Menelaos Menelaou, Greek Cypriot Negotiator for the Cyprus Problem, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss whether there is still a chance to restart talks to resolve the Cyprus problem even if Ankara seems to be shutting down the door to a solution to his difficult problems. line condition for a two state solution.
I see myself once more each night time bent over the radio, correcting the bugs on the “BBC” concerning the Cypriot occasions. From the center of June, the battle between Makarios and Ioannidis’s junta grew to become open, undisguised. Within the diplomatic workplaces all over the world there was little doubt: “Kissinger in Washington, Ioannidis in Athens and Etcevit in Ankara, Makarios goes.” A coup in Cyprus equals an invasion of Turkey. Widespread place of every thing. The mechanism of formal and casual collusion was arrange. (…) I do not wish to describe my emotions that day, July 15.
They belonged to the absurd and the sacred. If I had high-powered explosives, I might strap them on to explode the traitorous “unionists” within the Pentagon. Instantly, with out contemplating social gathering commitments and left-wing ideologies, I borrowed cash with a purpose to get right down to Crete with the “Olympic”. Within the warmth, overtly, with none precautions. At Elliniko, after the check-in, on the exit for boarding, I’m approached, in a low voice, by two airport safety officers. I shouted: “Get misplaced, I will enlist.” The folks in line supported me. An outdated man with a beard thundered, “Disgrace on you, traitors!” They misplaced it. They left, supposed to tell their superior. They had been paralyzed.
On the flight a number of fellow passengers had been loudly cursing the traitors. At Heraklion airport they’d been notified, they went to escort me out, the gang had gone wild and so they had been left me with surprise and embarrassment. I went down with imprecise expectations of a preferred rebellion. Repetition of the Venezuelan “Nationwide Protection” Motion. Formation of a Thessaloniki-style authorities and basic mobilization for the protection of the Republic of Cyprus. Now I noticed with my very own eyes the junta collapsing.
(…)On Tuesday (July 23, 1974) within the morning, the colonel Bravakos we all know from Kavala, Ioannidis’s observer first within the workplace of Papadopoulos after which within the workplace of the president, Normal Gizikis, began calling the political leaders to the Presidential Palace. For 3 days he had managed to isolate the overall together with the opposite protopalikaras of Ioannidis. The attention-grabbing factor is that he known as the political leaders via the individuals who had monitored their phone communications with them. After which, Bravakos will participate as secretary(!) within the essential assembly of Gizikis and the leaders of the Armed Forces with the main politicians.
On the night time of Tuesday to Wednesday, July 23 to 24, Athenians poured into the streets. The nice celebration of Freedom. At Syntagma, outdoors “Nice Britain”, I noticed Ilias Ilios and launched myself to him. He was making an attempt to indicate that he enthusiastically participated within the rising nationwide unity. Konstantinos Karamanlis, who shall be sworn in by Archbishop Seraphim – a classmate of Charilaos in Karditsa -, earlier than Gizikis, will exclude the revered and sober Ilias from the federal government and the Left from nationwide unity! We participated wholeheartedly on this nightly celebration of the Republic.
We successively welcomed the imprisoned comrades, the exiles, the self-exiles, Miki, Melina, Nikos Koundouros, Charilaos Florakis, and eventually Andreas Papandreou…
After the inauguration of Karamanlis, I walked again from Syntagma to Kato Patisia, finding out the comfortable faces of the folks, particularly a pleasant younger couple who adopted the identical path to Koliatsou Sq.. They flew as if free of a heavy weight and iron chains. And but once I obtained speaking to them, I spotted that within the junta they spent their greatest years in non-public, they loved their love, they did not even go right down to the “Polytechneio”, however they listened to the “Free Radio Station of the Free Greeks”. I used to be strolling at daybreak and my preliminary pleasure changed into one thing else.
The Worry of Freedom? The Agony of Decisions? The junta had simplified our lives and our wrestle. Eradicate dilemmas. Freeze the large and small unanswered questions. Now they’re coming again like a twister. Which Greece? Which Left? The place is the New Greek Left that I dreamed of once I first set foot in Athens? Which means will I take? Ought to I end my research with the thesis and comply with the engineering career? Ought to I return and work in Crete? To comply with the trail of science, my deepest repulsion? That’s, ought to I lastly exit with a scholarship?
