By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
In October 2020, on the occasion of the Al Jazeera broadcast where the famous line “This is Cyprus” was heard, I wrote an article entitled “This is not Cyprus”. On the occasion of the victory of Pavlos Kontides, but also the death of Spyros Melachrinos, a man wounded in 1974, I return to it. Because we need to remember what Cyprus is, who we are, where we come from. We must not under any circumstances believe that we are a nation of crooks. The corrupt belong to a population group that may add up to 1000 members, maybe even 10,000. Even if they add up to 100,000 they are a minority. The rest, the majority, is us. And we need to remember where we come from.
Our compatriot is Tefkros Anthias, on whose grave is written: ‘Brothers and sisters, call out to me every time there is a fight for what is new and greater…’ Loukis Akritas, whose grandfather hunted grasshoppers to support his family and whose grandson, poor but with good references, came to lead Greece’s educational reform.
Our compatriots are Maria Rousou, the first woman to become a doctor in Cyprus who treated people without payment, a yoghurt or some other product was enough for everyone to be able to get care. Polyxeni Loizias who at the start of the century believed that women should have equal rights and helped women become educated. Persephone Papadopoulou who in the same era published a newspaper supporting women’s rights.
Our grandfathers are [Kostas] Partasides, [Adam] Adamantos, [Christodoulos] Galatopoulos, [Ploutis] Servas, who as mayors brightened up the cities by creating infrastructure for the citizens. They are artists like [Adamantios] Diamantis, [Telemachos] Kanthos, Pol Georgiou, Christoforos Savva, [Costas] Montis, Theodosis Pierides, [Dimitris] Lipertis, [Michael] Cacoyannis, [Marios] Tokas and so many others who praised the best part of the land and widened the horizons of our thinking.
Our grandmothers are Loukia Nicolaidou, who at a time when women did not even have the right to vote escaped “destiny” and studied art. Eleni Autonomou, a truly autonomous educator, Constantia Varda, the first woman MP, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly, and so many other women who laid the foundations for women’s rights.
Cypriots are intellectuals like Nikos Kranidiotis, scientists like Kypros Nicolaides, people who sacrificed their lives like [Grigoris] Afxentiou, [Kyriakos] Matsis, [Evagoras] Pallikarides. Cypriots are those who toil every day without selling out their values. Cypriots are our children who want a better homeland. We are Cypriots and it is our duty to enlighten the country again from where each one of us stands. Like Pavlos Kontides, Milan Trajkovic and the other athletes who strove and those who are striving for the better.
Source: WE ARE NOT ALL CORRUPT
