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Cyprus: Foreign inspired policies and ineffective lobbies

 

Has the time come to change all that?

 

As change is sweeping the “political carpets” in Capitol Hill, due to the worsening relations between Israel and Turkey , all eyes focus on the powerful Jewish Lobby in the United States of America and what new orientations it will adopt.

American politicians and think-tank circles and not necessarily only Jewish circles have at long last realised the dangerous threat Turkey imposes in the area of Eastern Mediterranean and even those who have created this “monster” are deeply regretting it…

Since July and August 1974 when with the “blessing” of the then British Labour Government of Harold Wilson with “Bloody Jim” (James Callaghan) as its Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Turkish Prime Minister B. Ecevit invaded Cyprus, the island remains to this very day under barbaric Turkish continued occupation.

(Britain agreed on 17July 1974 during a meeting in London between B.Ecevit and his entourage and Wilson/Callaghan, for Turkey to invade and Britain to undertake to stop Greece from helping Cyprus).    

Ever since and for 36 years Cyprus is not only a victim of Turkey’s barbaric invasion and continued occupation but also a victim of the inaptitude and political incompetence of its leaders who lack the courage and determination to demand and pursue with proper patriotism what was (and still is) expected of them: The Liberation of their country from Turkish occupation.    

They allowed themselves gradually to become  “useful” promoters (foremost with British machinations, the first such promoter chosen for the job by J. Callaghan on 16/8/1974, was Mr. Glafkos Clerides)  of the Turkish racist so called solution of Bizonal Bicommunal Federation to the detriment of their own people and their fundamental human rights…

Due to the Turkish flotilla fiasco with its so called “humanitarian” (IHH - Davudoglou) operation to Gaza (ironically the Turks also called their barbaric invasion of Cyprus a “peace operation”) not a day has gone by without a reference –especially in the American and Jewish Press - to the continued Turkish occupation of Cyprus and to Turkey’s sinful past and human rights abuses on a massive scale from the Genocide of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the hands of the Kemalists to the continued Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

This last Turkish endeavour to upgrade

Turkey , by - passing Israel , as THE super power of the area in the Eastern Mediterranean, at long last, has turned the tables in favour of Cyprus ! (Provided we make the right moves).  And no thanks to any efforts by the Greek “lobby” in Washington , I may add.

 

“We need a defence cooperation agreement with Israel”

At this moment and to start with, I refer the reader to the meaningful and timely article by veteran journalist leader writer of Greek Cypriot daily “Simerini” Mr. Savvas Iacovides published on 10 June 2010 titled “We need a defence cooperation agreement with Israel” http://cyprusactionnetwork.org/kypriako_kai_israel

http://www.sigmalive.com/simerini/columns/antistaseis/274399

http://cyprusactionnetwork.org/we_need_a_defence_cooperation_agreement_with_israel

http://www.rieas.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=46&Itemid=92

 

PSEKA INTENTIONS – ADVERTISEMENTS

 “… This new reality was discussed during the Hellenic Leadership Conference and certain steps were decided for a new approach of the Greek American Community regarding the Jewish lobby… Greek News is informed that a major meeting is planned between Greek and Jewish American leaders and advertisements paid by major Greek American organisations will be placed at the “New York Times” and the “Washington Post”.

Tasos Zambas, Alternate president of PSEKA (International Coordinating Committee Justice for Cyprus ) told “Greek News” that “the Greek American community should move quickly and take a full advantage of the latest development between Turkey and Israel . The hypocrisy of Turkey is unbelievable! They are presenting themselves as the peacemakers and supporters of human rights while they have been violating those same principles in Cyprus for the last 36 years and for decades they have been abusing the rights of the Kurds… another thing that we are planning is to expose the Turkish hypocrisy through the American media by having ads in the NY Times and Washington Post”. http://www.greeknewsonline.com/?p=12930#more-12930

Whilst agreeing fully with the concept expressed by PSEKA leadership for a closer alliance with the Jewish lobby in the USA , I believe such an alliance should primarily proceed on the terms outlined by Savvas Iacovides in his aforementioned article.  To be followed by a totally new, constructive and effective policy by PSEKA and the leadership of the Greek community in the USA having first determined and clarified their objectives vis-à-vis their demands over Cyprus. If their new “strategy” however will be confined to the come-back of the “full page ad folly” they better not bother at all. (More on this below).