Of “idea” and writing? Of politics by different means? Democracy makes the quick future complicated. Within the junta, quite the opposite, there was a transparent goal: its overthrow. On this lovely summer season morning, the primary of Freedom, a skinny mist unfold over my eyes and I needed to dispel it, to see the form of the brand new section of my life. With these worries I went to mattress at seven within the morning on July 24, 1974, precisely 4 months earlier than I turned 23, however I did not have time to sleep or suppose.
An hour later the bell saved ringing. It was not the milkman, however the Occasion! At ten o’clock within the accounting workplace of Kostas Triantafyllos, not my good friend from the Polytechnic, however a veteran, uncle of Sotis Triantafyllos, there can be a gathering of some non-imprisoned executives for the quick publication of a “widespread” newspaper of the Left. We known as it New Greece. That is the place I’ll commit myself within the first days after the autumn of the dictatorship. The director is outdated Simos. I may also “rent” my “connection” with Miki in Paris, the journalist Giorgos Gato, answerable for his Press Workplace, the New Left, along with Theodoros Pagalos, a former member of the “Lambrakis”, grandson of the general-dictator.
I gave Giorgos the knowledge to put in writing the primary book-chronicle about “Polytechnio ’73”. We successively welcomed the imprisoned comrades, the exiles, the self-exiles, Miki, Melina, Nikos Koundouros, Charilaos Florakis, and eventually Andreas Papandreou… An enormous second wave got here and took us far-off. We aren’t, as we expect, the protagonists of our lives. We felt free to outline our personal path, however in situations, circumstances and relationships that didn’t rely solely on us. Randomness additionally performs its half.
#Postcolonization #Betrayal #Daybreak #Freedom
Nicosia, July 2024, Priamou Road. The road named after the king of Troy belongs to the municipality of Agios Dometios, most of which remains to be occupied. Priamou Road stretches for a size of 10 kilometers and ends at a cease signal. On one facet of it, the homes are inhabited, on the opposite facet not. Deserted disorderly on that bleak day in July 1974, the occupants have been pushed into exile. Then time stopped. And as we speak the highway is beneath the sovereignty of the United Nations.
On this avenue lived Mrs. Katerina, seven months pregnant on the time. Within the “desert” nation” of Priamou avenue the place as we speak one can solely attain from one entry level. Once we get out of the automotive, her look comes alive. She is on the lookout for her house. It detects…
“Proper right here we noticed the paratroopers, they have been falling by the handfuls” says Mrs. Katerina (left) strolling along with her sister on the road that was their home. Worry returns 50 years later and the nightmare awakens. Of their minds all of the recollections are woke up as if it have been yesterday
“Proper right here we may see the paratroopers, they have been dropping by the dozen” he says in “Step”. “We did not perceive what was occurring. The neighbors have been shouting “cover”. We run and my sisters and I enter a makeshift hen coop, making an attempt to maintain our cool till we work out what precisely is happening. Throughout voices, chaos, cries, panic… The boys at battle, the ladies and kids again.”
On Priamou Road, on the “residential facet of the road”, there are only some residents left. Additionally they left in 1974 however then returned after they discovered that their very own homes had not been occupied. Mrs. Katerina cautiously approaches her home and appears hesitantly by way of the damaged glass entrance door. He sees the mirror, a chair, rusted furnishings, indicators of desecration and abandonment. He grimaces and appears away. She then walks over to the place she and her sister hid that day… She stops and appears. All of the recollections are waking up in her thoughts as in the event that they have been yesterday. Silently and with sluggish steps she walks in the direction of the north. There he meets Mrs. Irini. He lived in the home throughout the road. They’re redoing the suggestions as they’re 50 years away.
Principal Irene and her husband moved to Britain on the outbreak of battle, leaving their house. Nevertheless, when over time they noticed that it was not occupied by the invaders, they determined to show again. Two years had already handed. “We left through the invasion, we got here again, we fought to get our house again – the Turks did not take it, we had a struggle with the United Nations which is throughout the road. This occurred in 1976. Subsequent to our home there was our outpost. It was not beneath Turkish occupation nor precisely within the United Nations zone.” is narrated.
On one facet of Priamou avenue the homes are inhabited, on the opposite facet not
As we cross Priamou Road, it’s as if as we speak meets yesterday. Mrs. Katerina factors to a home she acknowledges: “It belongs to Mrs. Sofia, her son is lacking and the home is deserted,” she says. Worry returns 50 years later, the nightmare awakens. “Do not go additional inside… I am afraid… They will see us… Possibly we’re in peril… Sure, right here on this room we hid… Bombs from the air have been coming from all over the place… A distant relative got here and took us, 13 of us obtained right into a small automotive that was for 2! » she goes on to name on these along with her to not proceed to the Lifeless Zone – the zone beneath the management of the United Nations. “Come again, do not go ahead, the Turks will see us» he says once more, to revive the reminiscence once more: “The hen home had a low ceiling, we ran instantly. I do not understand how many individuals we slot in there, none of us knew what was occurring. I used to be afraid for the infant in my stomach”.
