In his 80+ governmental announcements for 2024, Nikos Christodoulides made sure to include the Cyprus issue, stating that the appointment of the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, who had already set foot on the island, “opens a window of opportunity after many years,” writes Thanasis Fotiou in his Sunday article in Phileleftheros.
I feel like I’ve grown up with these pebbles that we cheerfully and carelessly throw into the lake with calm waters. And now, not only do these painless statements not impress me anymore, but they also make me angry. I feel they underestimate my intelligence.
How can it be true that the arrival of a UN representative in Cyprus, with the job description of “special envoy of the SG,” can indeed open a door that, with our own responsibility (something the steadfast ones can never admit…), we have closed not once or twice, with our own hands?
The other “pebble in the lake” is that we want our talks to start again “from where they left off at Crans Montana.” But how on earth will we start from somewhere we don’t know, and we don’t agree on where we “left off”?
At some point, we ended up in the dead zone of negotiations. Where your mark is somewhere between decay and immortality. And your concern is limiting the damage and how to play the blame game smartly.
Governmental balances, as they emerge from the respective elections in our place, largely determine the terms of the game, which goes by the worn-out title “Cyprus Issue.” We all know which, and especially whose, party still plays games at all levels, “by hereditary right!”
Fortunately, history has recorded these. Unfortunately, the future seems nonexistent without them!
An upheaval is required! But it takes guts, and I don’t know if they exist. And as Evangelos Venizelos said during his recent, very fruitful visit to the island last week, the solution to the Cyprus issue can only come from here, from Cyprus. Nowhere else.
In an interview on the island, he mentioned the good climate in Greek-Turkish relations, and he said that this climate can also help in the Cyprus issue. However, he reminded us of something he has been saying for years, and I think this is crucial:
“The solution to the Cyprus issue lies in Nicosia. In the hands of the Greek Cypriot National Council. If here, the Greek Cypriot political forces, society, and citizens, shape a plan that they truly believe in, that they really want, that they will vote on in a referendum, and organize it in detail and pursue it internationally, we may have much greater prospects for progress. I think we need to work much more on our internal front.”
The word that has scared and haunted us for years is “compromise.” We don’t have it in our culture. We consider retreat as defeat. Even if, year after year, our negotiating position weakens more and more – let’s not develop the reasons now. Most of them fall under the jurisdiction of a psychotherapist. And especially of the Freudian school…
Freud said the following two wise things. Firstly, that “in reality, people don’t want freedom because it entails responsibility, which scares many.”
And secondly, that “through your weaknesses, your strength will emerge”…
That’s all!
