February 24, 2024, will mark two years of the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine. On May 15, 2024, it will be 76 years since the Palestinian Nakba, the destruction and permanent displacement of Palestinians after the establishment of the State of Israel. On 20 July 2024, it will be 50 years since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 50 years since the occupation of 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus. Even if the three dates have different origins, causes, consequences and contexts, they remain comparable in terms of the potential resolution of the problems they cause, the liberation of the three peoples, and the recognition of their right to self-determination.
There is no need to repeat historical events. Besides, in our online age, ideological obsessions leave little room for debate and the revision of history is enlisted to fortify any viewpoint. Usually, for all three peoples, the claim of collective responsibility and punishment unfolds, appearing in Cyprus with the phrase “we also did a lot”. Thus, in an attempt to exonerate the aggressive, powerful countries from their crimes, individual events that were not, in fact, of universal validity are emphasized as alleged reasons. Nobody was bothered by the civilians of Mariupol or Gaza, the women, children and elderly people who perished in these wars.
In Ukraine, it was the fault of those who did not want Russia at their feet and ‘justified’ the brutal invasion of ’22 with the Putinist arbitrariness of a supposed ‘denazification’. In Cyprus, the claim is spreading that Turkey invaded with justification, supposedly to protect the Turkish Cypriots from the hordes of EOKA B. For bloodied Palestine, today more than ever before and in the wake of the horrors of 7 October, an entire people is being condemned for the crimes of Hamas. Indeed, it is being maintained, by societies and states, that the entire Palestinian people want to eliminate the Israelis and create an Islamic caliphate.
However, the problems of the three peoples should not be presented as complicated. They are issues of illegal occupation and permanent invasion and can be resolved when the three occupying states (Turkey, Russia, Israel) withdraw from the territories of Ukraine, Palestine and Cyprus and recognise the right of existence for the three peoples, the right of self-determination, the right to exist. Until then, until conditions of freedom, justice and democracy prevail, it is also naive to ask the three peoples to consent to any peace. It is naïve to harbour the illusion that if the humanitarian issue in Gaza and Israeli control is resolved, if the illegal annexation of Crimea is recognised and the flattening of Mariupol is forgotten, or if the stay of the Turkish army and the non-return of refugees in Cyprus is accepted, the three national problems of the wider region will magically disappear. For those who believe that the Palestinian issue began on October 7th or that it will end if Hamas is entirely eliminated, these are thoughts to ponder. History is not up for negotiation.
