By This post is also available in: ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
In 1971, John Lennon sang “Imagine all the people living life in peace.” One cannot ignore the irony behind the fierce reactions half a century later to an educational programme bearing the name of this iconic song—a programme that promotes precisely this: the peaceful coexistence of Greek and Turkish Cypriots in a supposedly reunified homeland.
But let us not fool ourselves. Nobody wants this. Certainly not the Greek Cypriot establishment, which has worked to cement suspicion, hostility, separation and effectively the division of the island, working in perfect harmony with the corresponding separatists on the Turkish Cypriot side.
A few days ago, controversy erupted—if one can call the complaints from the poor man’s Fox News, the official far-right, and the “far-right from TEMU” better known as EDEK, “controversy”—over “information” that Greek Cypriot students visited the occupied territories through an educational programme funded by a German NGO. As you can understand, the “news” as presented contains words that constitute a wet dream for every trigger-happy keyboard ultra-patriot: “occupied territories,” “visit,” “foreigners,” and “NGO.” Of course, things are clearly not as presented, but as the all-time classic journalistic saying faithfully followed by far-right propaganda goes: “Never let the truth ruin a good story.”
According to its official profile, Imagine is an educational programme for “Anti-racist Education/Education for a Culture of Peace,” which was started by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research in 2016. In October 2017, after months of efforts and with the agreement of leaders from both communities on the island, it was placed under the auspices of the Bi-communal Technical Committee on Education. By 2024, more than 7,900 students and over 2,400 teachers had participated in the programme, which aims to enhance contact between the two communities and promote peace, understanding and anti-racism on the island, fostering a culture of peaceful coexistence, solidarity and reconciliation inspired by relevant UN resolutions and action plans. Participation in the programme is voluntary and free, including joint activities at the Home for Cooperation, educational walks in Nicosia, or study visits across the island. This information is all available on the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research website; no one has ever hidden the programme’s intentions or the fact that it includes educational visits for students throughout Cyprus, on a voluntary basis, outside school hours and always with written parental consent.
The last time I checked, there was free movement through the checkpoints; the occupied territories remain Cypriot soil under Turkish occupation, and I don’t recall appointing Mylonas or any ELAM member as police officers over our lives, beliefs or visits.
And the best part? In November 2022, Ersin Tatar once again invoked his fantasies about two states to withdraw Turkish Cypriot participation from the Imagine programme, provoking strong reactions from teachers’ unions, students and political parties. So you understand with whom our own rejectionists—who break out in hives at any attempt to bring the two communities closer—are aligning themselves? Traditionally, after all, the rejectionists on both sides have had excellent relations with each other; “their stars align,” as Serdar Denktash said after the secret dinner at Strakka with Tassos Papadopoulos in 2004, shortly before the latter buried the Annan Plan for good.
All schools on the island are informed about the Imagine programme every year through a Ministry of Education circular, as happens with all educational programmes approved by the Ministry. This gave leverage to extreme elements—who, between us, aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed—to demand everything from explanations through Parliament to the resignation(!) of the Minister of Education (who, despite participating in this government, is a person with excellent educational knowledge, logic and sensitivities), considering her guilty of nothing less than high treason. They even connected the programme with… Parent 1 and Parent 2 issues, in an explosive cocktail of populism, nationalism and genuine far-right brain-dead misinformation designed to create hysteria among like-minded unicellular organisms. And the otherwise talkative President of the Republic, who comments on everything from television series to football matches, did not find—again—even half a word to say in defence of his Minister or the programme he himself praised in the past. The opposite would have surprised us, to be honest. As if he would burn the bridges he methodically builds with the far-right for a programme—gasp!—of reconciliation. I can almost hear him spitting out the word.
The irony: The strongest voices defending the programme against the hysteria and fake news from our side came from the Turkish Cypriot teachers’ unions DAÜSEN, KTOEÖS and KTÖS, which traditionally fight for a secular, conciliatory and peace-loving public school at a time when Greek Cypriot public education is sinking deeper and deeper into obscurantism, religious fanaticism, hatred and extremism. And to conclude this story: The mission of public schooling is to cultivate critical thinking, universal values, empathy and a culture of tolerance and peace—not to satisfy the whims and national wet dreams of Christian Taliban and fake nationalists who didn’t even serve in the military.
The photo [Editor’s note: By Skalatimes] shows students at Petrakis Kyprianou Gymnasium proudly giving Nazi salutes in a commemorative photo, making their parents (and Elon Musk) proud. An incident that did not outrage or even concern any of those who are calling for Michaelidou’s resignation over a private visit by students to Kyrenia (which they have obviously already gifted to Attila) as part of a bi-communal programme for peaceful coexistence and cooperation. After all, it is the latter that causes them allergies, not swastikas and “Heil” salutes.
This article was originally published on 25.02.2025
Source: IMAGINE IF WE WANTED A SOLUTION
