also acted against a solution at times when it suits them. In the North of Cyprus and even in the Republic of Cyprus, which is the internationally recognised government of Cyprus, few lawmakers act as Cypriots, but act instead in the interests of Hellenism or Turkism. Hardly inspiring confidence, elected leaders who talk of reunification, often make reference to “Greekness or Turkishness” sending contradictory messages to the population who are left wondering how sincere their leaders are. Indeed if these elected leaders are serious about grasping a sustainable peace, surely they need to adhere to a less offensive philosophy, one that compliments the peace process and does not alienate other Cypriots.

CYPRIOTISM
Cypriotism, Pan-Cyprianism or in plain English Cypriotness, a natural home grown opposition to the tremendous damage inflicted on Cyprus by foreign Greek and Turkish nationalisms over the past half a century may hold the key to facilitate efforts to seek a sustainable peace. Neither a Greek nor Turkish, neither an Armenian nor Maronite way of thinking, Cypriotism is not Cypriot nationalism, as it does not promote exclusion or aim to elevate Cypriots above other peoples, nor it is an ideology linked to the left or right, rather it is a positive and inclusive philosophy that focuses on what unites us and not what divides us.
Embracing the idea of our existing multi-cultural character, Cypriotism can play a pivotal role in paving the way to a sustainable peace, even before a political settlement is agreed. As much a part of the peace making process than as a result, Cypriotism, by forcing us to think as a whole and not as a part can help us grasp peace more easily and help sustain peace once it is within our reach. For those disillusioned with the current state of Cypriot politics, the philosophy, which ultimately aims at unity can act as a new alternative or third way.
Far from being a foreign ideology like Greek and Turkish nationalism, Cypriotism is through its openness to all the communities of Cyprus, settlers included, a true reflection of the hospitality of Cypriots and the love Greek, Turkish, Maronite and other Cypriots hold for their common island. A response to any attempt to distort the memory of our past coexistence, this philosophy destroys the flawed argument that justifies Apartheid in Cyprus, while giving hope that coexistence can work once again.
Unlike Greek and Turkish nationalism which has left Cyprus’ Maronite, Latin, Roma and Armenian communities feeling alienated, Cypriotism is not a nationalism, but a way to include and embrace all the aspects of our island culture and identity without selectively leaving anybody out. Cypriotism is when we as Cypriots feel comfortable enough to stand up against the injustices against our people as a whole and not just our own community. A philosophy, which focuses on Cypriots as one people, Cypriotism is better in tune with the universality of human rights, which all people desire and multi-culturalism, which is a truer reflection of Cyprus.

HOW CAN CYPRIOTISM BE ACHIEVED?
However, many sceptical people ask me, how is it possible that we can install in the minds of Cypriots at this late stage the idea of Cypriotism? My response is through the same channels through which Greek and Turkish nationalism has succeeded to turn Cypriots against each other, education. The education process is key to bringing people of diverse origins together and key to the peace process.
Promoting a love of our multi-cultural island and finding a way to celebrate what we have in common in education is necessary to reverse the tremendous psychological damage inflicted by both Greek and Turkish nationalism on the way we view each other. As illustrated in a study by Spyros Spyrou, regarding the perceptions of the “Turk” by Greek Cypriot school children, Cypriots through indoctrination are being pushed further and further apart. Almost an ancient Cypriot art that now belongs to a museum, subservience to whatever Empire (or regional power) holds sway in our region is being taught in our schools to the benefit of other countries but at the detriment of our unity.
A colleague who recently spoke about his school experiences recounted how virtually all children began their daily lessons by singing either the Greek or Turkish national anthem and were forced to recite heroic stories of how the ‘Great motherland’ defeated its enemies by pushing them into the sea. Tolerated by leaders who claim to seek peace, Cypriot pupils forty years on are still taught through schooling to view each other as enemies. Failing to realise the advantage that Cypriotism can have not only for goals of peace and reconciliation, but to our better understanding of each other, our concerns and our common history, elected leaders fail to succumb to the need to preach divisive Hellenism or Turkism.
But for those serious about achieving a peace, a solution that amounts to a mere cohabitation between Greek and Turkish nationalism, where there is a failure to address the need to tackle divisive ways of thinking imprinted in the psyche of people in both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities is not a true peace. Considering that both communities have been the target of extensive Hellenisation and Turkicisation over a century, a union between Greek and Turkish Cypriots where it is hoped the two communities would simply iron out their differences once in a power sharing government is an illusion. Even the most expensive lawyers are not going to be enough to sustain a peace, Cypriot leaders need to act immediately to reverse a century of damage by conflicting Greek and Turkish nationalism by promoting where possible a psychological peace, through a new unifying philosophy of Cypriotism.

Why does the government refuse to protect Cypriot Maronite Arabic?

2008-02-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

By Costas M. Constantinou (archive article - Sunday, February 3, 2008)

THE OFFICE of the Law Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus submitted on January 17, 2008 its Second Periodic Report to the Council of Europe concerning the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which Cyprus ratified in 2002 and incorporated into domestic law. In its Initial Report (2004), the Republic declared Armenian as a minority language within the meaning of the Charter, but not Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA), which it excluded and designated as only a dialect and thus in no need of protection. This position was not accepted by the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe, which visited the island and investigated the presence and condition of minority languages. The Committee unequivocally stated that CMA has traditionally been spoken in Cyprus for centuries, yet is currently “a seriously endangered language and it is consequently all the more necessary for the Cypriot authorities to recognise Cypriot Maronite Arabic as a language and moreover one that is in urgent and immediate need of protection”.It should have been obvious to anyone acting in good faith that even if CMA were only a dialect (and some of the foremost experts like Alexander Borg argue that it is not only a distinct but a unique language - a mixture of Arabic and Aramaic) it would be a dialect of a language that is not one of the official languages of the Republic and thus by definition a minority language within the meaning of the Charter. The attempt to exclude a language that has been included in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages was bound to fail and it did. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe endorsed the Report of its Committee of Experts and made specific recommendations to the Republic for the implementation of the Charter, most notably in relation to CMA: (1) to protect CMA “as a regional or minority language in Cyprus within the meaning of the Charter” and apply the provisions of Part II of the Charter to it, (2) to “strengthen in particular the teaching of [CMA] at primary school level” and (3) to adopt a “structured policy” for its promotion and protection.The Second Periodic Report was supposed to give details of the measures taken to implement the recommendations of the Council of Europe. Unfortunately, it is not convincing that effective measures have been in place and indeed that the recommendations have been implemented. This may not be the fault, or entirely the fault, of the Law Commissioner who drafts the Report on the basis of information given to her from different government departments. For a start, there is no explicit and unequivocal declaration – like the one done with the Armenian language - that the Republic now recognises CMA as a minority language. For such recognition to take place a political decision has to be taken by the government and then an official notification of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe is required, as specified under Article 3(2) of the Charter. To this date this has not been done. There is only a passing and almost grudging reference in the Commissioner’s Report to the views of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts, which “however…” (i.e. contrary to the initial assessment of the Republic that CMA was an unimportant dialect spoken by few people), “was of the opinion that… it must be considered as a regional or minority language within the meaning of the Charter”. Does the Republic agree with this opinion? If yes, why does it not say so explicitly and officially as required by the Charter? If it does not agree, why not? Why is this done with one language – Armenian – and not with CMA? This indeterminate approach to the status of CMA is unlikely to satisfy the Council of Europe. Indeterminacy instead of clear and resolute position can be interpreted as a sign that the state retains serious reservations and wishes not to be legally bound, when legal obligation is exactly what is required at this stage. More importantly, this indeterminacy is demoralising for the Maronite community and undermines their own efforts (and indeed their responsibilities!) to promote the language and ensure its non-extinction.The Law Commissioner’s Report is uncritical and unenlightening about the way forward. The uncritical side may be the result of being assigned by the Council of Ministers to report on behalf of the government. If so, she should not have been asked to. There is a conflict of interest with the Law Commissioner’s function as an independent monitor of the implementation of human rights instruments in Cyprus. The Law Commissioner is there to advise and where necessary to warn and embarrass the government for its failures (and has done so successfully in the past), not to act as its advocate. The unenlightening side of the Report may be the result of lack of ideas about what to do with a language of indeterminate status.The Report makes spurious claims based on incorrect information that will simply collapse when the Committee of Experts visits Cyprus later this year. Take, for example, the claim that “Cypriot Maronite Arabic is only spoken by elderly Maronites, who live in the village of Kormakitis”. Is the government really claiming that it is spoken only by this small group of people and only there? This is factually wrong and can be refuted by a simple visit to St Maron’s School in Anthoupoli or the Kormakitis Association at Paphos Gate, Nicosia, where middle age and younger Maronites use it as primary means of communication. In fact, the Report later points out that according to official estimates the speakers do not exceed 1,300 (the Maronite community’s claim is of 2,500 speakers). But are all these in Kormakitis? According to the Commissioner, the only-elderly-speakers-in-Kormakitis-claim is “acknowledged in the Report of the Committee of Experts” of the Council of Europe. Wrong! This is bound to raise eyebrows. Significantly, the Report of the Committee of Experts stated that CMA, though deriving in recent history from Kormakitis, is currently not limited to the village, and thus “the situation of the language today corresponds to the definition of a non-territorial language”.One may wonder why this desperate attempt to limit the number of speakers and the place where the language is spoken by a government that is supposed to provide urgent and immediate measures for its protection? The Council of Europe will find it difficult not to view this as indicative of a government that wishes to deny or minimise its Charter obligations, using the pretext that Kormakitis is beyond its control. Note that there is a history of highly problematic statements concerning CMA. In the Initial Periodic Report it was amazingly claimed that “this dialect is nowadays confined to family and religious purposes”, thus wrongly implying that it has no public communication utility for the Maronites whatsoever.Rather than explain how the teaching of CMA at primary school level has been strengthened by the government, as recommended by the Council of Europe, the Law Commissioner embarks in explanations of why this has been difficult or unnecessary to do. It casually claims that there is “very limited” interest among students at primary school level without looking at the facts on the ground. The fact is not mentioned that the Ministry of Education does not allow the language to be taught in morning classes, even optionally, but only as an option in the afternoon. Inevitably this makes it very difficult for some of the students who have athletic or other interests, to sacrifice these for a not-so-‘useful’ language course. By the way, public awareness as to the importance of a minority or endangered language is also the responsibility of a State Party to the Charter and does not stop with the pronouncement of a lack of interest.Nonetheless, there is a solid number of 20 students who attend the language course (out of 73 students but note that in the case of 32 students their parents are not from Kormakitis and therefore not native CMA speakers and not expected to show an interest for a language their parents do not speak). So 20 out of 41 (that is 49 per cent) attend the language course under the circumstances described, which hardly amounts to “only few students” or “very limited” interest. Why indeed are no numbers given, when details have been explicitly requested by the Council of Europe? And when numbers and percentages are conveniently provided when it comes to government financial support for various cultural events or television and radio hours for minorities in CyBC?Furthermore, that “the majority of the Maronite school population is not enrolled at the Saint Maronas Primary School” may not be indicative of a lack of interest as implied by the Commissioner’s Report but a good reason to have more than one Maronite school (in the whole of Cyprus!) in order to strengthen the teaching of the language, or alternatively the availability of CMA in other Schools where Maronite children go. Why indeed are these not suggested, or their feasibility explored? And why has the interest expressed by Maronite adults in learning or improving their knowledge of CMA, which necessitated the introduction of evening classes by the cultural team Kermia Ztite last year, not mentioned as indicative of ‘interest’?All these omissions are disappointing. As, I’m afraid is also the case with the ‘structured policy’ – or lack of – for the promotion and protection of the CMA. Rather than present an ‘Action Plan’ with specific objectives, necessary input, cost and target dates, the Report contains vacuous statements about the recognition of minority cultures and the greatness of Cypriot pedagogies in promoting democracy, non-discrimination and cultural diversity. There has been some light in the form of a scientific symposium organised by the Ministry of Education, and the government is currently awaiting the results of its own Committee of Specialists for the codification of CMA. This symposium has indeed been useful and the specialists’ work will be helpful, but many in the Maronite community feel that is being used as a smokescreen and a delaying tactic for not engaging in urgent and immediate measures as recommended by the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe. Codification for an oral language is necessary, but work in this regard has already started by the interested party – the Cypriot Maronite community itself – something that is not mentioned in the Report. Last December, in the presence of a representative from the Ministry of Education, the CMA alphabet (devised by linguist Professor Alexander Borg – a product of his long research in CMA) has been presented to the public and the translation of small texts began. How is the government supporting this effort? Does the government have a clear plan for the protection, promotion and revival of CMA? The Report throws the ball back to the Maronite community and speakers to suggest the way forward. This is disingenuous. The Office of the Maronite Representative and the NGO ‘Hki Fi Sanna’ (‘Speak Our Language’) say that they have already submitted a specific ‘Action Plan’ to the Ministry of Interior as invited to do last November, and copied in the Law Commissioner. Yet this ‘Action Plan’ is not mentioned in the Report! In effect, none of their proposals have been taken up by the government, which seems to be bureaucratising and delaying the issue. Again, the Council of Europe Committee of Experts is unlikely to be satisfied with the general support, financial or otherwise, for it specified in its findings that “this support is not especially targeted towards” the CMA and cannot be considered a substitute for the very specific issue of endangered language promotion and protection.This brings us to the issue of the status of the Maronites and the other ‘religious groups’ under the Cyprus Constitution. The reluctance of the Cypriot government to promote and protect CMA stems from a wider concern that it has in recognising Maronites as an ‘ethnic’ and not merely ‘religious’ community. I personally do not accept the pretext of the ‘Cyprus problem’ and the political sensitiveness that this somehow entails, for the government to continue to deny the different ethnicity of certain minority groups in Cyprus. This is contrary to the spirit of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which the Republic signed and ratified, a legal instrument that again has specific provisions for the protection of minority languages. The moral alibi behind which consecutive Cypriot governments have hidden is the ‘received constitution’ of the Republic, which we have been told, cannot be changed. Similarly in this latest Report, the Law Commissioner makes reference to the unchangeable bicommunal structure of the Republic, which is based on Basic Articles of the Constitution and quotes the infamous Article182, which specifies that these Basic Articles “cannot, in any way, be amended, whether by way of variation, addition, or repeal”. But is this the real issue? Note that the Maronites (and Armenians, and perhaps the Latins) do not ask for the bicommunal structure of the Republic to be changed but only their own designation from a ‘religious group’ to ‘ethnic group’, something that will make Cypriot governments legally bound to protect their language and culture, not just their civil and religious rights. Crucially, this problematic designation is enshrined in Article 2 of the Cyprus Constitution, which is not a Basic Article under the meaning of Article 182 and can indeed be amended. There is no doubt in my mind that the designation ‘religious group’ in Article 2 of the Cyprus Constitution can be amended to ‘ethnic’ or ‘ethno-religious’ or ‘ethno-cultural’ group, and can be extended to the Roma, without affecting the bicommunal structure of the Republic. (I will leave aside the extent to which the post-1963 ‘laws of necessity’ have already suspended Basic Articles of the Constitution, like the Communal Chamber where the Representatives of the ‘religious groups’ had the right to vote, unlike the current nominal, non-voting status they have in the House of Representatives). This has not been picked up by the Council of Europe, and should be brought to their attention by interested parties and all those concerned with the promotion and protection of minority rights in Cyprus.It is important that the Law Commissioner – an independent officer of the Republic with responsibility to monitor the implementation of international human rights instruments and with power to publicise inaction and suggest reforms – lives up to the expectations of such high office. We have the right to demand that she remains a legal guardian and critic, and not become an apologist of government policy. * Costas M. Constantinou is Professor of International Relations at Keele University and Project Leader at PRIO Cyprus Centre.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