 

BACK TO BASICS -  LIBERATION OF CYPRUS

A policy away from the Cyprus Government

Almost all references to Cyprus as a result of the flotilla fiasco were blatantly unequivocal about Turkey ’s invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus , the uprooting of 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homeland, the murders, the religious destruction in the occupied of our 550 churches. They brought the Cyprus issue BACK TO ITS BASIC ROOTS. Cyprus received more coverage of its suffering now, than during the recent past and the efforts of its “enlightenment managers”. And what is more – it came for free!

Therefore if the Greek “lobby” in America and PSEKA are to take advantage of this new political development in Washington they must abandon their double talk and go for a proper policy and demand what they ought to have promoted years ago: BACK TO BASICS - LIBERATION OF CYPRUS FROM THE TURKISH OCCUPATION, WITHDRAWAL OF ALL TURKISH TROOPS, ALL SETTLERS, RETURN OF ALL REFUGEES, RESTORATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS – FREEDOM COMES ONLY BY FULL LIBERATION OF THE ISLAND FROM TURKISH OCCUPATION AWAY FROM THE TURKISH RACIST BIZONAL BICOMMUNAL FEDERATION.

 

PSEKA must free itself of its disastrous engagement of following the policy of the Government of the day in Cyprus . The solution based on the Turkish/British Bizonal Bicommunal Federation is not a solution for

Cyprus and it was not designed to take the 200,000 refugees back to their homes. It was designed intentionally to create two separate states in Cyprus

with one fully in the hands of the Turks and the other under Turkish “guardianship” until that one is eventually taken over too. And that is why the people overwhelmingly rejected it on 24 April 2004. The Annan Plan was just a topping up of the racist Turkish (with British promotion) Bizonal Bicommunal Federation solution.

 

Dr. H. Kissinger

Even Dr. Henry Kissinger, during a very important meeting between him and British Foreign Office Officials which took place at the State Department on 27 August 1974, clearly told them that this solution (which the British decided to impose on Cyprus to please Turkey as early as the 16 August 1974 and had gone to Washington to ascertain if they had Kissinger’s backing on this) had no prospects of being achieved. The Greeks would never agree to it! The British asked if they would depend on his support. Kissinger replied that he would but did not believe in it. (At the time Kissinger needed the British bases in

Cyprus for the American U2 flights over the Israeli/Palestinian issue and not only).  30 years later, the Greeks of Cyprus proved him right!

 

Decision time for PSEKA and the Greek Community

Therefore, to proceed with no proper policy and direction based on instant enthusiasm such an alliance is doomed to failure. And can only add to the miserable ineffectiveness of the last 36 years, before it even takes off. It is decision time for PSEKA and the Greek community in America

. I remind all of Philip Christopher’s own words during his outburst on 29 August 1994 addressing the annual conference of Overseas Cypriots in Nicosia :

“.. We have failed due to the fallacies, of the fallacies of the Cyprus Governments of the past 20 years. Unfortunately the fallacies of the past 20 years have presented an image of a bicommunal problem and in all honesty created a vision of an unworkable unattainable solution. We hear words like Bicommunal, Federation, by-Federation, Confederation and others. We have confused our own organisations and our own people and other human rights activists with unnecessary dialogues, unnecessary guidelines and indexes and recently with Confidence Building Measures. We should return to the problem, back to the basic. Invasion and Occupation. It is a human rights issue and it is one that people can clearly understand and clearly support…”

 

Philip Christopher’s address at the same conference in 2008:

 

This time Mr. Philip Christopher forgot the fallacies and failures. He did not mention bizonal not even once. Why? Because he tried to combine two things: a) appease the newly elected President Mr. Christofias, who had already accepted (with British persuasion but without public mandate and contrary to the 24.4.2004 referendum results) in an agreement on the 23^rd of May 2008 with Turkish Cypriot leader M. A. Talat, the return of the Annan Plan provision of “two constituent states and partnership” and b) satisfy his co-patriots the Kyrenians,  who are opposed to the racist Turkish solution of Bizonal Bicommunal Federation (i.e. two constituent states and partnership). But he also confirmed the ineffectiveness and failures of the so called lobbying in America and elsewhere when he referred to world opinion.  I quote from his speech:

 

“…  The problem continues because the world opinion has chosen to forget the 200,000 refugees. They forget that there are still 43,000 Turkish troops on the island, they have forgotten the destruction of our churches of our cultural and religious heritage, that our homes are being occupied and they are being sold, they have forgotten that there are 100,000 settlers (now increased official figures 160,000) on the island…  it is imperative and it is essential to run a decent campaign, a public relations campaign, that will bring back to basics that the problem of Cyprus is the Turkish invasion and continued occupation of the island. It is essential and imperative that we shake world opinion so that we compliment your efforts to reach a solution that is both viable and fair.

