We Are Our Own Bad Daemon
Returning from London, Speaker of the House of Representatives Demetris Christofias made another fiery speech against the "bad daemon" of Cyprus, that is, Great Britain, which is responsible for everything that has happened on our island in the last half century. Mr Speaker, who is also a Doctor of History, said that many of the negative points of the Annan plan bear the stamp of Lord David Hannay "who now writes books, too, damning us [Greek Cypriots]".
To begin with, one would expect from of a Doctor of History a greater respect towards books, whoever the author may be. Also, one could point out that History teaches that it is internal factors which determine the future of a country. Foreign factors infiltrate only where there is an internal vacuum. Let us try to give a small sample of
the 1963 period, which Mr Christofias referred to, in the faint hope that we shall thereby contribute to a constructive, and not an aphoristically damning, approach to History:
March 21st, 1963: Foreign Minister Spyros Kyprianou meets the British Colonial Secretary, Duncan Sands, and relays to him Makarios' suggestion for the abolishment of the Treaties of Allianceand Guarantee. According to the relevant memorandum, Makarios believed that Greece as well as Turkey should not continue to be powers that have a special status under the Treaty of Guarantee, but Britain on her own should take up those duties". That is, three years after the ousting of the colonialists, Makarios was asking of Britain, the "bad daemon", to return, so as to rid Cyprus of the interventions of the mother countries.
December 25th: Polycarpos Yiorkadjis' and Tassos Papadopoulos'
"Organisation", and Raouf Denktash's TMT, drowned Cyprus in blood: skismishes, killings, barbed wire and separation of Greeks from Turks. Turkey threatens to invade. Makarios addresses himself to Greece, which cannot respond. At the headquarters of the Organisation, panic reigns. Makarios, enraged, walks [a quarter kilometre] from the Presidential Palace to the Government Housing Estate where the headquarters was housed, to demand explanations from the leaders of the Organisation. Yorkadjis hides behind a curtain, leaving Glafkos Clerides to pacify the Archbishop, who bangs his pastoral staff on the conference table, threatening Gods and... daemons!
December 27th (01:00am): Turkish warships are sighted off the nothern coast. Turkey threatens to invade. Makarios addresses himself to British Prime Minister Douglas Hume and asks for help.
December 28th: British Colonial Secretary Duncan Sands expeditedly arrives in Cyprus. Makarios invites Britain to take over the internal security of Cyprus, as a final effort to stave off the Turkish invasion. British troops from the Sovereign Bases, and more from Tripoli, Libya, take up policing duties all over Cyprus.
December 30th: After a negotiating marathon, Sands, Makarios,
Dr Fazil Kuchuk, Clerides and Denktash sign a memorandum defining a neutral zone dividing the Greek and Turkish sectors of Nicosia, which would be controlled by the British. This line, drawn on the map with a green pencil, has since been known as the Green Line!
The British did not return to Cyprus on a matter of principle, and neither were they missionaries. They came because that was what their interests dictated. Otherwise, they would have let us slaughter ourselves. But the disaster of 1963 was not caused by the British, as in the fairy tales we like to fool ourselves with. It was the consequence of the attempt by our leadership to rid themselves of the Zurich agreements, which they considered the bad daemon of our real and imagined problems. Just recently, President Tassos Papadopoulos admitted that we had reckoned wrong in 1963, and Zurich was not a daemon, but a blessing from God! But the bird is flown, as it will fly now. And we will be cursing the British, because, anyway, today - like then - some daemon must exist to take the blame for the consequences of our own inadequacies.
Makarios Drousiotis
Politis
08/02/2005