Can Dundar: There is no such thing as Kemalism

2008-02-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

Interview by Ali Keskin and Alkan Chaglar
Following a Conference on the “Rise of Turkish nationalism during the EU process” at LSE, Toplum Postasi journalist Ali Keskin and London Community Post journalist Alkan Chaglar had an exclusive interview with Turkish journalist Can Dundar.
Q. Last year there has been a struggle for power in Turkey, the presidential election crisis, and the people marched in favour of secularism, General Chief of staff took side in this argument and then AKP’s Abdullah Gul was elected President. AKP actually increased its electoral support unexpectedly. Do you think the winner of this struggle was AKP or the struggle still continuing?
A. I believe we should look at the issues from a wider perspective. There is an ongoing struggle for democracy in Turkey. Turkey is trying to become more democratic. And in this process there have been major conflicts and problems. The silent groups are starting to speak. Issues like the Kurdish problem, the Armenian Question that haven’t become problems until now, are starting to become problems now. People are starting to question these issues. Local elections, early legislative elections and presidential elections and the head scarf crisis…I believe these are all stages in the democraticisation process. If we look at the last elections you can see that 40% of people change their political party. The people are always changing their minds though, those who elected DSP or elected MHP (Turkish Nationalist Movement Party) supported AKP in the last election. But who knows who they will back in the forthcoming elections…We can say AKP is the winner of these elections only.
Q. There are interesting developments taking place in Turkey at present, on the one hand a majority of the people are protesting on the streets in favour of lifting the head scarf ban at universities. On the other hand other people are marching to Anitkabir (Ataturk’s Mausoleum) claiming that secularism is in danger. Again on the one hand we saw thousands of people marching to protest of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrank Dink and saying “We are all Armenians,” but on he other hand nationalists who sympathised with the killer of Hrant said “We are all Ogun.” This is very confusing when we look at Turkey from outside, in your opinion which face is the real Turkey?
A. Turkey is becoming democratic and this is a reflection of the process Turkey is going through. After six hundred years of an authoritarian tradition and eighty years of a republican experience, now Turkey is trying to become a democracy. This is important and healthy, I believe. But at the same time it is a terrifying process. And naturally these fears occupy everybody’s minds. I too am afraid because I am a journalist with my own free views and because I had problems because of my views in the past. I have a child which I want to see grow up. I am looking forward to my future in his country as well, that is why I am scared but I am also an optimist. I believe Turkey needs to face these fears.
Q. It seems when it comes to the Kurdish problem, Turkey is stuck. Why doesn’t Turkey take the experience of other countries? For example: Northern Ireland.
A. When you compare the age of British democracy and Turkish democracy, British democracy has been in transition for centuries, Turkish democracy is only 80 years old. And during these 80 years there have been four military coups. We have to look at Turkey carefully. I mean, there haven’t been any brave leaders in Turkey so far. Secondly the Kurdish movement has its own problems. For instance Hrant Dink who was an important symbol for Turkey adopted an attitude in which he was also questioning his own community’s actions.
Q. Do you believe the Cyprus problem is important for Turkey in the process of EU accession?
A. The Annan Plan would have been an important element in this if it was successful. But today nobody is talking about this plan anymore. Cyprus is an important problem for Turkey when she walks in the corridor of the EU. Turkey will always be questioned over this problem. This problem will always act as an obstacle for Turkey. I believe a solution in Cyprus will help Turkey in its efforts to join the EU.
Q. Recently in northern Cyprus, nationalist media have launched their usual attack on progressive Turkish Cypriots calling anybody who seek a solution to the Cyprus problem a “traitor”, how do you as a journalist feel about this?
A. Although I do not know the case in full, I do want to say that when we are taking sides as Turkish, Kurdish, Secularists, Islamists, North Cypriots, South Cypriots – this is not right. We should not put people into these categories. If we re going to put people into any categories they ought to be those in favour of democracy and freedom, in other words those who do not preach hate, separatism and enmity, and those against all these things. The Greeks and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus who are in favour of more freedom, democracy and free speech are all really on he same side. However, now if you say the ‘other,’ some Turks understand this to be Greeks, but the ‘others’ should be a question of those who support democracy and freedom and those who are against it.
Q. Turkey has had its border with Armenia closed since 1996, do you think it is time Turkey reopened its border?
A. This is important as this is the only border Turkey has with any country that remains closed. When Abdullah Öcalan was based in Syria, and when the two countries were at the brink of war the borders with Syria remained open! We don’t have such an issue with Armenia, so why do we keep our border with Armenia closed. It makes no sense. Turkey is ready to open this border but there are problems at Karabağ. But I believe it is beneficial to both countries to open the border and from what I understand the people and Mayor of Kars (a city in Eastern Turkey) have been lobbying hard to open the border for years now. Armenians too want to reopen the border. This would be important for business as well as reconciliation.
Q. Do you believe Kemalism is compatible with Turkey’s EU aspirations and democratisation?
A. It depends what you understand by Kemalism. For me there is no such thing as Kemalism. Mustafa Kemal did not leave us Kemalism before he died. I am a researcher of Mustafa Kemal, I like reading about Mustafa Kemal but from what I read he didn’t leave a legacy called Kemalism. This is merely people’s interpretation, which was produced after he died. His biggest legacy however was positivism. But still, 1930s World and the World of today is very different. If you try to take Kemalism as an ideology from 1930s and apply it today it will not work. In fact to do so is an insult to Turkey. Therefore I don’t believe Mustafa Kemal was a Kemalist.

National Federation of UK Cypriots reaches out to Turkish Cypriots

2008-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

Interview by Alkan Chaglar
Born in the mixed village of Pera Chorion Nissou in Cyprus, Peter Droussiotis still remembers the former Turkish Cypriot quarter of the village before coming to England as a child. Peter also remembers that his father worked beside Turkish Cypriots at the British Bases before leaving Cyprus in the mid1970s. Elected in June 2007 as the President of the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK, Peter is the first second generation Cypriot to have attained this position.

REUNIFICATION
The National Federation of Cypriots in the UK, which is made up of approximately 70 community associations, was created soon after Turkey’s military action in 1974 to co-ordinate the work of the Cypriot community in the UK with a view to lobbying the British government about the division of the island. “The Federation’s core objective was and remains the reunification of Cyprus and the withdrawal of Turkish troops,” says Peter. Talking about how he hopes to use his new role in continuing that work, Peter said: “I’m hoping to bring in younger people of Cypriot origin. It is important for the new generation to be engaged with what we are trying to achieve, in particular to lobby the British government in relation to the Cyprus problem, to help bring about the unity of the country for the benefit of all Cypriots.”

DIALOGUE
A firm believer in the merits of open and explorative discourse, Peter continues: “As President of the National Federation of Cypriots I can say that one of my key objectives is to reach out and develop a meaningful dialogue with Turkish Cypriots in the UK. In terms of the organisation’s composition, Peter explained that “the Structure of the Federation is such that you have to be a member of a community organisation in order to join it. All member organisations subscribe to the Federation’s constitution and to its vision which is to bring about a reunited island free from the army of occupation. “One of the tasks we contemplate is to form a joint committee composed of leading British Cypriots from both communities and use that as a platform for dialogue. But what we must establish, above all else, is that it should be Cypriots deciding the future of Cyprus. And British Cypriots are well placed to make a significant contribution to the need for rapprochement between the two communities on the island,” he added.

THE FEDERATION WANTS TO ENGAGE WITH TURKISH CYPRIOTS
Peter admits that despite the fact that there are Turkish Cypriot members within some associations in the Federation, it is essentially made up of Greek Cypriots, although he is also quick to point out that other Cypriot communities in the UK, notably Maronites and Armenians, are also well represented. However, Peter wants to appeal to more Turkish Cypriots. He says: “I would like to see more Turkish Cypriots represented in the Federation but for this to happen they must be members of UK Cypriot organisations which condemn the coup and invasion of 1974 and which are willing to accept and work actively for the objectives of the Federation – that is a requirement for all member organisations. Since my election I have met with some Turkish Cypriots in the UK and I’m delighted that we have agreed to develop a dialogue and to endeavour to broaden the network of contacts between the two communities.” Asked if he wanted Turkish Cypriot community associations to be included in the National Federation of Cypriots, Peter said: “Ultimately, yes - our vision must be for all Cypriots collectively to be organically integrated into Cypriot organisations and Cypriot structures at all levels. “That will be the only way in which we can achieve true unity.”

CYPRIOTS MUST RISE ABOVE DIFFERENCES
But asked why he is keen for the Federation to engage with Turkish Cypriots, Mr Droussiotis said: “We have to reach out to Turkish Cypriots as a Federation. It’s important for progressive Cypriots to take it upon themselves to reach out to each other and to the wider community. We should be brave enough and visionary enough to be guided by the ultimate objective which is to bring about a reunited island, free from foreign interference. Cypriots need to rise above any differences that they may have because these differences would only be exploited by Turkey as well as other parties to secure their own interests rather than the interests of Cyprus and the Cypriot people.”

ONE CYPRIOT VOICE
Aware of the difficulties and of the threats experienced by Turkish Cypriots who seek to work alongside Greek Cypriots, Peter asserts: “The message has to go out that people who work for a reunited Cyprus, particularly Turkish Cypriots, far from being ‘traitors’ are, in fact, true Cypriots. They put the good of Cyprus above the interests of any third parties. These people have to be embraced and supported at every opportunity.”
“It is important to accept that all Cypriots have suffered and are continuing to suffer as a result of the invasion and what has been happening in the last 33 years. Our ambition is for the island to be reunited so that all Cypriots can live in peace and security, able to take advantage of the opportunities that are offered to Cyprus by virtue of its membership of the EU; so that all Cypriots can benefit from the natural wealth of the island.” Asked what he requires from Turkish Cypriots, Peter says: “What we are asking of British Turkish Cypriots who want a reunited Cyprus is to speak with one voice with their Greek Cypriot brothers in this country and say to Britain that Cyprus is for Cypriots and that the British Government should work constructively with all parties in order to bring about a really independent and united island. We should not allow the voices of division which want to keep this beautiful island apart to dominate. If this happens our dream of a reunited Cyprus would not materialise,” he adds.

HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL CYPRIOTS
When I asked Peter how this could be realised, he said: “The achievement of this noble goal requires leadership and determination as well as the willingness to put the human rights of all Cypriots above political expediency. London represents the best possible platform for Cypriots from all communities to come together and work together for the benefit of Cyprus. We can come up with specific ideas of things we can do as members of the Cypriot diaspora in order to contribute towards an equitable settlement.” Offering an example of the kind of work Greek and Turkish Cypriots can do together, Peter adds: “We could create a youth forum, for example, that could bring together young members of the Cypriot diaspora and inspire them to work for our vision of a reunited island.”

TURKISH CYPRIOTS ARE CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS
Asked what he thinks of Turkish Cypriots on the island, Peter says: “Turkish Cypriots on the island are citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, with the same rights as all other Cypriots: they can travel using Republic of Cyprus travel documents and many cross over to the Republic daily for work. I want that to continue and I believe all Cypriots should be able to take advantage of the benefits that are legally available in the Republic of Cyprus.” However, Peter warned: “What is not acceptable is for Turkish Cypriots to expect the illegal entity created by virtue of Turkey’s invasion and its continuing military occupation to be upgraded and effectively recognised. All that will achieve is the entrenchment of the division and the permanent partition of the island, which will not benefit Cypriots as a whole. And more widely, it would send out the message that military aggression pays.”

MESSAGE TO TURKEY
Peter’s view of Turkey is one of potential partnership with Cyprus. He asks: “What does Turkey have to gain from having an army in Cyprus? Cyprus represents no threat to Turkey.” Raising the issue of Turkey’s ambition to join the EU, Peter says it is in Turkey’s interest to support the reunification of Cyprus. After all, he argues, “A Cyprus reunited on the basis of a solution supported by a majority of all Cypriots could be a potential ally of Turkey and a future partner in Europe. A reunified, bi-communal, bi-zonal Cyprus would mean that Turkish Cypriots would be partners in the new federal government; such a resolution of the Cyprus issue would provide peace and security for all Cypriots, a state that is run in accordance with the EU which Turkey aspires to join. This would be a positive development not only for Cyprus but for the entire region.” Peter adds, “Turkey has nothing to gain from keeping its army in Cyprus. “This only shows lack of good will on the part of Turkey and hampers international efforts to reach an equitable solution.”

CONTINUOUS DIALOGUE
When I asked him to elaborate on how Cypriots can help contribute towards a Cyprus solution, Peter asserted: “Cypriots need to develop the fora to enable all Cypriots to communicate regularly with each other. We (diaspora Cypriots) have a clear opportunity in this country, in the absence of occupation, to create the conditions necessary for a meaningful and continuous dialogue, to make a valuable contribution towards the reunification of this beautiful island that is unjustly divided. “ Proud of his Cypriot identity, Peter recounts that as a child his grandmother told him how Cypriots of all ethnicities lived and worked together side by side, while celebrating their diversity, which he adds “enriched their lives.” “This is what we need to return to and rebuild together,” he continues.

NOW IS TIME FOR ACTION
Questioned when diaspora Cypriots can expect to see actions to this effect from the National Federation of Cypriots, Peter answers without hesitation: “Now. Now is the time to move forward to inspire our communities to take this road to unity. There is no time to lose and we owe it to our children and their children to rid Cyprus of division and realise that vision. We need to start spreading the news that Cypriots can and want to work together. The message needs to get out loud and clear, but it’s up to Cypriots to get it out. It’s up to both communities to communicate the message.” Making a pledge, he adds: “As President of the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK, I undertake to do whatever I can to articulate that vision.”

In the "chambers of memory"- Neshe Yashin

2008-02-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Sevgul Uludag

Until she said it, perhaps it was not so crystal clear that you cannot divide love... Neshe Yashin uttered the first words, to make a stamp on our hearts and remain there for so manyyears because peace is still elusive:`One should love ones homelandSo says my fatherBut my homeland is divided into twoWhich part should I love?`She was refusing to love one part or the other. As a Cypriot poet, there was no `one part` tolove, she loved the whole...Her life reflected this because these words were not slogans, it was her essence. This is how shefelt, this is how she moved, this is how she loved... There could be no division in love... Youcould not divide love, even if you did, again love would come out of the `division` as she said inone of her poems...She `crossed` the division because this was the only way for love to survive. And love was theonly thing that could make us realize our utopia: that Cyprus was one and only, one you could notdivide... Her life was like almost any other life of a Cypriot, affected by the conflict... She was born in1959, the dark years of EOKA and TMT, heading towards bloody confrontation. Her family was fromthe Peristerona village, a place of peace and tranquillity in the beginning... As the conflictgrew in 1963, they were displaced and started living in Nicosia. Her father, Ozker Yashin was afamous poet, journalist and activist at the time... He was the leader for the Turkish Cypriotrefugees of 1963... He published poems of war and suffering, poems widely read at the time... Hepublished a newspaper called `Savash` meaning `War`... These were the years of conflict... Neshesbrother Zeki was born in 1960 but in 1963, as her mother Jale expected another baby and was readyto deliver, there was no way out of the village Peristerona... Two Turkish Cypriots decided tobring her to Nicosia for the birth of the baby but on the way they were arrested by EOKA asprisoners of war and Neshes mother and grandmother were brought to Nicosia General Hospital...The name given to the baby born under such conditions was `Savash` (War). Later a Greek Cypriotman helped to smuggle her back to Peristerona with the grandmother and the baby... So as Sartrehas said, `Hell is other people` but `Heaven is also other people` we can add. Because you couldfind the darkness but also the light, the crime but also goodness in `other people`. Later, hermother had another baby girl under better conditions, so they called her `Barish` which means`Peace`. She was born in 1972 and they named her `Peace` to reflect the desire for peace on theisland. One baby was `War`, perhaps with the new baby called `Peace`, peace would finally come tothe island...We were friends since childhood Kutlu Adali, the murdered journalist (my sisters husband) hadopened `an account` for me in her fathers bookshop. Even though my mother was a librarian and Igrew up in the library, books were not enough for me! I used to go to the `Ozker Yashin Bookshop`to get books and Neshe used to come to the library. Books were not enough for her either! We werereading, she was writing poems from a very small age like 3 or 4... As soon as she learnt to walkand talk she started writing I guess, because these are what poets are made of: words to describelove, suffering, words to describe the unseen world by others, the unnoticed or repressedfeelings, the flow of life and everything that surrounds us...Later we went to the same school and were in the same class: The English College... We wouldcompete together in poetry competitions and would write notes to each other in class. Sometimes wewould argue and not speak with each other we were growing up with all the pain and sufferingaround us, all the poverty and misery... But with all the love and joy of being young and reachingout to the impossible because thats what dreams are made of and so long as youre alive, as Chehas said `Be realistic, ask for the impossible!` In 1970 her father was elected to the Turkish Cypriot parliament as an MP and we would go togetherto the makeshift parliament (the building is now the headquarters of the National Unity Party UBP Eroglus party). We would sit and listen to the arguments, discussions and we would be the onlykids in the Turkish Cypriot parliament. We would sit at the back of the room and try to understandthe issues and politics at the time, sometimes giggling and sometimes getting bored and going backto the library or to her fathers bookshop to find more interesting things to talk about or reador write or do our homework. At one time, we had exactly the same shoes: they were red and wewould admire our new red shoes!In 1976 she went to Turkey for her university education, later got married there and had a babywhom she called `Hazar`. She only returned to the island in 1985. These were the darkest years forour progressive struggle the regime was very arrogant... You could not find a job, even if youdid, you would be thrown out after some time because of your political views, activism thebiggest sin was saying `Yes, we can live together with Greek Cypriots` and Neshe was one of theones committing this `sin`: ` One should love ones homeland/So says my father/But my homeland isdivided into two/Which part should I love?` She suffered like many of us: From 1985 till 1997, shedid odd jobs to survive on the island... She would write and be in headlines of the newspapers ofthe regime... She would write and be thrown out of her job... She was a teacher for one year atLapta Secondary School (Lapithos) on a temporary contract but the regime could only put up withher for a year... In punishment of what she was saying out loud, her contract was not renewed. Itwas the time when we set up the `Womens Movement for Peace and a Federal Solution` and the attackof the regime on the women, calling us `names` and trying to make us the `laughing stock` of thecommunity, trying to marginalize us and finally punish us... My husband, myself, Neshe and otherswere all unemployed... You could not find jobs even in the private sector the regime took careof that and there are letters when my husband had applied for a job in the private sector:`Because of your effective past, we cannot employ you!`You could not take credit from the banks either, to start a business:`Why dont you go to your party?` they would say and humiliate you... The regime did not have toput you in prison they would destroy your economic means of survival so that you would leave...She had committed another `big sin` while she was in the northern part she had run a`conscientious objection campaign` for Salih Askeroglu. Salih had refused to go to serve in thearmy he is the only one so far... How dare he refused to go to the army? And how dare Neshehelped organize this campaign? I remember that those were one of her worst times in Cyprus theregime openly had her followed by secret police and the army, harrassed her friends and everyonewas afraid to come to contact with her... They stole her address book, terrified everyone aroundher and tried to completely isolate her... This was one of the darkest time of her life in thenorthern part. In 1997 Neshe decided to go to the southern part of the island this was her biggest `crossing`.She would be going to a different environment but it would still be her homeland. Previously whenshe wanted to `cross` she depended on `permission` from the military authorities to `cross thedivision`. Many times we went to the Ledra Palace check-point to see if there was `permission` forus to `cross` since they would never tell us beforehand, if we would be `allowed` to cross or not.We would be arranging meetings with Greek Cypriot women or would be doing activities for peace andmany times we would be refused the `permission` to cross. As a way out, we would try to arrangemeetings abroad which was difficult, costly, time-consuming. In order to `cross` from Nicosianorth to Nicosia south, Neshe would be flying to Istanbul to Athens to Larnaca or Istanbul toLondon to Larnaca and back... Since our homeland was one and a whole in our hearts, to speak tothose living in `the other part of the island` was an essential necessity we would be lackinghalf of us if we chose only to look into our own `part`... Neshe started living in the southern part many of us could not understand it at the beginning this was a big taboo... Later we all started comprehending what she was trying to do... She waschallenging a taboo in our brains that `Turkish Cypriots should live in the north and GreekCypriots in the south`. How could a Turkish Cypriot live in the south and still be a TurkishCypriot who loved her country? Wasnt this a scandal? It took time for all to get used to thisidea she was setting an example that no one had dared before... A year after she went to thesouth, she found a teaching job in the university and now that she was in the southern part, shehad the task to connect with the northern part, always trying to maintain her relationships, herfriendships and her voice that would speak to us closely even though she was beyond the `barbedwire`. And it did not matter where she lived because she was still the `target` of the regime... Eventhough Dervish Ali Kavazoglu was murdered four decades ago and buried in his grave in Dali, therestill is a campaign by the regime against him... Even though the lawyers Ahmet Muzaffer Gurkan andAyhan Hikmet who published the newspaper CUMHURIYET have been killed by the regime four decadesago and buried in their graves, even today there is a campaign against them... So it did notmatter that Neshe lived in the southern part she still had a voice and an influence in all ofCyprus so she had to be stopped and marginalized... So the dirty campaigns against her continued.When her novel `The Secret Story of Sad Girls` came out two years ago, all the erotic parts fromthe novel was `copied and pasted` together and a big campaign ran against her, claiming that shewas telling her own sex life and encouraging the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot youth to havesex together! Even Rauf Denktash made a statement during this dirty campaign, accusing her andmaking her a target...The `opening` of the checkpoints in April 2003 changed her energy: `Because of this division itwas as though there was a block in my energy but now everything flows, I can feel it even in mybody` she told me in an interview... She was in Istanbul during the `opening` and I called her tocome back...`Come on Neshe, you cant miss this!` I had Robert and Lilian with me, two young filmmakers fromBerlin who were making a movie about her life. So she flew to the north, crossed to the south withRobert and Lilian, went to her house, took a shower, changed her clothes and came back to thenorth! This was like a miracle for her now she could `cross` any time she wanted and stayanywhere she wanted... `For me, unification is the unification of people... I dont care aboutstates and percentages, our country is not a company, I care about other things, about how peoplewill be reunified...` she said... This week we recieve news from her on the e-mail that her new book of poems called `The Chambersof Memory` has just come out in Istanbul... On her birthday, 12th of February, there will be acocktail party in honor of her new book in Istanbul... And on the 15th of February, we will go tolisten to her new poetry, the poetry she put together after the `opening` of the checkpoints,together with the ones she wrote before...Once, in her poem called THE BIG WORD she wrote:`When the poem utters the big wordall the weapons will hush at once,the word that's the voice ofthe spilled blood and the cry of sufferingthe word that's uttered by the chorus of the deadand by the exiled crowd of history.It will be whispered by the flowerthe weeping cloud in the sky the rapturous waves of the seaand the childred who do not wantto join the army.That day, a new love will emergefrom the foams of the seathat is distinct in nationality.War will die of shameas the silence starts taking revenge from historyand the magic wordswill kiss the wind of love.IF being disloyal to the halfwill bring me the whole native landyour nationalism will be a cuckold's eggI shall betray youeven with your bloody armies after meI shall make love with all the enemiesI shall betray youon all the continents of this earth.When the poem utters the big wordall the deals and negotiationswill come to an end with nothing left to sayall the mediators will be unemployed.The history will surrenderunder that big word which carriesthe stars and the riversthe endless love making of all timesthe sounds, the rain, and the seas.When the big wordwill be uttered by the poemeither all the poets will be executedor peace will descend on earth.`So she will be speaking to us from her `Chambers of Memory` and here is one of the poems from hernew book that she sent to me: My premonition about the light rising inside meWho knows perhapswhile you shot at the barricadesthat killed our house (home)I used to mellow into a childish sadnessdeaths passing through my deep sighsI knew back thenone day you would steal my soulWhile I ran off to the spaces between stairscrying over family murdersit whispered dreams of the futurethe light born(rising) inside me(my premonition about the light)Three angels appearedone brought a red poppythe second a gentle kiss from youthe third was empty handedembarrassed looked me in the faceAnd then the ghosts of martyrschased me in their blood soaked clothesmy history teacherread out lies at the gates of HeavenI waited for such a long long time for youin desolate Babylon towersTake off your soldiers clothesand come close to megive me three babies from the souls of the deadOne to make me forget all painthe other to console the earththe third to wander the city in the nightand hold crying mothers by the hand`(*) Article published in the ALITHIA newspaper on the 30th of January, 2005.