There is no question that we need a united Cyprus . But no solution can be viable my friends, until every Cypriot citizen, whether they are Greeks, Turkish, Armenian, Russians, Serbians or others, they have equal rights and are under democratic principles and the European Law. There is no question that we need a solution but that solution we have to make sure that we do not compromise the principles and ideals that we believe in.

I was born in Kyrenia and I want to go back to Kyrenia, I want to live in Kyrenia, I want to buy a house, I want a boat and want to be elected in Kyrenia. There is  no federal government anywhere in the world in the USA or Europe that prevents its citizens from living where they want, doing business where they want from buying or selling their homes and living under human dignity and democratic principles of Europe, the USA and the freedom loving world. We know that the key to the solution is Ankara . And many of you will say that no matter how much money we spend on public relations and if you remember I was ridiculed in 1989 when I had the courage to suggest that the Cyprus Government should spend 50 and 100 million dollars towards public relations.

We have to continue to present our problem back to the basic roots. A problem of invasion and occupation. There is no question in anyone’s mind that we support our president Mr. Christofias towards his negotiations. But it is imperative that we start this public relations. We have started overseas. For the last 34 years many of us have spent millions of dollars projecting

Cyprus all over the world. We have people in this room like Nikos Mouyiaris, Peter Papanicolaou, Andrew Athens Harris  Sofoclides who have spent the money… I call upon the millionaires of Cyprus, and we have many in Cyprus, I call upon business people, the time has come to undertake a serious campaign of public relations away from the Cyprus Government to demand the rights and the democratic principles that all Europeans live under. The Greek Cypriots in any negotiations and any solutions cannot become second class citizens of the European Union…Mr. President we admire you… the only thing I have to tell you is that we have promises to keep, promises to our parents,  promises to our grandparents and promises to our children. That we will go back to Kyrenia and see a united Cyprus.” (Highlighted by the writer). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjnreEUfWrM

 

I strongly believe Mr.  Philip Christopher’s heart was and still is in the right place though.  But unfortunately just as blood and water do not mix so the return of the Kyrenians (as well as the rest of the Greek Cypriot refugees) cannot be achieved with the racist Bizonal Bicommunal Federation. 

Mr. Christopher is faced with an opportunity and a challenge to practise what he preached: To start this imperative public relations campaign bringing the Cyprus issue back to its basic roots away from the Cyprus Government but also away from the Turkish racist bizonal federation.

 

Support for racist Bizonal is not genuine support

And to do that they do not even need any money from the Cyprus Government. They seem to have enough of their own. Even more so if they make the right moves towards a proper alliance with the Jewish Lobby.  Because all that Cyprus needs from this powerful force is SUPPORT in pushing the Turkish invading troops back to Turkey taking with them all the Anatolian squatters they imported into our homes and country. The Jewish Lobby can also help in stopping the illegal frenzy buying of occupied land by Israeli companies, British companies with Jewish connections and interests and the massive developments in our  occupied Karpasia area.

The Greek community ought to trade carefully their money and votes in return for an effective support for Cyprus on the above issues coupled with a Defence Cooperation Agreement between Cyprus and Israel .  Their vote and money should go only to those who are clearly committed in helping Cyprus on the above grounds and not wasted on those who get away with paying lip-service to Cyprus

whilst they support Turkish interests. And foremost  their “friendship” should not be based on their support of the Turkish racist Bizonal Bicommunal Federation.

The Greek Cypriots gave no mandate to any President more so to late T. Papadopoulos and present President D. Christofias to proceed with bizonal solutions, two state partnerships or with “generous offers” to the Turks. Their decision of 24 April 2004 stands loud and clear.

A strong alliance with the Jewish Lobby on concrete foundations can help

Cyprus

tremendously and bring a second political change in the Eastern Mediterranean by toppling all the unacceptable solutions promoted by the British and the Turks through the United Nations with American support.  Then the Greek Lobby can be in a position to demand from the Cyprus Government of the day to abide first by International Law and respect human rights by demanding what is right and proper for the people it has been elected to serve and not what London or Ankara or others seek to impose regardless.  Then and only then, Mr. Christopher’s promises to our parents, grandparents and children may have some decent hope of materialising…

 

Not another “full-page ad folly”!

