Cyprus: my addiction

The piece below is an editorial from the excellent Ardin-Rixi site, which I've translated into English. It makes two very important points regarding Greece and Cyprus. Firstly, that Cyprus and the broader interests of Hellenism have been betrayed for decades by a Greek political elite that has believed in maintaining, above all else, good relations with foreign sponsors; and, secondly, if Greece seriously wants to establish itself as a power in the Eastern Mediterranean then it has to assert itself in Cyprus. See article in Greek here.

Greece's elite, satisfied with a circumscribed Hellenism, regard Cyprus as a 'weight' around Greece's neck, which harms relations with the big powers. This is why, as the songwriter Dionysis Savopoulos wrote, 'the wheeler-dealers hate Cyprus'. Because Cyprus and its incorporation into Hellenism's geopolitical considerations would transform Greece into a decisive actor in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Hellenism without Cyprus is impoverished; but the Greek elite don't care about this. Its main concern is not to be at odds with the big powers, which have always opposed a greater geopolitical role for Greece. This is why the Anglo-Americans, and then the Turks, vigorously opposed the union of Cyprus with Greece. And this is why, even today, they do what they can to weaken the unity and ties between Greece and Cyprus.

And it is no coincidence that, today, as a new Annan plan is being prepared for Cyprus, ties between Greece and Cyprus have reached a nadir and the Cyprus Republic is being led, for the first time, by a party – communist AKEL – that did not participate in the national liberation struggle, between 1955 and 1959.

All of those Greeks now 'tired' of the Cyprus problem – some of whom may have even, at one time, been well-disposed to Cyprus – would do well to reflect how, after the invasion of Cyprus, Turkey intensified its claims in the Aegean and in Thrace.