Does the TRNC really represent Turkish Cypriot self determination?

2008-02-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR

In the Turkish Cypriot community one recurrently hears calls by our many leaders to take ownership of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). With this attitude, the TRNC is presumed to exclusively represent or symbolise Turkish Cypriot interests, and if ever one deviates from this way of thinking by claiming that perhaps Turkish Cypriots already have their own state – the Republic of Cyprus, then you are accused of treachery, disloyalty or of demoting Turkish Cypriot self-determination. However, does the TRNC, an entity designed one thousand miles away in Ankara really represent Turkish Cypriot self determination?

ORIGINS OF TRNC
To embark on any attempt to answer this question one is compelled to look at the origins of this political entity. The TRNC may or may not have Turkish Cypriots working within its structure, to some extent it serves a purpose for running the day to day affairs of the North, but one cannot avoid the fact is it was never founded by the popular will of the Turkish Cypriot community. Recalling the November 15 1983 declaration of independence, there was no prior campaign, no prior popular demonstrations on the streets for independence, nor a plebiscite to consult the Turkish Cypriot community on such an important issue.
In typical military style, foundations for the TRNC were laid behind doors far away. In fact, despite the harrowing events that unfolded during the civil war in Cyprus, hardly any Turkish Cypriots envisaged breaking away from the Republic of Cyprus as a solution to political problems or as a way of restoring self-determination. Indeed self-determination was not the underpinning idea behind the creation of the TRNC, but the protection of the strategic interests of Turkey. Turkey had long sought to protect its southern flanks and avert any possible Greek annexation of the island, but Ankara knew it had to do more than send troops to protect her interests in the long-term; a chosen leadership, a state through which that leadership could control and politically active settlers was essential.

SELF-DETERMINATION
Yet in spite of these strategic interests, the principle of self-determination normally coined together when referring to nations is still used by many to justify the formation and longevity of the existence of the TRNC. But without lending support to any notion of nationhood, self-determination in my view is not separate from the principles of human rights in general, that is to say, political freedom, freedom of association, freedom of speech and religious freedom and others, which all communities and individuals deserve and strive for. Contrary to scepticism by successionists, both individual and collective political freedom can be achieved within a single state and within the framework of international law, without dispossessing another community. Yet misused by groups intent on justifying why one group of people should have its own sovereign territory or which country’s sovereign territory they should belong to (i.e. Greece or Turkey), the notion of self-determination is often hijacked as a tool by those seeking Apartheid separation.
However, those postulating the representation of self-determination by the TRNC should note a few irregularities to their claim. Firstly, after the meclis (parliament) of the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus (TFSC) approved Ankara’s new state, pluralistic politics were hardly encouraged. Turkish Cypriot opposition leader and Presidential candidate at that time, Ozker Ozgur had been charged in connection with an article published in the newspaper Yeni Duzen was put under house arrest. At the time he faced a possible seven-year prison sentence for criticizing the Denktash leadership.
Having consulted a copy of the European Parliament Resolution for 9.7.1987 the heads of the three Opposition parties in Northern Cyprus, Mr. Ozker Ozgur Mr. Ismail Bozkurt and Mr. Ismet Kotak, who together represented 55% of Turkish Cypriot votes in this period, all had appealed to the international community at the time to denounce the policy of “suppression, intimidation and blackmail” carried out against the Opposition by Ankara’s chosen leadership. According to the report, the three leaders denounced the “destruction of democracy” and the “decadence and corruption” in Northern Cyprus.

A STATE OF COHABITATION
Secondly, in a bid to anchor the new “baby homeland” to Turkey, Turkish settlers from the poorest provinces of Anatolia were shipped in to increase support for the new state. To the shock of disenfranchised Turkish Cypriots, the new arrivals were encouraged to vote on their first day. This new arrangement effectively transformed the TRNC into a state of cohabitation between the interests of Ankara, the Turkish settlers, and then indigenous Turkish Cypriots. To date, the TRNC is possibly the only place in the world to import its voters.
Given free homes or plots of land whose Cypriot owners had previously been forced to leave, the new arrivals who today number half of the North’s population thanked the President of their new home for his gifts by voting for him time and time again. The votes were not only useful in allowing the President of the day to consolidate his grip of power but were useful in changing the tide in elections. During the legislative election of 06 May 1990, UBP a party that favours the unity of Northern Cyprus and Turkey gained 54.7%, while pro-solution, pro-reunification DMP (an election alliance party for CTP, TKP, YDP) gained 44.5% of the popular vote. Settler votes were crucial to keeping the same faces in power; it is hardly surprising Turkish Cypriots complained of disenfranchisement for so long. Faced with such tactics on the part of those who had filled the new TRNC power vacuum and who were backed of course by the occupying Turkish military, it was hardly surprising that the biggest export of the TRNC, an entity long regarded as “legally invalid” by the United Nations, was mainly young Turkish Cypriot people.

REALITY of TRNC
No doubt the TRNC provides a mechanism for governance in Northern Cyprus despite being surrounded by illegality, however, faced with its origins, purpose and such a poor record for actually representing the Turkish Cypriots themselves the TRNC proves that it is not synonymous with the political freedoms of Turkish Cypriots. The fact that this entity, which has only proved to be a state of cohabitation between interests of Ankara, the settlers followed by the Turkish Cypriots in recent years is no accident, but a reality of what the TRNC was designed for in its early days.
No closer to grasping political recognition today than it was 23 years ago, the status of the TRNC also raises questions as to why we as a community hesitate to regain our status in the Republic of Cyprus and dispute the Greek Cypriot monopoly of this state, whose unchallenged policies often are to the detriment of the needs and interests of our community. Those seeking the unlikely goal of recognition, an act that international law and the UN opposes, must realize that even if this was one day achieved, the TRNC with its origins and continuing tide of settlers will not be a state any more representative of the political freedoms of Turkish Cypriots than it is now - it would pave the way for the North to become a recognized satellite Turkish state.

The story of Manuk Mangaldjian… A heart, full of memories…

2008-02-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sevgul Uludag

I meet Manuk Mangaldjian through Puzant and Arto…
Arto actually grew up near the famous Victoria Street but he does not have so many vivid memories from childhood: `We didn’t go out to play in the street so much` he says.
Puzant has a better idea: To go and meet Manuk Mangaldjian, who is 86 years old… `He’s practically like a walking encyclopedia` he says, `Knows everything about Armenian Cypriots, all the little details…` `What about Rosa Bakkalian, the `missing` Armenian woman from Neachorgo Kythrea? What about the Bohdjalian family? Nowadays, the Bohdjalian konak is a restaurant… I know that the only person left from this family is a woman… I need to speak with her…
And what about the Bedelians?
My brother used to take violin lessons from him since a very early age…
Everyone knows the Bedelians, so I need to follow the story…` ` Whatever you might want to ask, you can ask him…` Puzant says… So together with Arto, we walk to the shop of Manuk Mangaldjian in the old town. Here he is selling oilcloth for the tables by the meter…
At one point, I see the `arshin` (the yard) in his shop. `But isn’t this the arshin?` I ask him… `Yes` he says, ` you know those from the village could never get used to the meter… They come to buy oilskin and ask for arshin!` I had not seen the `arshin` for so many years and this makes me happy! Once upon a time, Mr. Manuk used to work in the Khan… He would drink at the tavern of Mustafa the Hammal… This was a very famous `meyhane` (bar) in the 50s and 60s… There isn’t anybody he doesn’t know from those times…
`Dr. Kuchuk used to be our family doctor. When he came to our house, there were always jokes! He would tell my grandmother, `You must always wear wool! Then all your pains would go away!`` He talks about the Bakery of the Crazy Huseyin… `Mr. Huseyin used to be a very close friend of my father’s… When my father had to go somewhere, he would leave me in his bakery… `Don’t leave from here` he would tell me…`
We speak in Turkish, perfect Turkish from Anatolia mixed with a slight accent and words from Cypriot Turkish.
Look` he says, `I even have a dictionary here!` Yes! A Turkish dictionary!
As he talks of the past, telling me stories about people and places, I gradually realize that what unites us is the language…
But no, it is not only language but a shared history, shared memories from the past… ]
He is from a time when `nationalism` did not poison relationships among the communities, when people worked together, drank together, laughed together, shared a joke and shared the pain of loss together… This was the simple life of old Cyprus - it did not matter whether you were a Turkish Cypriot, an Armenian Cypriot or a Greek Cypriot – whoever you were, there was a place for you on this island. Blood did not flow between communities, armed underground organisations did not exist yet to tear apart the good, simple life on the island. People were poor but this did not matter – what mattered were the simple, human relationships, the neighbours, the relatives, the friends and the hard work to survive together… In those times, Manuk would help one of his Turkish Cypriot friends to find a job in his company, as a cigarette distributor and would even convince his English boss, to give him a little bit more money than usual because his Turkish Cypriot friend had five sisters and his father was only trying to survive by selling suvla… It did not matter in those times, that they carried different names or worshipped different Gods, the poison of nationalism was not effective back then among the simple people of the island. What mattered was to live and to survive and to try to have a few laughs, to build a family, to grow up children and to lead a decent life. Politics did not spill its poison yet on the island…
`Manuk means baby` he says, smiling… `So even if I grow to be 90 years old, I would still be a baby!` His Turkish mesmerizes me and I sit there wanting to ask more and more things about the past…
Time simply flies and I realize I need to get back to work…
He is a kind person and he says kind things about the Turkish Cypriots he knew…
His mother and father were from Adana in Turkey, Mrs. Verkine and Mr. Kevork… Kevork was a saddler… He was so famous that he would go all the way to Istanbul to fix the `garutsas` of the pashas of those times… Kevork had a friend in Adana, Ahmet who was a poor man and was trying to make a living.
One day, Ahmet came to Kevork… `I need to get a garutsa and some horses` he said. `But I don’t have the money…` `Don’t you worry` Kevork told him. `You know, I understand from horses. I will go and check and get you the horses and the garutsa, so you can work and support your family… Later, when you have money, over time, you can pay me little by little…` So Kevork went and got the horses and the garutsa for Ahmet. They had such strong friendship, Kevork and Ahmet, that when the troubles were beginning in 1915-1920, Ahmet ran to find Kevork…
`Come on, pack up, we are going…` he said to Kevork. `Going where?` `I will bring you and your family to Aleppo (Halep) and get you settled there…` So off they went to Aleppo, Kevork and his wife Verkine, and their two children, Artin and Vartui… Manuk was not born yet… On the way to Aleppo, they had encountered gangs who wanted to kill them but Ahmet was brave and he had a gun: `Don’t you dare touch them! Don’t you dare come near us!` he would say… So safe and sound, they arrived in Aleppo to be settled by Ahmet in a rented room – Ahmet went and bought blankets and food for them and said, `I will return next week`. He did indeed return the following week to check on his friends and to find a place for Kevork to work making light shoes…
Later they would move to Damascus and from there to Cyprus. When they came to Cyprus, Manuk was a one month old baby, landing in Limassol in his mother’s arms. They would be settled in Larnaca but since neither Kevork, nor Verkine spoke any other language than Turkish, they would move to Nicosia, to stay among the Turkish Cypriots and Kevork would work in the Khan, back in his profession as a saddler.
At that time, many Armenians were living mixed together with Turkish Cypriots, since they could only speak Turkish… Later, they would move to live among the Greek Cypriot community, after the conflict of 1963. But many kept their good memories and as soon as the checkpoints opened in 2003, they tried to look up their old friends… For a long time, I could not understand why the Armenian Cypriots had left the Turkish Cypriot mahalles to go and live among the Greek Cypriots because all I heard from people were good stories, friendship stories, memories that touched people’s hearts… So what was the reason for this abrupt decision to leave?
Even Vartan Malian could not answer my questions about why they had left: `I was not in Cyprus at that time – my family being afraid, had left…` Many were afraid that the violence might touch them, like Mrs. Nouritsa in whose mahalle, the family of a Greek Cypriot baker, Mr. Kurtumbellis was killed. An old Turkish Cypriot woman, who lived in this mahalle, Koskluciftlik, later would give me clues about why the Armenian Cypriots had left: `They did not leave, you know…` she would say… `What do you mean, they did not leave?` In a way they were frightened and chased away – I remember in those days, a kind of a statement of `Warning` was thrown under their doors, telling them that they have to evacuate their houses in three days… Later, in some mahalles, some soldiers went round knocking on their doors and telling them that they had to evacuate their houses in three days…
That’s how they left… We never had any problem with living together with Armenians…`
Perhaps also, with the arrival of the conflict in 1963, their collective memory of 1915-20 would urge them that there might be danger and perhaps also this played a role in their leaving… Today, there are almost no traces left of Armenian Cypriots living together with Turkish Cypriots…
Only in the hearts of those who lived together in those times, you might still find traces of the good memories of the times they had been together…

