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Whoever emerges from the Cypriot government to make corrections regarding what Nikos Christodoulides declared on Sunday about Iran’s message to Israel is irrelevant, as it was the President of the Republic himself who stated that Iran “has asked us to convey a message to Israel and we will do so”. He even said that for this purpose he would have a telephone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister that same day.
However, on the same day, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, contradicted President Christodoulides by announcing that “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not sent any message to Israel through any country”.
Since it was apparent that Nicosia did not expect an immediate reaction from Tehran, Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis immediately issued a face-saving statement to the Cyprus News Agency, saying that the Republic of Cyprus “conveys the messages that emerge through all contacts, at all levels, regarding the need to avoid further escalation of tension and to deploy diplomacy to find solutions and resolve differences”.
He added that “this message is common from our contacts and we convey it clearly to all interlocutors. Especially to those directly involved. Especially regarding the EU, which can and must play a role. As an EU member state and a regional state that maintains excellent relations with all states in the region, conveying these messages is part of the stabilising role that we as Cyprus can play”.
In reality, what role can you play as a country in the Eastern Mediterranean and particularly as an EU member state in the midst of a war crisis, when your President is “caught” lying about such a serious matter as an “urgent” message between two warring parties like Iran and Israel? Who will trust you for the slightest thing from now on?
And as if this wasn’t enough, the next day, the Presidential circus juggler, Victoras Papadopoulos [Editor’s Note: Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus], appeared on Omega TV’s “Enimerosi Tora” programme and took the blunder three years further, to the 2028 presidential elections, declaring that “the President said in his statements that the Republic of Cyprus is characterised by the fact that it speaks to all countries in the region. We have been asked to convey a message. We will do so, which is why there will also be telephone communication”, Mr Papadopoulos said. Then Victoras Papadopoulos launched attacks against those who criticise, saying that “the rest is unfounded. They found the opportunity to attack the President of the Republic” and added that AKEL and DISY reacted “almost simultaneously”, while they had not taken a position before.
It is inconceivable that coffee shop gossip behaviour should be elevated to official state policy and that a serious (!) Presidential aide should not come out to say something along the lines of the statement being made “inadvertently” or through “misunderstanding”. Instead, Victoras Papadopoulos was ordered to load a major diplomatic blunder by the President of the Republic onto DISY and AKEL.
And the big question is: Where does this unbearable frivolity and inexcusable irresponsibility of the Government come from? Obviously from the fact that the President of the Republic has decided to start campaigning for the parliamentary elections in favour of ELAM, loading bags of national defeatism onto DISY and communist amoralism onto AKEL, whilst leaving corridors for the far-right to pass through to the Right and Centre so as to acquire a significant electoral base in the new Parliament that will emerge from the 2026 parliamentary elections.
At the same time, in view of the 2028 presidential elections, Mr Christodoulides appears as the new rising star in the EU, presenting himself as a diplomat of international calibre who plays a mediating role in the troubled Eastern Mediterranean. Indeed, he appears as a leader who will constitute a counterweight to Turkey’s policy of power projection and influence exercised by Erdogan. And this creates a farcical image of Cyprus, particularly at this time when Turkey has become a superpower, whose tentacles start from the Balkans and pass through Asia, reaching deep into Africa.
In recent years, Ankara has expanded its military presence at key points, with bases in Iraq, Qatar and Somalia and significant presence in Azerbaijan, Albania, Libya and Sudan, and with participation in several United Nations peacekeeping missions, particularly in Africa, as well as in other European Union or NATO countries.
Now that it exercises full control over Syria, its stature at the table of the great powers has enlarged. So whilst missiles of various calibres fly over our heads almost every night with the peoples of Iran and Israel as their “recipients”, the man who, accompanying Nikos Anastasiades, brought Cyprus to the brink of partition [Editor’s note: The author is referring to the fact that Victoras Papadopoulos worked as an aide to President Anastasiades during the 2017 Cyprus settlement talks], instead of devising new communication circus acts every time he sees cameras before him, had better see how he will deal with the Cyprus issue in view of July, as Angela Holguin has shown that she is not expendable and information insists that she will not mince words but will call things by their proper names. I remind you that Mr Christodoulides received Ms Holguin’s message long ago but is playing dumb…
This article was published on 18.06.2025
