The country is in deep shit, yes, but doom isn’t looming over. After all, scatology and eschatology are two different things, even if their root is the same. Greece shall overcome it's Europe and the Euro that might plunge like a stray meteorite. But we will have the opportunity to discuss these topics another time as they don’t seem destined to go away soon.

This edition, like every May issue the last three years, is devoted to Cyprus and Cypriot Americans. As most of you know, Cyprus, an independent country, member of the UN, with Greek inhabitants constituting 80% of the population, and the remaining 20% Turks and others, was invaded by Turkey in 1974 and since then about 37% of her territory remains under occupation, with about 40,000 Turkish soldiers and more than 150,000 colonists creating and maintaining new facts on the ground. As we speak, Cypriot-born Turks are a minority in the occupied areas and not few are suffering constant harassment and threats from the occupiers. About half of the original Turkish Cypriot population has emigrated to Great Britain. And if the situation is becoming unbearable for the Turkish Cypriots, whom Turkey sought to “protect” – it’s not a coincidence that pimps use the same language – by invading the small Mediterranean island country in 1974, what one can say for the about 150,000 Greek Cypriot refuges who had to run for their lives as the invading Turks were advancing! (It is documented that the Turkish military chose from its ranks the worst elements they could find: criminals, bloodthirsty Kurds, and other mountain Turks whose ancestors barely 60 years before had massacred millions of Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and threw them into battle, against the civilian population mainly, as the Cyprus army was reduced to almost nothing before the invasion, thanks to an array of stupid political decisions.) Refugees, not only had to start anew, either in the remaining half of the Cyprus Republic or as immigrants to many other countries, but many are still waiting to hear about the fate of relatives, in the case of more than 1,600 Greek Cypriots (among them American citizens) whose traces have disappeared after the brutal invasion. At the same time, a new generation of refugees has been born and raised away from their ancestral places, enhancing the de facto Turkification of the northern, occupied part of Cyprus, as their connection to the land weakens.

This is more or less the tragic history of Cyprus, a historically-Hellenic land that fought another brutal occupation, the British in the ‘50s, with the hope of joining Greece, accepting at the end independent status as a way to get rid from her English oppressors (for more info on the Cyprus struggle against colonialism go to http://www.neomagazine.com/2009_05_may/_perixscope.html). Today, new challenges have emerged as another round of talks to reunite the island is under way. Although the recent victory in the occupied territories of an old Ankara regime puppet Dervic Eroglou has been perceived as a major setback, the negotiations will continue because both the US and Britain seem eager to close the case. While success (in their terms) is far from certain, it is expected that they would exert unbearable pressure on the Republic of Cyprus, the victim, to accept unacceptable things in the name of …peace.

At this point, and after 37 years of on and off hopes for “a just and viable” solution, getting off the beaten path, with all the risk it entails, seems to be the only option. When someone is terminally ill, the doctors try various things, even not sanctioned by the FDA. Old formulas and repetition of slightly variegated cycles of talks, only serve as a ceremonial reminder that the problem is there and the patient is dying.

First of all, the basis of every negotiation must always be that this is a staple case of military invasion, occupation and ethnic cleansing. By conceding and making it look like an intercommunal dispute, the essence of the problem which can lead to a just solution is lost. It won’t take long before Turks are perceived as victims and all this talk about lifting the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots implies just that. Having made the negotiating basis clear, Cyprus can discuss reunification in the form of a bi-communal federation, but certain things need to be taken care of so that it will remain so. First of all, it’s the Greeks that must insist that in any final settlement no Turks will be allowed to settle in the south or own property and in no case shall Turkish Cypriots be allowed to vote in the Greek constituent republic. So far it’s the Turks that are asking this, demanding an exception from the EU aquis communitaire that calls for free movement and residence for all European Union citizens in the entirety of the EU. If that won’t be the case, the Turkish component republic in Cyprus will eventually be flooded by more colonists from Turkey and it will be a matter of time before they will become the majority on the island. Imagine if they have the right to settle on the Greek side and later have the right to vote. In 20 years Cyprus will be Turkish in essence.

The Cyprus Republic must demand the immediate return of Famagusta and the strip of territory provisioned in the Anan Plan that would allow most of the Greek refuges to return to their homes. In cases such as Keryneia, Karpassia and some historic sites, Nicosia should demand a special status even within the Turkish zone and the same status should afford to the Turkish Cypriots that have returned or will return in their villages on the Greek side.

One will wonder how and why Turkey would accept a solution along those lines. The answer isn’t simple, but Ankara could be more willing to consider such a proposal if in return she would be granted sovereignty over one of the two British military bases in Cyprus. If a new Republic is created, Britain immediately looses sovereignty over her two bases, a remnant of colonialism and a disgrace to modern civility. The other British base should go to Greece, so that the Greek Cypriots will have a psychological assurance, since Turkey will remain on the island within her base. We must always remember that Turkey occupied northern Cyprus by war and Cypriots, rightly, chose to deal with the problem through diplomacy. In that equation of things, it would be naive for Cypriots to look or hope for a restoration of the status quo ante or something similar to that. And since Turkey cannot be forced to make concessions (US won’t do it and Greece with Cyprus can’t do it) the only way to consider a solution seriously is only by enticing her through rewards that can also serve as safe saving mechanisms for “retreating”. No Turkish prime minister can sell to his or her supervising military establishment and the Turkish people the idea of “abandoning” Cyprus. However, if Turkey is to gain sovereign territory in the form of a former British military base and at the same time a constituent Turkish Cypriot component state has been established on the island, he or she can claim victory and at the same time to remove a major diplomatic obstacle from Turkish efforts to join Europe.

Needless to say that Britain and the US because of Britain, won’t support this plan easily, but if Cyprus with the help of Greece (perhaps by threatening to completely derail Turkey’s prospects to join EU) and a nod from Ankara make public such a proposal, the pressure will be too much on Britain and the US not to ignore it. Anyway, Britain won’t have any moral basis to object to such a solution, because she militantly supported the now defunct Anan Plan that provisioned for a new Cypriot state, making thus any British claim to the military bases in Cyprus obsolete.

Again, these are just ideas, food for thought in the best case, no prescriptions for solution. Besides, it’s the Cypriots themselves who will have to decide what kind of settlement they are looking for, otherwise no matter which one is imposed on them it won’t be to their liking. As author Andreas Chrysafis points out in his commentary on page 16, Cyprus needs “to break down old dogmatic barriers and reach out for new goals”. Stalemate in thought, stagnation in ideas is the worse thing it can happen to a person or country (US and Greece are not exceptions at this point) and bodes ill for both the present and future.

---