A refreshing kind of gentle energy in the garden of Mrs Nouritsa

2008-02-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

Sevgul Uludag

Their energy is so fantastic, so open and refreshing that it takes some time for me to realize this… Perhaps the root of all this is the suffering they have gone through because sometimes going deep down in pain creates wisdom and this wisdom is something you can draw from…
Perhaps the root of all this is the skills they have developed to survive throughout the ages and perhaps, they know more, the value of being alive than others around us… Perhaps this gentle form of energy comes from their being a minority – and through many instances and forms of discrimination, they have learnt to develop their skills of survival… And perhaps this makes them quite different from some of the Armenians you would meet from the diaspora…
But whatever the root of this positive energy is, it is definitely refreshing and I feel pity that I had not had the chance to try to understand them much before… I had known a few Armenian Cypriots and did some interviews with Vartan Malyan and Madam Shirin but when I meet Nouritsa Nadjarian, and Manuk Mangalciyan, it is quite a different story… Nouritsa is the mother of a friend, Puzant (Jean) and she is an amazing woman… For the first time, I start feeling what they must have all gone through… Even though the `Cyprus conflict` was supposed to be between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, they too, have suffered and had to pay a dear price to be able to survive on this island. We sit in the garden of Mrs. Nouritsa, her husband Vahan Nadjarian under the carob trees. I have come here together with my friend Murat Kanatli because Murat knows Mrs. Nouritsa and she hugs him and says caring words to him. But the first initial shock for me is her garden…
Imagine in the middle of Acropolis such a garden, below the level of the road that when you step down, you are rendered breathless! No, it is not a garden that is very elaborate. It is simple and natural but it is this caring and refreshing energy that you feel that renders you breathless! `Isn’t there the flower of henna here Mrs. Nouritsa?` `No… But there is another tree that is similar to it – it’s called the Pakistani Nights… At night time, it has such a beautiful smell!` `I know that smell! My sister has that tree…But I wish there was a tree of henna here, it would suit this garden so well…` This is a typical, old Cypriot garden – all the things I used to see as a child are here – old tins used for flowers, bottles turned upside down and lined up to show the conteur of the flower beds… We sit around a round table under the carob trees and as Nouritsa talks, hours pass by – the garden is so magical that we don’t realize how many hours have passed by and that evening has come down gently… Once upon a time, when Armenians came to Cyprus back in the 1920s, they had settled in areas where Turkish Cypriots lived. The reason? They could only speak Turkish and this begun the relationships of Turkish Cypriots with the Armenian Cypriots. The children would play together in Nicosia at the Victoria Street or at the Keushkluchiftlik area or in Kumsal – the different Turkish mahalles of Nicosia…Men would work in the Buyuk Khan or in Arasta or Asmaalti, watchmakers, makers of pastirma, yogurt or goldsmiths… Skilled labor of those times… My friend Puzant whom we call Jean, who is 53 years old now, grew up in one of the streets of Keushkluchiftlik, in a street called Gunduz Tezel Sokagi… Their house was number 18. Puzant, or Jean, as we call him, would walk to school in the yard of the Armenian Church in the Victoria Street, together with his brother Levon, who was three years older than him…
Gunduz Tezel Street was mixed – Jean says, `Maybe 80 per cent were Armenians, the rest Turkish Cypriots. There was also a baker at the end of the street who was a Greek Cypriot…` It was the time of Christmass Nuritza remembers when the fighting between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots began… And it was at that time that the close family of the Greek Cypriot baker Kurtumbellis was killed by some Turkish Cypriot soldiers. `I heard the shots` Nouritsa says, `and felt afraid! We left soon afterwards, to go to Victoria Street, to where my auntie lived. From there I took my daughter and went to the Armenian church… And then my husband and my two sons came and after some time, we went to Melkonian to stay and work…` Vahan was a very skilled turner (dornadoros) so he found work immediately and Nouritsa was working in the hospital of Melkonian, taking care of the sick and the elderly… Puzant says `Only after I began to live among the Greek Cypriots that I realized, there are other languages in the world! I was nine years old then, back in 1963… Until then, at home, I would speak Turkish with my grandmother Lusia because she only spoke Turkish, she could not speak Armenian. She learnt the Armenian after we began going to school and learning Armenian at school. She would learn it from her angoni! At home we would speak Armenian with my mother and father… If we went to the Greek Cypriot bakkalis Yiannis near the school, unless we told him `Ena gulluri`, he would not give us anything, we knew. So we would say `Ena gulluri..` But only after coming here, I realized that there were also other languages. And at school, then, we started learning Greek and English…` With Nuritza, we speak Turkish – it is such well-spoken Turkish with very old idioms she uses that, I am amazed – it is an Anatolian Turkish she uses. And later, with Manuk Mangalciyan, I would feel this Anatolian Turkish, stronger. Manuk Mangalciyan has so many stories of friendship with Turkish Cypriots, again, time just flies in a magical way and then I realize, I have to rush to work!

Putting back the humanity that had been `missing`…

2008-02-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sevgul Uludag
He had seen 70 summers and 70 winters… 70 falls and as many spring times… Perhaps more – I don’t know, I am just guessing because he looked old…
Old and heartbroken – that he had to leave his village, that he had to see this country being divided…
But more than that, he saw things that no one should see, no one should experience – things that helped destroy the beautiful life that once existed on this island. Things that destroyed humanity, things that made people go in their own `national ghettos`, closing their eyes to the good and generous relationships that once existed.
When I first met him and we started talking through his daughter, all of a sudden he had started crying… Tears rolling down his cheeks, he stifled his sobs to tell me what he had seen: I was telling him about the `missing persons` of Yialousa and how we had found them in Galatia and he was remembering something else, something that had bothered him all his life.
No, he was not the killer but he had seen how two Turkish Cypriots from Galinoporni (Kaleburnu) was killed and buried somewhere outside Yialousa. He had carried the pain locked inside him because there was no one to share it with, someone to understand, to soothe the pain and to help dry away those tears rolling down his cheeks. 70 summers and 70 winters, 70 autumns and 70 springs and yet the pain was still fresh and insistent, not wanting to go away, there to remain to come back to haunt him.
I went to see him again but he was not there… Only his daughter, who had a ready smile and who did not know until his father spoke that there were also `Turkish Cypriot missing persons`. She always assumed that only `Greek Cypriot missing persons` existed and now, at this age, she was finding out that `Oh my God! There are also Turkish Cypriot missing?...`
Emir Aybenk was only three months old when his father went missing and Shevket Zorba was barely two years old… No memories of their fathers holding them or kissing them or playing with them. Nothing! Only photos shown to them and their mothers telling them, `Okay, this was your father…`
No concept of how a father loves his children, no concept of that security and protection that only a father can provide. Always missing a part of their lives, a precious part, like oysters with the missing pearls…
So they had grown up like that, Emir and Shevket, the sons of the two Galinoporn’ Turkish Cypriots `missing` since 11 May 1964. Just like the children of those Greek Cypriot `missing` from 64 or 74, still looking for their father, what has remained of them so they can bury them properly like a human being and visit their graves during times of commemoration…
I visited the Greek Cypriot old man again but this time, taking the two sons, Emir and Shevket with me. There was also with us, the brother of Ali Musa Zorba, Behchet Zorba – they all spoke Greek perfectly and we found the old man in front of his shop, sitting in a chair… It was still chilly at this early hours of the morning and he brought us chairs to sit with him. We sat around talking and gradually he realized who these two persons were: They were the sons of the Turkish Cypriots whom he knew where they were buried. Again, tears started rolling down his cheeks and I went to bring him some toilet paper and make some coffee so we could drink to come to our senses. It was an emotional morning and because of the haunting memory of those `missing`, he would decide to take a bold step to show his humanity to those children waiting for their fathers with whom they did not even have one single memory. He was courageous enough to decide to show us the burial site…
His daughter got worried: What if we took her father and he would not come back?
`Let some of us remain here with you as a hostage and let your father go and show where these missing persons are buried and then come back. Or you can come with us as well…`
Emir, who was three months old when his father went `missing` volunteered to stay with her:
`I can stay with you` he told her. But in the end, she said, `Okay, go. But bring me back my father…`
Of course…
Off we went to Yialousa with the old man where he would show us the burial site. We drew outside Yialousa and past the Teresa Hotel, we found a dirt road leading up to the sea. Here we turned to go down and at one point, he stopped the car to get out and look. He must have made a mark in his mind about this place and after going round in circles, around one particular area, he stopped and told us that they must be buried here, under the shinya… His mark, apparently was a carob tree which was a tiny thing back then but now it had grown into something big… Gradually, all the relatives of the two families started coming to where we were and talking with him.
This man who had seen 70 winters and 70 summers, who had tears for what had happened in Cyprus, was doing something extremely courageous: He was showing us the burial site of two persons `missing` from 1964. `Magari navre husin` he says and I find out that this means `May they be found…`
The `missing` Abdullah Emirzade and Ali Musa Zorba were farmers from Galinoporni. Abdullah Emirzade had a truck and when the harvest machine had broken down, he had gone to Ayios Andronikos, together with Ali Musa Zorba, to buy a new part. The date was 11th of May 1964 – it was the day when inside the old town of Famagusta, the son of the Greek Cypriot chief of police, Pantelis and two or three Greek officers were shot and killed. An `order` was given to take `revenge` and around 80 Turkish Cypriot civilians went `missing` from Larnaca-Famagusta-Karpaz area on that and the following days. Who gave those orders? According to one Greek Cypriot friend, the `revenge` was for the Greek officer Kapotos who had been shot dead inside the walled city of Famagusta and according to him, the order was given by some Greek officers. Perhaps we need to search more about this `revenge` story to really put the pieces of the puzzle in place and find out what actually happened…
So when Abdullah Emirzade and Ali Musa Zorba were going back to their village, they were stopped at Litrangomi and taken. A bicycle was thrown in front of the truck to stop it. Then, they took them…
The truck would be painted in military colors and used by the army later on to carry Greek Cypriot soldiers and the relatives of Abdullah Emirzade would recognize the truck. While Abdullah Emirzade’s family paid the debts owed to the bank for the `missing` truck, the truck would be used by the army! Abdullah Emirzade and Ali Musa Zorba were taken from Litrangomi to the tobacco factory of Yialousa, the rumors said and later they were brought to the spot where the old man showed us, to be shot and buried together…
This place was close to the sea and smelled of shinya – it was the area of Eleusa called `Mandra du Sina`. Once upon a time, this area had belonged to the Evkaf, later to be given to the monastery of Eleusa I was told. There was a stream where the shepherds would come to water their flock which led to the sea. I could see a small bay and the color turquoise of the sea…
It was a powerful moment for me – for the past two years, my Turkish Cypriot readers had been helping to show and find the burial sites of the `missing` Greek Cypriots in the northern part of the island. Some of my Greek Cypriot readers also pointed out places of burial of `missing` Turkish Cypriots but it was the first time now, a Greek Cypriot was courageous enough to actually cross to the northern part, to show a burial site of the `missing` Turkish Cypriots. This was the humanity and the cooperation we needed if we wanted to make progress in our relationship as Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots…
The sea, the shinya, the beauty of Yialousa would always be there – the old man who had seen 70 winters and 70 summers with tears in his eyes, was giving back the humanity to this soil that had been `missing`…

Taking the gun out of Cypriot Politics

2008-02-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR
I often wonder why in countless proposals for peace in Cyprus including the Annan Plan no reference is ever been made to decommissioning paramilitary groups. It is astounding considering the role these groups played in Cyprus over the past 50 years; nobody can doubt EOKA and TMT have not changed the landscape of the island both politically, demographically and physically. Dormant but not yet disarmed, these groups survive often under different names on both sides of the island. Yet, international peace makers designing the future of the island of Cyprus repeatedly overlook this. Perhaps the biggest blunder of all, do we seek a solution but presume these groups will remain quiet?

