GREEK CYPRIOT students marked the 29th anniversary of the occupied north’s unilateral declaration of independence by roaming the streets of downtown Nicosia yesterday. Some headed to the checkpoints holding flags while the extreme nationalists of ELAM gave a demonstration of their militaristic discipline as they also joined the protests. In the evening the political parties took over the proceedings, holding gatherings to condemn the creation of the pseudo-state 29 years ago.
North of the dividing line, the Turkish Cypriots were celebrating. In his anniversary address, Dervis Eroglu said that the ‘TRNC’ was not established as a “bluff or joke of history” but came to symbolise the sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots. This ‘sovereignty’ was made a mockery of a little later by Turkey’s ‘ambassador’ Halil Ibrahim Akca, who told Turkish Cypriots they should not be spending their money in the Republic of Cyprus and that financial assistance of Ankara would no longer be used to pay public sector wages and pensions. It was a cruel reminder by Turkey’s overlord of the very peculiar ‘sovereignty’ enjoyed by the Turkish Cypriots.
But deluded politicians exist on both sides of the dividing line, as presidential candidate Giorgos Lillikas illustrated with his announcement condemning the secessionist declaration of the pseudo-state. Although belonging to the younger generation of politicians, Lillikas’ rhetoric and false promises are from the old school of Cyprus problem discourse. He gloatingly cited Eroglu’s comments, which “shattered the illusions of all those who believe that negotiations on the Annan plan and bi-zonal, bi-communal federation would lead to the liberation and re-unification of our country”.
But what did Lillikas have to offer as an alternative? More illusions. In his anniversary message he said that if we wanted to achieve “as soon as possible, a solution that safeguards our democratic rights and freedoms of citizens in the whole of the Cyprus Republic, it is an imperative to forge a new assertive strategy, a strategy that would incur a serious political cost to Turkey for its occupation”. If it is so easy, why has no Greek Cypriot politician thought of it in the 38 years since the invasion? Why did Lillikas not employ his ingenious tactic that is certain to lead to the liberation and re-unification of Cyprus while he was serving as foreign minister in the Papadopoulos government?
It is sad that after more than 38 years of occupation politicians on both sides of the divide see the Cyprus problem as nothing more than an excuse for political posturing and vacuous rhetoric, while Ankara has turned the ‘TRNC,’ in all but name, into a Turkish province.