Two Communities -One Island

greece / turkey / cyprus | imperialism / war | opinion / analysis Tuesday April 26, 2005 14:44 by dmitri - OADE- Greece outetheos at yahoo dot com dot au

Cyprus: Two Communities - One Island

This article published in the latest edition of the newsletter “Mavra Grammata” (“Black Letters”), organ of the local group of Patras of OADE. Translation by James Sotros, international relations of OADE. Postal contacts: OADE, P.O. BOX 1333, Patras 26001 (Central Post Office), Greece or P.O. BOX 2120, Lygon St. North. East Brunswick, Victoria 3057, Australia email outetheos@yahoo.com.au

Cyprus: Two Communities - One Island

The two communities of Cyprus acquired some competitive intentions the one to the other since the period at which their segregation in Christians and Muslims acquired an entity. The two communities lived harmoniously and shared a common culture until the mid of the 20th century. But the creation of the two national states with powerful religious character, the Greek and the Turkish, changed dramatically the situation in Cyprus. The governmental expansion of both Greece and Turkey led to the perception that Cyprus was their field. The Greek-Cypriot intellectuals and the Turk military generals contributed strongly and equally to the cultural levelling of Cyprus. They destroyed the Cypriot culture and its autonomous entity.

Since 1930 and until 1957, the Greek nationalistic ideology mobilised big sections of the population mainly in Greece. In these mobilisations contributed also in a big degree both the economic landing of the Greek shipowners of this period, as well as the directive by the modern Greek state for the development of a greek-christian conscience. During the period of administration (colonisation) of Cyprus by England the anti-colonisation struggle against English intensified more the universality of the slogan “Greek Cyprus” even by the Left. The Cypriot Question reconstruct the Greek nationalism and saved the Left political parties, which nationalised their say and shaped it as patriotic.

The Turkish-Cypriots reacted in these Greek and Greek-Cypriot parameters which were coiled at a similar way, electing since then their own national characteristics. That is how the national imagination was created and the result was the two communities could not exceed their homelands so they could not live as a community with their own particular characteristics, although in the older times, when in Cyprus the nation-state had been demystificated, Cyprus had its own autonomous dynamic.

With the Anan’s Draft as a reason the constitutive elements of the nation-centred political opinion came back in the light. Suddenly the political leadership of Cyprus, via Tassos Papadopoulos (1) as well as the Greek political authorities except the amerikan-friend PASOK (2) and perhaps the Synaspismos (3), remembered that they have a state to safeguard with greek-christian ideals and of cource they voted “No” to the Anan’s Draft. As the nationalists and the KKE (4) and the ridiculous Glezos (5), the Greek-Cypriot capital also voted “No” because it was afraid that the poverty-stricken Turkish-Cypriots will take part in the big junketing as an equivalent politically table companions. “No” voted and mister Denktas who felt that his dictatorial power is under disput. The Greek-Cypriots also voted “No” in between an orgy of nationalistic propaganda and re-enforcement of patriotism. The globalisation partisans mumbled the very few “Yes” as a necessary concession in the real politic of the new reality.

So, the maintenance of the economic primacy of the Greek-speaking population was achieved and became henceforth an ideal balance between the nationalist bandit Denktas and the nationalist technocrat Papadopoulos.

Perhaps the Anan dilemma would not concern us. But it was the concern of the Cypriot population and their spirit of collective self-management and social liberation as a model of collaboration of participants beyond planted solutions by the UN and the Americans. Without doubt, the Anan’s Draft was an authoritarian fabrication by a ragged international organisation sush as UN. However we did not distinguish, even under this reason, some temper of communication between the two communities, except perhaps a big number of Turkish-Cypriots, the movement of which is not interpreted as a tendency of departure of the nationalistic characteristics, but as a motive for their economical survival. Thus the Cypriot society could not get rid of the dilemmas of authorities of the two communities but left them to be solved by their authorities perpetuating their sovereignty.

The shipwreck of Lucerne of 24 April 2004 was datum since in the past it did not exist not even a clue from both the political authorities as well as the two populations for a common living, a common economy, a common social determination. The Greek-Cypriot capital and the Turkish nationalism remained steadily in their place.

The position of Federation of Anarchists of Western Greece (OADE) cannot take sides or reject the projects of resolution of differences between states which drag their participants in the problems they have created.

Here we have not differences resulted through a long-lasting exercise of similar cultural and economic activities, but through the exercise of non-homogeneous action of different nation-states.

The self-organisation and the society’s disengagement from the nation-states eliminates problems which emanate from false attributes of participants (genuine of course as regards the origin). A multicultural society without dividing lines, when organises social and economic activities with as its basic criterion the growth of the everyday life and the intellectual level, annihilates such a type of differences.

The collectivisation of efforts and activities of the life through the anti-authoritarian and equivalent attendance leads the cultural activities and the different nationalities in festivals of entertainment and not arenas of the battles. In the constitutional model of anarchism it is obvious that Turkish-Cypriots and Greek-Cypriots would extent hospitality the one to the other in their different nuance of indigenous events, because from the next morning they would joint their common efforts for the arts, the economy and generally their common turnover.

Federation of Anarchists of Western Greece (OADE)

Notes: 1. Tassos Papadopoulos is the current Greek-Cypriot president. 2. PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) was the previous ruling party in Greece. 3. Synaspismos (Coalition of Left and Progress), is a left rather a euro-communist type party. 4. KKE is the Communist Party of Greece. 5. Manolis Glezos is one of the well known faces of the Greek Left.