NORTHERN IRELAND
The idea of decommissioning of arms has its roots n Northern Ireland, where it relates to a formal process to remove guns from operational status making arms “permanently inaccessible or permanently unusable, so that they are completely beyond use.” With its own sectarian turmoil, Northern Ireland is place in Europe like Cyprus where paramilitary groups operating in a western democracy, voted during the day but used their guns at night. An Irish university student once informed me that those who were too friendly with the ‘other’ in his home town would sometimes have their kneecaps smashed by members of the local paramilitary group. Many of these groups like in Cyprus had political wings. But at some point, people had enough of intimidation and violence and it was decided that these groups had to choose the bullet or the ballot box. With the support of the British government, fortunately for the people of Northern Ireland, most groups chose the ballot box before decommissioning their arms gradually.
The process of decommissioning involved the setting up of an International Committee to facilitate the decommissioning of firearms, ammunition and explosives. This committee met with a contact person for each paramilitary group with whom they began a dialogue for beginning the process of decommissioning arms. A record of the arrangements and the movement of arms were kept by the committee, while the arms were made inaccessible and unusable. The decommissioning process went hand in hand with the political process. In Northern Ireland now for he first time in decades, peace is a reality.

PARAMILITARY GROUPS IN CYPRUS
But when I spoke about peace and reunification as a possibility in Cyprus I heard the usual counter-arguments; “they (the Greek or Turkish Cypriots) do not want us.” A Turkish Cypriot I met complained endlessly about how the Greek Cypriots forced Turkish Cypriots out of the Cyprus Republic House of Representatives in 1963. “How can I trust them?” he asked. He claimed, EOKA and its sympathisers in the Greek Cypriot leadership sought to keep Turkish Cypriots out of the democratic system; some even wished to annihilate them. But I reminded my friend too that the TMT also played a similar role in making sure no Turkish Cypriot would dare work in the Republic of Cyprus government.
I reminded him too how trade unionists and friends Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu a Turkish Cypriot and Costas Misaoullis a Greek Cypriot were both murdered by TMT in their car. I cited research by Professor Ahmet Cavit An who described how progressive lawyers and journalists Ayhan Hikmet and Muzaffer Gürkan of Cumhuriyet newspaper were also assassinated by TMT. I mentioned how Turkish Cypriot politicians like Dr Ihsan Ali who ignored paramilitary pressure and continued to work in the Cyprus government faced assignation attempts by these groups. Looking at the Greek Cypriot community, I praised the likes of film director Panicos Chysanthou and Tony Angastiniotis and others alike who describe the role EOKA played too in promoting our current division as a people.
Now pensive, my friend was speechless; he had no answer. What could he say? Like many Cypriots he displayed nothing more than a very normal and innocent lacunae of ignorance surrounding the role of paramilitary groups in Cyprus in creating segregation in our island homeland. This was how it was meant to be, after all. Sadly, members of foreign governments and peace makers also under estimate the role of paramilitary groups in Cyprus.

DORMANT BUT STILL DANGEROUS
Some say this is water under the bridge, but nothing unchallenged ever disappears. Life has a habit of reminding you of issues you sweep under the carpet. Although Cyprus has not seen inter-communal violence for over 33 years, it does not mean paramilitary groups in Cyprus are non existent or will not attack if an opportunity arose one day. In fact some argue these groups struck not too long ago.
During the Annan Plan Referenda when tensions on both sides of the island reached boiling point, a paramilitary group began a campaign of intimidation and violence against voters in the Republic. Columnist George Hasapakos told the Cyprus Mail at the time of the Annan Plan: "I don't feel safe in my country," "I am afraid to express my views on the Annan plan, as some people say it is an "evil' plan." In the north too, attacks and bombs were targeted at the offices of Afrika Gazete, the head quarters of the Republican Turkish Party (RTP) and its leader Mehmet Ali Talat before the Referendum. All this to me was a reminder of how violence can quickly erupt and explode when the tensions are high. In such an environment, Greek or Turkish Cypriot, Maronite or Latin Cypriot, who can live in freedom?

THE BULLET OR BALLOT BOX?
Like Northern Ireland do the people of Cyprus too not deserve to live without fear of paramilitary groups? Some argue these groups were necessary in the past, even if we accept this argument, if you ask any Cypriot if he or she prefers the bullet or the ballot box today, they will inform you that they prefer the ballot box. Very few, perhaps 0,01% will suggest otherwise.
However, the trouble in Cyprus unlike in Northern Ireland is that these groups are not labelled as terrorists. With friends in high places, most of Cyprus’ paramilitary groups operate freely and unhindered as they have done for half a century. Waiting, on both sides they have links to those in power. Such a proximity to those in power does not easily permit the disarming of these groups without a radical shake up of the establishment of both sides but does leave the future re-activation of these groups a possibility. In how many countries does the head of state or government have a paramilitary past?

FORGET THE PHYSICAL, HOW ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE?
Even if paramilitary groups do not attack it makes little difference, psychologically they have already committed murder. Although, paramilitary groups claim to represent the

popular cause of "freedom" the fear of paramilitaries can frighten people to even look sideways out of their eyes. Unacceptable for a democracy and westernised state, the presence of paramilitary groups whether underground or on the surface, only hinders the functioning of democracy, while undermining the elected authority of the state and its ability to maintain law and order. Like bad soil no democracy can grow on abject terror. Fear is no foundation for a future Cyprus.

PARAMILITARY DECOMMISSIONING: ESSENTIAL
Tony Blair once said “there is no acceptable level of paramilitary groups.” The former British Prime Minister, I think raised an important point. State tolerance towards the presence of paramilitary groups, whether active or passive permits an anti-democratic influence over those in power and puts a mask over freedom of expression. Even though the gun has not been fired for 33 years it is not yet disarmed.
However, what is essential is that those who genuinely want to help Cyprus and its people, the designers of a future Cyprus must understand the importance of paramilitary decommissioning for creating the correct climate for peace to flourish. All parties, groups, ‘sides’ whatever their interests must adhere by a pledge and by their actions to work within the democratic process for resolving problems. Unless a peace plan is drawn up that will emphasize a commitment to democracy and dialogue and on that empowers the Federal government to maintain respect for law and order in the state, such a peace plan will be no more than a recipe for calamity.

Nobody is safe from a Politics of Paranoia and Purges

2008-02-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR
The Cypriots were once said to be one of the most educated subjects of the British Empire, considering the expanse of the Empire this is undeniably a distinguished compliment to the small island country. Yet a decades old politics of paranoia dating back to the cold war does not sit well with this image. For whenever Cypriots dissent with one another, Stalinist style paranoia kicks in and soon notions generate about the person’s allegiances, followed by a string of accusations and labelling and even can lead to attempts to purge the person. Often those engaging in such these acts are in power protecting their own clandestine politics or those once influential who have painfully lost political power, but like a national disease, they can occur in cafés, offices or in the sitting room during ordinary discussion.

PARANOID THINKING
In the original Greek, παράνοια (paranoia) denotes madness or a state of delusion. Indeed the definition is apt if we consider attempts by American Historian Richard Hofstadter to analyze the paranoid. “The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms—he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. Considering himself as the self-styled savior, the only one able to see the conspiracy to warn the unsuspecting public, the paranoid is always on guard. Like a militant leader who plays dirty when it suits them and then pretends to endorse democracy the rest of the time, he is uncommitted to democracy, dialogue and debate. The paranoid does not regard “social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician.” Hofstadter maintains: “Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Hofstadter adds that it is this demand for “total triumph” that often leads the paranoid to frustration when they cannot reach their unrealistic goals. In over-passionate Cypriot politics, where intransigence is seen as a merit and where hopeful heros line up to capture the limelight, few value the concepts of debate and compromise nor the virtues they can offer.

QUESTIONS OF SERVITUDE
In typical style if you dare think independently be prepared not for debate, if only we had debate, but for questions of servitude. One London-based columnist recently dared to ask his readers in his weekly column to guess Who they thought another writer was working for? The writer added that in politics people only develop views to safeguard their interests and accused the other writer of taking Greek money. In most Western states you would need proof to make such allegations or you or the paper you write for could end up paying a lot of money in damages in court. Even though he was unaware of press ethics, his comments got me thinking. If we are to believe the crazed notion that one only writes to safeguard ones interests, then I wonder what interests he is safeguarding. Irrefutably, any writer who suggests such a reason for putting pen to paper is simply insulting his own readers?

CONSPIRACIES…
But lamentably, the question of servitude features too often in Cypriot politics. It seems whenever disagreement occurs, in the paradigm way of thinking, the question of servitude routinely crops up as do conspiracies. If you propose that a Cyprus solution may lie in NATO, then obviously you are an American spy! If you speak of the universality of human rights in Cyprus and refer not just to your own community’s suffering but to another, then a conspiracy is thought up that you are paid by the Greeks! If you defend the human rights of all in Cyprus including Turkish/ Kurdish settlers who have lived in Cyprus for decades then you must be an agent of the Turks! Now, I wonder if I should mention my admiration for Irish President Mary Robinson or will I be dubbed an Irish spy? Surely, if one lends credence to such wild allegations, then Cyprus would be an island of espionage and most Cypriots double or even triple agents. Could it be that perhaps a writer writes solely for his / her own conscience?

LABELLING, DEFAMATION, SLANDER
With a view to crush one’s opponent with limited use of intellect, labels too are flung. Resembling the revolving wheel of a car stuck in a field, the perpetrators fling mud, desperately trying to move. With no intelligent answer to offer and relying solely on the impact of insults and labels to get by they pursue and harass writers, poets, intellectuals and journalists with the help of Right-Wing Nationalist newspapers both and in the diaspora. The cream of any society, people like Neshe Yashin, Sevgul Uludag, Niyazi Kizilyurek… are meant to stimulate debate and elicit ideas from the people, to try to prevent their work is not in the national interest at all but is to deprive the country of new ideas and ways of improving their lot. Exercising ochlocratic media tyranny over the Turkish Cypriot community, several newspapers in northern Cyprus have even been brought to the attention of International PEN, the European Journalists Federation and even Amnesty International for their campaigns of terror.
More much common, but equally destructive, often if one disagrees with a stance somebody has taken then traditionally they warn others off even meeting that person. On one occasion I was meant to meet an intellectual but was warned by people in the same movement: “He is dangerous, be careful!” When I asked why, they replied that that is simply what they heard. With no evidence, this person had already been tried, convicted and executed.

PURGES
Formerly under the Denktash regime, writers, poets, journalists and even politicians would have been purged. Despite international outrage, journalist Sener Levent even served time in jail for his articles, but now it seems labelling and Stalinistic purging is also the tool of the Left. Within the Cypriot Left too if you dare swing too close to the Liberal Conservative Right, you could end up being called a Fascist and excluded. Before long people you trusted as your comrades, would refer to you as the "enemy within.” Recently I heard that the Left-wing government of northern Cyprus even arranged to speak to high ranking members in my organisation to persuade them to try to sack our editor because of his articles. Like the practice of forced incarceration of political dissenters in psychiatric institutions in the former Soviet Union, sometimes when they cannot purge you they simply dub you as mad thus attempting to discredit all your work without debate.

TIME TO LEAVE THE TWILIGHT REALM OF PARANOIA
Considering the repeated outside interference in Cyprus’ internal affairs over the decades and the need to be cautious, paranoia some would argue is a natural dimension of Cypriot politics. But destructive, excessive paranoia acts as the destroyer of debate and the silencer of new ideas. Perhaps founded by fear of painful truths, political paranoia is a method to conceal. Perhaps accusations and labelling occurs only serves to distract our community from seeing the clearer picture of the world. But as you would expect, once in the twilight realm of paranoia, fear can lead men to stoop as low as to label their opponents. Like a witch hunt, the ‘enemy’ is always pursued until total defeat, in such a climate what room is there for free thought and debate? And what can our community ever aspire to achieve if we label and exclude the cream of our own society? Cypriots must stand up against the labelling and purges caused by execessive paranoia. Monotonous, nobody will benefit from a lack of debate and nobody regardless of their beliefs who exercises free thought will despite their feelings of security will be safe from this politics of paranoia and purges. I finish off with a quote by Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out. Next they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out. And then they came for me!”

