By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
I would not like to think that we will merely be managing [the situation] and not intending sincerely to solve the Cyprus problem.” I am taking you back to January 2009.
Demetris Christofias is President and Nicos Anastasiades, in an interview with Down Town’s Vasiliki Zenonos, is doing what he has proven in his political career he knows how to do best: finger-wagging and tactical manoeuvres – especially the latter. “They say that the ‘no’ vote in the referendum saved the Republic of Cyprus. I wonder, how would it have been lost with the Annan Plan? The worst part of it, however, which those who claim to have saved the Republic of Cyprus are not saying, is that they did so based on the 1960 constitution, which provides for a Turkish Cypriot Vice-President, 1/3 of T/Cs in the cabinet, 1/3 in the legislature, 1/3 in the civil service, 40% in the Police Force and the Military. Considering that this rescued homeland also consists of 80,000 Turkish Cypriots who possess Cypriot citizenship or an EU ID card, it is easy to imagine what might happen in the future if they decide to move to the south. Unfortunately, that’s when we will see happen what the late Tassos Papadopoulos used to say, ‘rulers in the north, partners in the south’.”
In the same interview, he does not neglect to give an emotional account when the journalist asks him if at any moment he had regretted saying yes in 2004. “There was a moment when I said I will never regret saying yes. And do you know when that was? It was when I was Mehmet Ali Talat’s guest in Kyrenia for the first time, and after dinner I had asked for a tour of the city that I had not visited since 1991, when as a guest of Ozker Ozgur, and – in an effort to achieve rapprochement with the Turkish Cypriots – I toured Kyrenia, which reminded me of Izmir and Istanbul, that I had visited in the past. As I was leaving, I wept and said I will never regret saying yes, simply because I saw that, unfortunately, as a result of the deadlock, our occupied homeland is being altered to the extent that it is turning into a Turkish province. Those who want to be true patriots should visit our occupied homeland so that they may become conscious of what time will eventually leave of what was Greek in the north.”
Over the last few days, I was reminded of the above – 14 years since the interview, 19 since the referendum, and 15 since he wept while strolling through the streets of Kyrenia – while witnessing the sad spectacle of the touring outgoing president and all that he is saying about the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, culminating in his (oft-repeated for some time now) references, issued the day before yesterday, to “saving the Republic of Cyprus” and to “any solution”. Given that back in May 2017, we had gone with the headline ‘Is Nicos Anastasiades the new intermediate?’, you can understand that we are not surprised. [Translator’s note: reference to political forces that tried to form a ‘centrist’ space between the traditional left-wing AKEL and right-wing DISY] On the contrary. Moreover, when someone sees his current situation begin to fade away, it is only reasonable and understandable that his concern should turn to safeguarding his legacy, so on a human level, Nicos Anastasiades has our sympathies.
However, the spectacle, is nevertheless sad. And politically, it would have been more honourable (we won’t say moral, for obvious reasons) if he had not spent the final days of his political career dragging himself here, there and everywhere, mutating as always, delivering tutorials on the art of backpedalling, demonstrating what Spyros Kyprianou advocated in the 1980s and what, in later years, Tassos Papadopoulos espoused as a political stance and philosophy, and instead chose to retire in peace amid the comforts provided by his varied activities and to stop dragging himself through the mud.
Would it not be wise, if he really believes what he says, to offer a mea culpa for his lack of sound judgment and insight, rather than make a fool of himself by adopting the approach he once reviled and that he himself, as a result of the prevailing atmosphere, had been dowsed in. And if he does have any free time, let him use it by wishing and praying that the Furies will have mercy on him, given that the legacy he leaves us with is that of two states which, amid some brainstorming, he placed on the table, in support of Turkey.
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