Additional down, we meet Mr. Miltiadis, who lived within the neighborhood. Mrs. Katerina reintroduces herself and Mr. Miltiadis encourages with an exclamation of nice shock. He remembers and recounts… “We hid in the home, turned off the lights in order that they could not see that there have been folks inside, then timidly walked to the adjoining police station… We spent the night time there. We felt protected there, however we could not keep the subsequent day. Thus we returned to our house, which was not occupied by the Turks. We took our issues and left, we gave it up. We could not keep there. We have been afraid. We left, rented in different areas removed from right here. We got here on occasion to see what was occurring, to see in the event that they lastly took our home. After we noticed that it was on the facet that didn’t cross to the conquerors, we returned in 1981. On the alternative facet of the road they took the homes.”
He raises his hand and factors to a spot on the alternative plot. “There they made a trench and the Turks have been strolling. There was additionally the outpost of TURDYK (s.s.: Turkish Cypriot Pressure) and that’s the reason they didn’t proceed to occupy our homes (..). For 43 years now we have been dwelling in concern, however that is our house, that is our property. We had simply constructed our home simply earlier than the invasion once we have been compelled to depart. Once we returned, we discovered it virtually destroyed by the bombs, however we rebuilt it little by little.”
The lifetime of the “critics” continues with the identical photographs. Day-after-day, United Nations automobiles cross exterior their homes, on Priamou Road, and do a verify. “We can not drive previous the doorway of our home. We enter from the again highway. It is paradoxical what we stay, however over time we obtained used to it.”
However on the similar time they fear about tomorrow. Their youngsters have constructed their lives away from Priamou Road. After they depart themselves, the place shall be deserted. The brand new guys do not wish to keep right here. Mrs. Katerina needs to return to her new life, the place nothing bears witness to the invasion, the occupation, the destruction… however inside her, the pictures and recollections stay indelible.
#Cyprus #Turkish #Invasion #Priamou #Road #Nicosia #years #after..
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted a message on the web for the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus: “Half a century because the nationwide tragedy of Cyprus. We honor these misplaced. And we declare a European state, united, based mostly on UN resolutions. No international occupation military. And because the poet desires it: “A inexperienced leaf thrown into the ocean”.
Half a century because the nationwide tragedy of Cyprus. We honor these misplaced. And we declare a European state, united, based mostly on UN resolutions. No international occupation military. And because the poet desires it: “A inexperienced leaf thrown into the ocean”. pic.twitter.com/pVKtL9NTO9
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) July 20, 2024
#Mitsotakis #put up #fiftieth #anniversary #Turkish #invasion #Cyprus
Diplomatic sources instantly after the statements of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the two-state resolution in Cyprus, referred to the Cyprus subject and the everlasting place of the Greek authorities and the Republic of Cyprus.
In accordance with these sources: “The Greek positions on the Cyprus subject have been clearly formulated and glued for many years. They’re expressed collectively by the Greek Prime Minister and the Greek authorities. Greece, in solidarity with the Republic of Cyprus, stays firmly dedicated to the answer of the reunification of Cyprus, inside the framework of the choices of the United Nations Group, and can proceed to take action. There may be not, nor could possibly be, a query of deviating from this place in accordance with worldwide regulation. Moreover, the Prime Minister might be appointed tonight from Nicosia”.
Earlier in a press release on the day and the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Presidency of the Republic additionally issued an announcement. The next is the assertion:΅
“Fifty years have handed right this moment because the barbaric invasion of the Turkish troops in Cyprus, a time period throughout which the occupation of greater than a 3rd of its territory continues, in violation of any idea of worldwide legality.
We don’t neglect the heroes, Cypriots and Greeks, who resisted the invader with unparalleled bravery and sacrificed their lives preventing a superior enemy, whereas we proceed to face by the households of the lacking, till the destiny of all of them is ascertained.
The ultimate vindication of the sacred Cypriot wrestle, by discovering a simply and sustainable resolution primarily based on the United Nations Choices and the European acquis, is our high pursuit and our debt to historical past”.
