By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
“To protect the indivisible integrity of the homeland and the people…”
This sentence was simply stuck in my mind, repeating itself all day long, it echoed and kept growing.
“Of the homeland and the people…”
The word hit the [old city] walls of the capital and rebounded; it floated in the waters of the Mediterranean, glanced at the mountains, paused at the checkpoints, and then drowned in concrete.
It knocked on the doors of the houses one after the other…
Remember when the keys used to remain on the doors, on the lock, and the neighbours would just turn the key and enter, coffee would be drunk in the courtyards, mattresses would be laid on the roofs, and people would sleep in the coolness of the night. Opened, closed: “The indivisible integrity…”
The nights also got split like the courtyards…
***
Whatever has come upon us, it came from this division.
Our homeland has been divided.
We are being excluded from the world because the territorial integrity of the country of Cyprus has been violated.
We cannot access the world directly…
We cannot become part of the international community, neither in politics, nor in sports, nor culture…
Because the safeguarding of territorial integrity was not believed in and observed…
The guarantors who said [Cyprus was] “indivisible” divided the island…
Whereas they guaranteed to safeguard the constitution, independence, and territorial integrity [of Cyprus] …
They had rights deriving from international agreements…
That turned into injustices…
***
Whatever has come upon us, it came from this division.
Not just from the division of our geography, but also the division of our steps, our minds, our hearts, our faces…
We no longer know where to look, where to run, and whom to believe in and trust.
Our faces, our languages, our words split in two…
***
If we are much lonelier despite having grown larger in numbers, the division is the reason…
The division of the homeland and the people…
For years, one’s existence competed with the other’s absence…
One’s mourning became the other’s celebration.
The division led to the birth of landowners…
It multiplied the show-offs…
It created looting profiteers…
Homes lost their children, orchards turned their backs on life, streets separated, became ugly, and fell silent.
We became both natives of and strangers to the island, both with a home and homeless, both with a homeland and without one…
We couldn’t make it work, as we kept dividing…
In the scorching heat of July, where identities leaned on the identity-less, an oath to safeguard the “indivisible integrity of the homeland and the people” fell upon my ears, drenched in sweat, exhausted…
***
What do you understand from the word “homeland”?
When we say country…
When we hear the word homeland…
We understand Cyprus…
Sami took an oath yesterday: “….to safeguard the indivisible integrity of the homeland and the people…” [Translator’s note: Sami Özuslu, elected representative of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP)]
There is no end to the peace efforts of the previous generation or our generation.
Because this struggle will continue from generation to generation…
This country, this people, this geography is too beautiful to be divided…
Vicious cycle!
I bought a simit [Turkish sesame bagel] in the morning.
“15 liras”, said the girl.
For one simit?
“The minimum wage has gone up” she said.
She too is a worker, a labourer, a minimum wage earner…
“Now everything will become even more expensive…”
It’s as if she almost felt sad about the increase…
Because she knows, as the money that goes into her pocket increases, the number of items entering her home will decrease.
***
A vicious cycle!
Lawyer Cemre Günsel summarized it very well.
” As purchasing power decreases, salaries are increased.
As salaries increase, costs rise. As costs rise, prices increase. As prices increase, purchasing power decreases. As purchasing power decreases, salaries are increased.”
That’s why the poor remain poor!
In fact, they become even poorer…
***
I was having lunch at a well-known restaurant and asked the waiter, “the minimum wage has increased. What do you think?”
He replied like a well-prepared student: 15 thousand 750 Turkish Lira. [Translator’s note: €536, based on the European Central Bank exchange rate on 14 July 2023]
“It’s not enough…”
He receives a salary of close to ₺20,000 [€681] because he starts work at half past seven in the morning and finishes at ten in the evening.
Weekends included…
***
“The landlord came this morning, raised the rent from ₺5,500 to ₺8,500 [€187-€289]. We told him we couldn’t pay, he told us to vacate the house… And to top it all off, the house is falling apart, it will collapse.”
If the rent increases at the same ratio of the minimum wage increase…
If the kitchen expenses increase at the same rate…
If everything increases…
Then isn’t it a false cycle that we are experiencing?
***
There is no life for the uninsured, unprotected and overworked minimum wage earners as long as economic growth is not achieved and as long as they are not relieved of the burden of heavy taxes!
It won’t happen, as long this system, and the status quo are not dismantled…
[Photo insert: Cartoon of a working woman on a hamster wheel]
As the Parliament boils!
I went to the Parliament, and although the agenda discussions were short, the backstage was buzzing.
One deputy said, “The Prime Minister might resign.”
I asked him, “Do we have a Prime Minister?”
We laughed!
***
“Things won’t run with obedience, instructions, and orders. The people gave a clear reaction. Things can’t continue with this lot“, said a deputy from the National Unity Party [UBP]…
Cross my heart, he was from the UBP.
We laughed!
***
Parliament doesn’t convene until October.
I can’t say if the government will stay or go…
And there is the “National Unity Party” congress afterwards…
We’re doomed!
There will be the usual fights, the commotion, the shenanigans, and then either someone from MIT [Turkish Intelligence Service] or the [Turkish] Embassy will turn up, and what they say will happen. They will all bow their heads and say, “This is the best”. Whiskies will be hidden under the table again, palms will be opened, and prayers will be recited “May we thank God.”
[Photo insert: Photograph of UBP leader Ünal Üstel attending a fast-breaking dinner with former Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay from the previous holy month of Ramadan]
Source: “THE INDIVISIBILITY OF THE HOMELAND…”