The come-back of that old “full-page ad folly” however is not encouraging the least. To this effect let me take you back in time.

I refer all concerned to one of Christopher Hitchens’ articles published in Odyssey magazine in

Athens

in November 1995. I quote from his long article: “… Then there is the occasional humiliation of what is known in the trade as “the full-page folly”. It costs up to $56,000 to take a whole page of The New York Times as an advertisement. Every now and then, the baffled reader of that newspaper is flipping through and sees an old photograph of a refugee camp in Cyprus, say, or a coin minted by Philip of Macedon. Underneath is some text, usually about half of it in grammatical English, stating an inalienable Greek claim. There might be the name of some indecipheral organization, or an exhortation to write to the President of the

United States and tell him all about how you feel.

And that’s it. No follow-through; no education; no “enlightenment”. This really upsets the hard-working Hellenic press officer I cited earlier whose whole annual budget is a fraction of the above figure and who can hardly take an honest reporter for a souvlaki. “There are commissions on those full-page ads. That’s where the money goes. It’s everybody taking their cut. It’s a rousfeti”. I feel his pain”.

http://lobbyforcyprus.org/press/press1998-1940/Ody1195.htm

 

PSEKA and the Greek Lobby in America are in a good position to help Cyprus enormously if they can only land back on earth again. It is not their millions of dollars that will save Cyprus although they can prove useful if properly spent, but foremost proper strategy and decision making, hard and constructive work and humble co-operation with all: Back to basics away from the Cyprus Government. The bloody anniversary of 20^th July is only weeks away. Can PSEKA and the Greek Community in America show their anger in strength and in grass root level against the continued Turkish occupation of half of our country by openly demonstrating and demanding “TURKISH TROOPS OUT OF CYPRUS” taking with them as many congressmen and senators who support Cyprus and who are equally angry and frustrated with Turkish intransigence and aggressiveness? That will be a start to the right direction.

 

Fanoulla Argyrou

Researcher/Journalist/author

 

London

16.6.2010

 

c.c. President, Secretary and Committee of Refugee Association “Adouloti Kyrenia”

Nicosia

–

Cyprus

c.c. Cyprus Action Network of America

c.c. Movement for Freedom and Justice  in

Cyprus

c.c.

Savvas Iacovides

, Simerini newspaper

Cyprus

 

Related articles:

 

How Turkey ’s loss could be a gain for Cyprus

published in The London Daily News, 11 June, 2010

 

http://www.thelondondailynews.com/turkey’s-loss-could-gain-cyprus-p-4224.html?osCsid=hgca54cf3c8jr0uf9e1uk4e4j4

 

Hello, Turkey ? By AARON SCHOCK published in The Jerusalem Post, 06 June, 2010

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=177584

 

 

Israel and Turkey: It's Complicated

The flotilla foul-up pits former friends against each other.

By Christopher Hitchens published in SLATE, 07 June, 2010

http://www.slate.com/id/2256168/

 

Professors Want Action Against Turkey published in The Yeshiva World News, 09 June 2010

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/61559/Professors-Want-Action-Against-Turkey.html

 

 

Turkey 's Erdogan bears responsibility in flotilla fiasco published in The Washington Post, 05 June, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060404806.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

 

 

Open season on the Jewish state By SHMULEY BOTEACH published in The Jerusalem Post , 07 June, 2010

 

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=177764

 

 

Jihadi State Rising by Anav Silverman published in FrontPage Magazine, 09 June, 2010

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/09/turkey-the-next-iran/

 

God Dammit! By Dana Agmon published in The Huffington Post, 01 June 2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-agmon/god-dammit_b_595730.html

 

 

Stop the hypocrisy about Israel By David Frum, CNN contributor, published in CNN.com, 01 June 2010

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/01/frum.gaza.flotilla.israel/index.html?hpt=T1

 

The New Wannabe Ottomans By Victor Davis Hanson, published in Jewish World Review, 10 June 2010

 

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0610/hanson061010.php3

 

Helen Thomas, Turkey , and the Liberation of Israel By Victor Davis Hanson, published in National Review Online, 11 June 2010

 

http://article.nationalreview.com/436085/helen-thomas-turkey-and-the-liberation-of-israel/victor-davis-hanson

 

 

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