The island mentality that denies reunification

2008-02-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

By Hermes Solomon
THEY drive alone to work. Just stand at any downtown street corner at 7.30 on a weekday morning and count bums on seats of passing vehicles. They come from the smart suburbs, Archangelos, Lakatamia, Strovolos and its sprawling perimeter, Latsia and Dhali, even from Larnaca and Limassol to work at government offices, schools and banks in the capital. Most of their homes are less than 20 years old and were built out of town on comparatively cheap plots, affording their owners extra en suite bathrooms and a swimming pool. They overburden our increasingly dysfunctional roads, pollute the atmosphere, live off fast food with mobiles glued to their ears. They are mostly well dressed, highly perfumed smokers and pop drinkers, busy, busy people. They speak mainland Greek and English, and are permitted entry into any EU member state as equals, and no longer as immigrants. They are today's islander.But they are cursed by an inbred island mentality that is making hermits of us all, transitory wealth imprisoning them in their homes and at their places of work. The Cypriot mindset has altered beyond recognition since the 1974 invasion. We now look north and see another country, another language, another religion, and we no longer care. We have our beautiful homes bordered by a concrete fence, our beautiful cars, sparkling and proud under the carport, never mind the rubble and rubbish littering the scrub land beyond our garden gate. We pretend that by visiting the mountains when it snows or the seaside when it's hot, we own the entire island. We no longer fear what future for our children now that we're members of the EU. We have it good, in fact we've never had it so good since getting those troublesome Turkish Cypriots off our backs… thank God they left us with half the island! And what have we done with it during the past 33 years? We've raised our standard of living beyond the dreams of our grandparents, most of us drive Mercs or BMs and live in palaces by comparison with those mud and straw one-roomed dens in which most of us were raised. Our kids have university degrees in economics and business management in readiness for our half of the island becoming a world financial centre. We talk big, we act big… like all small men. We give the impression we are something we are not. And the island draws closer to permanent partition, two countries, two governments, two flags. So what? It happened to Ireland, Korea and several others.And who would claim that Eire or the PRK will not one day outperform their other halves? Eire certainly has since 1990.Divided we stand and grow more bitter, spiteful and resentful of our neighbours while Greece makes friends Turkey. Were we sold down the river in 74 by all the three guarantor powers, paid off by Faustian bribes, the temptation of increased tourism, expat property sales, secure government jobs, etc? It cannot be denied that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and to his politics through his purse.Do you know how it feels to be a recluse? You should, since we have become reclusive in our approach to our immediate neighbours. Go away, we don't want to talk with you no matter what we pretend. After 33 years what is there left to say anyway?Besides, where would reunification lead us, bickering like arrogant football fans, more civil servants, increased taxes, higher unemployment? All that bother for what exactly? Look what happened to West Germany after reunification…it remained the number one economy of Europe, that's what happened! Do you think they enjoyed the transition, having it forced upon them by the two leading world powers? We believe we are one family, united by our Church, our language and our customs. But all solitary races eventually die out. Europe is a reunification of 27 nations, and a dream for a better future for us all, no matter what language, race or religion. Come on Cyprus, stop being myopic. Join the world of tomorrow and shake off this worn out mantle of self destruction.

I have a dream (The Cypriot Version)

2008-02-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

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...

A Democratic Turkey must resist Gun Barrel Politics

2008-02-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Alkan CHAGLAR
In Britain I sense people take democracy for granted. With a long democratic tradition in transition for centuries, Britons are unaccustomed to a tradition of renegade soldiers and juntas; in fact few would even contemplate a threat to the democratic process or the arrival of tanks in parliament square. But last week in Turkey, a country that is in accession talks with the European Union (EU), the threat of a 21st century military coup was one step closer to a reality. A plot organized by mostly ex-military officers and generals, which would have inevitably resulted in bloodshed reinforced my own belief that paramilitary groups that are dormant but not entirely inactive can inevitably become potentially dangerous for any country if left unchecked.

HISTORY OF COUPS
Nearly all media reports on Turkey focus on the three 20th century coups that occurred in 1960, 1971 and 1980 but historically Turkey has a long line of military coups dating back to Imperial times, some would even argue a culture of coups. Mutinying “Young Ottomans” launched a coup in the spring of 1867. In 1876, the Ottoman military forced Sultan Abdülaziz (1861–1876) to abdicate in favour of Murad V, later Murat V was himself deposed and his heir Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) was invited to assume power on the condition that he would accept to declare a constitutional monarch. More over according to some historians it was a series of gun barrel coups and counter coups that led to the formation of the Republic of Turkey after Enver Pasha, a Turkish military officer launched a military coup against the Sultan in 1908, proclaiming a new regime on July 6. This was followed by a counter-coup on 13 April 1909 by the Sultan. But the Ottomans continued to be troubled by political instability, until another coup d’état in 1913, which gave the Young Turks absolute control of government.

CLANDESTINE POLITICS SHROUDS AN UNEASY TRUCE
After the death of Founding President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk of the new Republic of Turkey in 1938, it was the military who saw themselves as the natural heirs and defenders of the Republic and the core ideologies that were regarded as pillars of the Republic; arguably the most significant being Secularism and Kemalism. The military cite a self-identification as ‘saviour’ of the Republic as the main motivation behind their three military coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980, despite the fact that many independent reports revealed serious human rights violations during these periods of military rule. But although military meddling in politics has become less open in more recent times, clandestine politics on the other hand has increased. Shrouding an uneasy truce between the military and government, clandestine politics has produced somewhat bizarre events. On 3 November 1996 near Susurluk in Balıkesir, Turkey, Deputy Chief of Istanbul Police Hüseyin Kocadağ, the leader of the ultra-nationalist paramilitary group Grey Wolves Abdullah Çatlı, his Beauty Queen turned Hit Woman girlfriend and elected DYP Şanlıurfa MP Sedat Bucak all in one car were involved in a road accident. Dubbed by the media as the “Susurluk Scandal,” the event revealed the extent of a clandestine influential and informal anti-democratic network known as the ‘deep state,’ which involves an allegiance to nationalism.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TURKISH DEMOCRACY
Not surprisingly, talk of the military alone still haunts the elected government, leaving a political climate of fear for the political parties calling for the most reforms. An occasional stern message from the Chief of Staff is enough to raise the goose pimples of any government and cause a media frenzy. But more significantly public military messages against the government, revealing dissent between military and government impacts greatly upon the psychology of voters in the democracy and their expectations of that democracy. “Has the government crossed the line? Will the government be overthrown now?” are all questions ordinary Turks ask in cafes amongst themselves, creating an unconscious dependence on military interventions.
However, while criticism is expected, it is essential to be aware of certain points. Firstly, that the government is elected by the will of the Turkish people, secondly, memory of past military coups and news reports of clandestine political dealings still fresh in many people’s minds paralyses with fear some who find themselves to be in dissent with the military – neither are healthy for a democracy that ought to be based on discussion and compromise. Thirdly, in most democracies the civilian government has control over their military, so any slamming of the government by the military rather makes Turkey look like a military democracy. “Who’s in charge?” - Some may rightly ask.

THE PLANNED COUP D’ETAT OF 2009
In view of a psychology where the military is expected to check the government, it is not totally unpredictable that even today a paramilitary plot to overthrow Turkey’s democratically elected government next year was foiled by Turkish police. Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist gang of ex-army officers planned to cause chaos in Turkey after assassinating a string of Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, provoking a military coup in 2009. Police suspect the paramilitary group had already hired hitmen and may be linked to the killing of Hrant Dink and Turkish protestants last year.
Turkish Columnist Cengiz Candar described these types of paramilitary groups: “When the Cold War ended those structures [illicit paramilitary gangs] went out of business, but they still existed.” Confirming the need to deal with ultra-nationalist paramilitary groups and emphasize the rule of law, the event has revealed once again that there are those who are still ready to pursue a gun barrel politics to meet political ends in a country that has come so far. With the ‘national interests’ as a justification, renegade ex-army officers may see themselves as ‘saviours’ but by their failure to trust the democratic process, they do great damage Turkey’s international standing, her EU aspirations, and give Turcophobic European governments ammunition with which to beat Turkey.

PUTTING ONE’S TRUST IN DEMOCRACY
A great country with a colourful history, Turkey is regarded by many in the West as a paragon democracy in the Middle East, but in the midst of accession talks to the EU Turkey must resist any attempt to draw the country into Gun Barrel Politics with transparency. The recent coup d’état attempt may reveal dissatisfaction over the choice of political party in power in Turkey amongst those in military echelons, but it is not a justification to try to move Turkey from democracy to mobocracy. A test for democracy itself, the current Turkish government may not appeal to all, but it must not be forgotten that it is a democratically elected government. Undermining this government like any democratically elected government means you are undermining the millions of your own citizens who voted for them. Who has the right to avoid the democratic process and disregard dialogue and compromise? And on a regional level, without a democratic Turkey where there is respect for rule of law anchored in the EU, there is little hope I fear for a change in the status quo in Cyprus, for improving further Greco-Turkish relations or resolving the Kurdish question. Abraham Lincoln once declared before leading one of the world’s first democracies: “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people for the people.”

Why a vote for Papadopoulos is really a vote for Turkey

2008-02-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

ALKAN CHAGLAR
Five years ago while standing as a candidate for President and Negotiator, Tassos Papadopoulos promised a ‘good deal’ for Greek Cypriots. Five years on Mr Papadopoulos has only ever met the Turkish Cypriot leader Mr Talat twice, has succeeding in isolating the Republic of Cyprus within the EU, strained relations with guarantor Britain, while the island remains divided with a 0% change in Turkish policy. Meanwhile the north is becoming more and more populated by settlers from Turkey, with business booming based on the sale of Greek Cypriot properties and with EU countries like the UK and Germany actually talking about establishing direct trade with the TRNC. With historic elections literally around the corner, it is important for Cypriot voters to ask: “Who is Mr Papadopoulos’ presidency benefitting exactly?”

RISKY WAITING GAME
Tassos Papadopoulos was first elected President of the Republic of Cyprus after an outright victory in the Presidential Elections on 16 February 2003. Winning 51.51% of the first round, Papadopoulos was chosen at a critical time in Cyprus' history. It was a time when Turkish Cypriots marched on the streets of Nicosia to stand up against 40 years of partitionist policies by Rauf Denktash, a leader who had dominated Turkish Cypriot politics for decades. The first time Turkish and Greek Cypriots spoke of reunification, according to …it was a popular uprising which brought the plight the Cypriots to the attention of the world media. Led by young Cypriots, it was the closest Cyprus came to reunification but to many Turkish Cypriots Papadopoulos as their president too did not acknowledge their courageousness and open defiance of an occupation, but pushed their hand of friendship away.
A year later in Burgenstock, Switzerland before the 24 April referendums, Papadopoulos made no effort to secure the best interests of his Greek Cypriot community as a leader of that community or to prevent Turkey getting concessions that would trigger a Greek Cypriot OXI (No) vote. Instead he manipulated Greek Cypriots with crocodile tears by telling them that he would not exchange a state (the Republic of Cyprus) for a community. Misleading, was this not the aim of 33 years of negotiations? Holding on for a better deal, Mr. Papadopoulos suggested that 'doing away with an internationally recognised state exactly at the very moment it strengthens its political weight, with its accession to the European Union ' was politically unwise. Playing a risky waiting game, he waited for Cyprus to join the EU in May 2004 promising Greek Cypriots a 'better' deal later on.

PAPADOPOULOS' GREAT GAMBLE
So did Papadopoulos' great gamble succeed? Circumstances following Cyprus' EU accession- well a better question to ask perhaps is: Has the Republic of Cyprus been powerful and influential enough to pressure Turkey? My own thoughts dictate that Mr. Papadopoulos was naïve to assume that the EU would put pressure on Turkey. Turkey is an important British and American ally with the second largest army in NATO. In life and in politics, there is nothing worse than under-estimating your opponent. Often the result can be catastrophic. And it has. UK-Republic of Cyprus relations has struck an iceberg with the recent Strategic Partnership between Turkey and UK. There are rumours that the UK government is encouraging Turkish Cypriots to set up their own separate structures to lobby Westminster and counter the Greek Cypriots. The UK will soon establish direct trade with the TRNC, which may lead to a Taiwan model. The Papadopoulos Government has become increasingly isolated within the EU and all this has made not an inkling of difference to Turkey's EU bid. In fact Turkey has recently closed its second chapter for EU accession and has the support of the UK and numerous other countries. Greco-Turkish relations are the best they have ever been. And meanwhile in Cyprus, support by Turkish Cypriots for reunification is falling while the island remains militarised, divided and human rights issues unresolved for all Cypriots.