The President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou attended the Excessive Priestly Memorial for individuals who fell throughout the coup and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, on the Athens Cathedral after which laid a wreath on the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.
#Diplomatic #circles #firmly #dedicated #reunification #Cyprus
NICOSIA
Other than one scene, which I may need imagined or seen in a nightmare, I do not keep in mind something from the Turkish invasion. I used to be born in July of 1971, and my technology basically grew up in a warfare that they did not know however that, for us, by no means ended. The shadow of that storm coated each minute of our childhood. He additionally chased us in our desires. Particularly these of us who grew up in Nicosia inside the partitions, though we skilled the division extra intensely than anybody, because it was and stays the one settlement on the island that has been divided, we lived in a metropolis, half higher, which in 1974 discovered its rhythm once more in some day and evening. The outdated metropolis had already been divided by the “fussaries”, the bloody inter-communal riots of ’63.
The outdated Nicosia, due to this fact, the half we might see, since till 2003 nobody, no matter nationality, might enter the Occupied Territories if they’d a Greek or Armenian surname, it was not solely a mosaic of Historical past and worldviews, with the excavations, the Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic church buildings, the mosques, and even the Masonic Corridor, the biggest of its Lodges. It was, above all, a really cramped, post-’63, miniature of society.
Within the historic constructing of the previous Faneromeni Ladies’ College, the primary women’ faculty on the island – inbuilt 1859 through the Turkish occupation – my main faculty was working. I went to highschool there. Leaving the primary entrance, the mausoleum of the Nationwide Martyrs, Archbishop Kyprianos and three Metropolitans, who had been massacred on July 9, 1821 as a result of their involvement within the Revolution. Behind him is the church of Faneromeni with the catechisms of OHEN and subsequent to it’s Muson, my father’s store and the Armenian textile outlets.
Should you went out the again door once more, you’d discover the shoe outlets of Lefkonos, a breath away from the Agora. On the proper, the bookstore “To Fos” on Trikoupi Avenue, the place mustachioed goddesses and clergymen used to come back and go, additional down a gown tailor and some steps additional, Soutsou Avenue. One of many alleys with the various brothels, into which males entered “to chop a highway”. His purpose, three minutes from the Archdiocese. All collectively. At each nook a vagrant with a cart blared the identical factor each day: one other fruit, recent airani, mahalepi with rose solely in summer season…
This surreal crowding was dominated by one thing much more fascinating: useless ends. Should you got here out of the aspect exit of the varsity and handed the hawker who, unthinkable in the present day, offered toys hanging on wires with pegs on the fence, you noticed them instantly. Aeschylus, Asclepius, Alcibiades and so many others crammed into some neoclassical with nailed home windows or in barrels with the inscription “ALT! Turkish Occupied Space’ streets. What did my roads seem like beneath? What life was like there, I questioned, believing that the “opposites” had been evil and barbaric, though my father, who had spent three months as a prisoner in Adana, informed us that persons are the identical in all places. In adolescence, in some unspecified time in the future the unhooking eliminated the troopers right here and there. Like others, I used to climb rooftops to see the desert with none specific threat – lastly!.. – Line. World and life by no means.
The roadblocks opened in 2003. I went by with a map to lastly be part of my paths at 32. The names had modified, it was infinitely harder than I imagined, and on the opposite aspect camps had blocked many passes. The primary makes an attempt led me to streets that I didn’t know and that didn’t wish to know me, in a international metropolis that I struggled to maintain acquainted.
At 53, all the things and nothing has modified. I went again – shut – to the outdated metropolis, the muezzin performs from MP3s, however nonetheless listens to them when he wakes me up. Useless ends? There. I hardly ever go to them. I’ve come to phrases with their existence and that, sure, bothers me. Most of them I nonetheless do not know what they disguise, and the one beneath, though I acquired to realize it effectively, stays inaccessible.
My metropolis was left divided. It has misplaced that vibrancy and crawls nonchalantly by time with repaired however often lifeless buildings housing organizations or in disrepair harboring miscreants from 1000’s of miles away.
Generally, after I get upset, I run again to cover. I breathe within the reminiscence of the scent from Matthew’s kitchen, the freshly roasted espresso of Laikos Kafekoptei and the shavings of the carpenters who had been housed within the floor flooring of those that had been afraid and left in 1974 or belonged to Turkish Cypriots.
A tough life, however nonetheless a terrific dowry. Double. Triple. Even in half a metropolis.
#Cyprus #Useless #ends #roadblocks #divided #metropolis