SEVERE CONSEQUENCES
As you can imagine Papadopoulos’ gambling habit has severe consequences for Cyprus. Does he really think he can actually take on Turkey, without the support of the US and the EU, particularly without Greece and Britain? Can Cypriots who desire a lasting peace afford to be isolated from the world? Surely, Cypriots need to build bridges where Turkey has built bridges, strengthen relations where Turkey has and even talk to Turkey directly. But Mr. Papadopoulos is not one for talking let alone action. When I quizzed some Turkish students visiting me from Ankara, I asked what they thought of Papadopoulos. I was expecting scorn for his media reputation for his “Turk bashing” past, but I was surprised to hear that they endorse his presidency. “I hope he wins,” said 25 year old Can, while another believed Papadopoulos had actually diverted attention away from Turkey who they believe now has the moral high ground in Cyprus for the first time. “We are making many in roads in getting recognition for the TRNC,” said 27 year old Fusun. Estate agents in northern Cyprus too have said that they are praying for a Papadopoulos win.

MEANWHILE…DEMOGRAPHICS?
Without a doubt Papadopoulos' procrastination and over legalistic attention to the prospect of an ideal settlement have offered Turkey plenty of free time and even support. Nobody, except a few Cypriots and non influential Cypriot watchers now questions the occupation; nobody questions the continued violation of human rights of all Cypriots, nor the apartheid they are forced to live in. But during this dangerous game, perhaps Mr. Papadopoulos’ greatest error, the demographic character of northern Cyprus is changing fast as settlers from Turkey are moving into northern Cyprus. Recently, Yeni Duzen and Afrika newspaper reported that some 50,000 settlers would be granted TRNC citizenship shortly. As the population in the north changes so too will prospects and future conditions to a peace deal? Unless Cyprus has a president who treats this development more seriously and acts fast, there is a very real possibility that there may be no Turkish Cypriots in north Cyprus with which any President of the Republic can talk to.

PAPADOPOULOS' FALSE SECURITY AND STABILITY
Lulling Greek Cypriots into false hopes of economic and political stability, Mr. Papadopoulos is thinking short term but not long term. Yes while the Republic has a per Capita income higher than Israel and most Eastern European countries and is in the Euro zone now, the national question remains unresolved. Cyprus' current economy may be strong but don't be fooled by this brief eerie silence? Cypriots are in the eye of the storm and still need to negotiate the tail of the storm. The island is still divided and the human rights of Cypriots violated. Do we like the sight of barricades, barbed wire and presence of heavily armed troops? Do we want our offspring to grow up in the same militarised island? Do we really think we can build a wall and forget Turkey?

DECISIVE VOTE FOR CYPRUS
Considering too Michael Moller's recent statement that the UN will not start a new process until Cypriots show that they want a solution, Mr Papadopoulos’ last years has given the impression that Greek Cypriots do not want a solution. Such a notion may have dangerous consequences for Cyprus. But what is clear is that whoever is elected, they and Mehmet Ali Talat need to do their homework together. Sunday's election and the one to follow are decisive as they will determine not only the future of the island as a whole, but the readiness of Greek Cypriots for a solution and the speed and feasibility of a solution. Although not a mandate for reunification, a vote for Papadopoulos is clearly what is needed in Ankara to keep delaying a solution while getting them off the hook regarding their obligations.

The Forgotten Cypriots

2008-02-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Berna ÖZDEN
Roma Gypsies are forgotten wherever they live in the world. Cyprus is no exception. When the 1960 Constitution was drawn up the Roma were not even mentioned unlike Cyprus’ other minorities, the Latins, Maronites and Armenians. In a Cyprus where you cannot be Cypriot but you have to be Cypriot something, this community was assumed to be Turkish Cypriots. Ignorant and dismissive of their history, identity and non-sedentary lifestyle, the group was largely ignored when new barbed wired ethnically drawn lines and were forced to move into new ‘ethnic’ zones. Since the partition of the island in 1974 the majority of the Gypsies have been living in the Turkish sector.
An ancient part of Cyprus, the Roma are estimated to have arrived between 1322 and 1400 from present day Lebanon and Syria, the community has long lived beside all communities living off small trade. According to Andre Theret ('les Egyptiens ou Bohemiens') who visited Cyprus in 1579, the Roma “observed a simple life supported by the production of nails by the men and belts by the women, which were sold to the local population.” Despite being marginalized in both north and south, the Gypsies survive by selling donkeys and mules, making jewellery and kebab skewers to sell and fortune telling to local communities. Unaccustomed to earning money they do this only for food and never for money.
Dom Research Center (DRC) estimates that there are three main elements, a long-established Greek Orthodox community, a more recent Muslim group and a few Kalderash families. Ignorant of the Roma nomadic way of life and preoccupied with the Cyprus problem, both north and in the areas controlled by the Republic Roma Gypsies suffer from a range of complications of division. These range from the predictable obstacle to movement, poor health care, poverty, lack of food and water and shelter. Roma families in the Republic face housing problems, and many Roma children do not attend school. The ombudsman opened an investigation when Roma children were suspended from school until they were tested for hepatitis. Today there are between 500 and 1,000 Gypsies who permanently live on Cyprus zig-zagging the Green Line, a full citizen of neither side. Their fate lies in a solution to the Cyprus problem but they are forced to wait and straddle along, meanwhile they are largely ignored in both north and south while the larger Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities press for their demands. The failure for any side to think as a Cypriot first and Greek or Turk second means that small communities lke the Roma will continue to suffer.

When will Cypriots finally drop the prefix?

2008-02-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

BY ALKAN CHAGLAR

Today most Cypriots accept the nomenclature "Greek or Turkish Cypriot." A minority actually believe they are Greeks or Turks. But by contrast, you rarely hear Maronites, Armenians or Latins referring to themselves as Maronite or Latin Cypriots. Nor do you hear more recent arrivals from other European countries refer to themselves as _____-Cypriots. So why are the numerically larger Greek and Turkish Cypriots obsessed with prefixes? While it is normal to use the terms when speaking about the communities specifically, why do some Cypriots only use prefixes? And will Greek/ Turkish Cypriots ever become just plain Cypriots?

FEAR BREEDS PREFIXES
Prefix identities in Cyprus are closely linked to the implantation and development of alien Greek and Turkish nationalisms. Unimaginable now, there was a time when Cypriots never defined themselves as either “Greek or Turkish Cypriots.” Ottoman civic society used building blocks created by religion. For some Cypriots like the Crypto-Christian “Linobambaki” they could identify themselves as both Muslim and Christian! In many ways the religious description was more apt as not all Christians were necessarily Greek and not all Muslims Turkish.
However, following the effects of the Greek War of Independence and the creation of modern day Turkey on some externally educated Cypriots the British colonial administration decided to import Greek and Turkish language teachers from abroad to the detriment of a Cypriot identity. Attempts were made to employ the terms “Greek and Turk” as ethnonyms for the first time. Totally in line with British policy then and encouraged by the Church, this led to a mixture of nationalist teaching, expectations of the newly converted, and even “Speak Turkish only” orders backed by externally sponsored paramilitary groups. These nationalists would have preferred Cypriots to define themselves as just Greeks or Turks but this never caught on- Cypriots could not abandon being Cypriot completely. Many older Cypriots inform me that they would have been lynched had they called themselves Cypriots decades earlier. Even today, those who refuse to use the prefix and who define themselves as Cypriot without prefix are accused of treachery. Predictably, the prefixes used by Cypriots today were thus born out of this fear.

NEED TO PAY HOMAGE
To entrench the idea of using prefixes, history books were encouraged to find Hellenic or Turkish roots. Consequently, today many Cypriots believe adding the Greek or Turkish prefix is necessary as a historical homage of one’s Greekness or Turkishness. However, if you actually read a variety of sources on the origins of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, it is disputable whether the bulk of today’s Greek Cypriots are from the Mycenaeans or whether Turkish Cypriots descend from the Ottoman Turks. Language does not necessarily act as a clue either in tracing our ancestry. Certainly neither Mycenaeans nor Ottomans would have defined themselves as Greeks or Turks either. If anything, Cyprus’ heritage is extremely mixed with Phoenicians, Venetians and Arabs to name but a few. Which culture do you think Cypriots should pay homage to?
But even if you insist and you have 100% proof that you are of Hanafi Sunni Muslim Turkish origin going all the way back to the Kokturks of Otuken, impossibility, then this does not mean you are less Cypriot. You can be Cypriot with Turkish ancestry. There is nothing wrong with expressing curiosity into one’s heritage, genealogy provides excitement to millions living in the United States but to use this as an argument to exclude yourself and your community from Cypriots as a whole is divisive and serves no real purpose. No heritage should be portrayed as superior or exceptional.

PUNISHMENT?
Yet for some Turkish Cypriots, particularly one’s with a chip on their shoulder the prefix is used out of anger. It is used since because it is believed most Cypriots of Greek descent do not consider them Cypriots. One friend reminded me “99% of Greek Cypriots in Cyprus consider you a foreigner.” How did he arrive at that figure I wondered. But then I asked, who are you actually punishing by adding the prefix, a couple of bigots or yourself? Surely, by excluding oneself from using the term Cypriot you are surrendering your right to Cyprus and to all things Cypriot. In fact as an indigenous community, they have every right to use the term Cypriot and take ownership of the whole island and everything that is Cypriot. Besides do you want an identity built on a chip off your shoulder?

TRADITION
For some Cypriots the use if Prefix has became a tradition which is ill-equipped to deal with modern day inter-breeding and often leading to tongue twister definitions of identity. A friend called Manouk told me “I’m a quarter Maronite quarter Turkish Cypriot, quarter Armenian and a quarter Greek Cypriot.” But you’re Cypriot? I asked. He paused for a second: “Yes.” I wondered whether compartmentalising his identity into quarters was really necessary. I did not ask him to reveal his mixed heritage and nor did it change my perception of him.
NEED FOR EXTRA INFORMATION
But for some Cypriots extra information by way of prefix is essential as if it would make all the difference in their perception of the person to whom they are speaking. An elderly gentleman recently came to visit me and demanded to know: “What I was?” Every time I said “Cypriot,” he asked me again. Eventually after the seventh time he became vexed and then asked the question again this time changing the tone of his voice. “Yes, but what are you?” he repeated. “I’m British Cypriot” I said, suddenly remembering that I am as much British as Cypriot. With racist undertones he would not accept my right to be Cypriot; I had to be either Greek or Turk, but who does this clarification serve I wondered. I felt an identity was being imposed upon me beyond my control and wishes. I wondered what life must be like for Maronites, Latins or Armenians. Where do they fit into this “one or the other” identity? And what about all the hybrids with Russians, Africans, Philippinos, British Cypriots?

FALSE COMPARISONS
But still some claim prefix identities are obligatory. Such enthusiasts of prefixes cite the common use of the terms “Italian-Americans.” But it is important not to imitate other communities whose circumstances may be very different to our own. For former immigrant communities like the Italian-Americans the prefix indicates a cultural and linguistic cord with Italy from where the community immigrated within the last century. Italian-Americans hyphenate because it denotes that they have two cultures -- the one they grew up in and the one they adopted. Their experience is one of acceptance of living in a country of a different language, and culture. Integrated now, the community is still young enough to listen to the tales of grand parents who came from Italy and to maintain family ties with Italy. There are no doubt correlations with the more recent arrivals from Sri Lanka or Thailand to Cyprus but with Cypriots? Cypriots of Greek and Turkish decent are indigenous; they have lived in Cyprus for 2000 years. Their culture is unmistakably Cypriot. Surely, if we are to compare anybody to Greek or Turkish Cypriots, then it would be the Native Americans.

TIME TO LET GO OF YOUR PREFIXES
Is it not time to let go of our prefixes? An article I read recently in “Canada Post” described how 75% of Canadians did not know or even want to know their origins, for them being Canadian was hard enough. Clearly in Canada, another young country people have moved on. But Cypriots still have some way to go. Perhaps a solution will help, but do you really have to wait until a political deal is brokered, signed on paper and sealed before you embrace being Cypriot with all its variations? Is it not enough that our Cypriot culture crosses these artificial ‘Greek and Turkish ethnic lines everyday.’
Who cares if your mother tongue is Greek or Turkish or if you are technically a Christian or a Muslim? Most young Cypriots speak multiple languages nowadays and are Atheist. But even if you are a devout Muslim or Bible-bashing Christian, religious Cypriots have tended to always get along too. For those who claim our common culture and other similarities are born from the fact that ‘Greeks’ and ‘Turks’ in Cyprus coexisted are misguided. These are not similarities or mere consequences but growing evidence that we ‘Greek and Turkish Cypriots’ are ultimately all Cypriot. So why do we create unnecessary divisions and then complain about our division to the world? When nation building the language we use is extremely powerful and changing the way we describe ourselves will gradually help change our attitudes towards each other thus laying the foundations of a future country.