Speech by Andreas Mavroyiannis at the AKEL event on Cyprus Independence Day
29 September 2022, “Anagenisi” Refugee Local Club, Limassol
While as far as other countries are concerned the anniversary of their independence is a day of celebration, for Cyprus it is a day of reflection and contemplation.
The reason is quite simple. It is called Turkish occupation. Cyprus through bloody struggles won its independence but a few years later through an equally bloody course culminating in the betrayal of 1974 fell victim to the Turkish invasion and to this day remains divided with barbed wires separating territory and people.
Although so many years have passed by since that period which determined our country’s future, we have unfortunately not all managed to fully realize and comprehend what happened and indeed why it happened. Most importantly, we often seem not to have learnt from the conclusions that are drawn.
I myself can barely remember the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. However, I certainly remember the events that etched my soul forever. The time when the English were bringing my father in handcuffs to my brother’s funeral. And each time I think about the heroism with which our people shook off the colonial yoke with their sacrifices. How many sacrifices, how much self-denial by a people who dared to take on a mighty adversary, who stood upright before the gallows, who did not surrender even though they were surrounded and who did not give up even though they knew the battle was lost.
On the occasion of the anniversary of Cyprus Independence, we pay tribute once again to all those who fought for freedom and democracy in this land. To all those who fought for Cyprus to breathe free, for its people to live united in peace and prosperity.
Cyprus, a poor and rural country, with the majority of its people living in the darkness of ignorance and colonialism, finally won its independence, progressed and developed, but the burdens that were placed on it did not permit it to find its feet. Foreign oppressors, the seeds of nationalism and irredentism condemned our country to a sentence that it did not deserve, that it did not warrant.
Instead of turning our bicommunal character into our strength and achieving coexistence, instead of forging unity and cooperation of people, we allowed discord, clashes and hostility to be used by all those forces and circles hatching plans to bring the disaster that our country suffered. Victims of a self-centered perception, with pain and suffering prevailing in our society, with wounds still bleeding.
We are the generation that grew up on the milk given to us by the United Nations and on the empty pompous talk generously spread by Cypriots and by foreigners. These represented the bridge that took us from the 1960’s to 1974. So while we were shouting slogans like “Long Live..”, the enemies were entering the city. We are a country that colonialism and the corrosive behavior of both locals and foreigners have not permitted it to develop and mature politically. A few years after its establishment, the Republic of Cyprus was called upon to handle its political problem.
Unfortunately, those who created it have from time to time found themselves in power to handle it.
This explains the setbacks and regressions that have marked the course of the Cyprus problem from back then until today. What is certain is that today the existing situation is more troubled and negative than ever before.
On the one hand, time is moving on dramatically and in a catalytic manner to our detriment.
On the other hand, we have arrived today decades after the tragedy that our country experienced, with the threat of partition hanging over our heads, with the two state solution flowing in our consciousness as “one solution” not by others, but by ourselves.
It is inconceivable that there have been Greek Cypriots who have thought that the non-solution [of the Cyprus problem] would constitute a solution.
That, even worse, partition with our own signature would be considered a solution.
That the solution would be to condemn Cyprus to be divided forever, half Turkish and the other half eternally threatened by Turkish expansionism. Never. Let it never occur to them that we would ever permit such a thing to happen.
We will struggle with all our strength to open the window of hope. Because it is our profound conviction that without a solution to the Cyprus problem, Cyprus has no future. Whatever we build, we will build it on the quicksand of the occupation that will inevitably swallow us all up if we fail to escape from it.
In my humble opinion, there are two ways one can handle the Cyprus problem after 1974.
One is to act in a defensive way, to put out a fire whenever Turkey tries to impose a new fait accompli.
The other is to give a practical meaning and content to the vision of reunification through [the elaboration and promotion] of positions and proposals that put the Republic of Cyprus one step ahead.
At this precise moment in time when the Cyprus problem is literally on the brink, the people cannot trust again naive approaches that believed that the Turkish strategy in Cyprus is a “communication trick”. And I say this without distinguishing the President of the ruling Democratic Rally party from the former Foreign Minister [of the Anastasiades government]. Because they both had a say and a role to play in the political handlings of the Cyprus problem and they marched together, in unison. Mr. Averof Neofytou did not react when Mr. Christodoulides said that Turkey was engaging in “communication games” with regards its actions Famagusta, but that Turkey would not proceed with its opening. On the contrary, shortly afterwards he stated that he estimated that “no additional provocative actions will continue regarding Varosha”.
These are personal ambitions, electoral considerations and short-sightedness which the country has paid and is paying dearly for. Right now, one is trying to differentiate himself from the other. However, it was all of them together who cultivated the impression that we can sleep at ease because they [the government ruling forces] have supposedly shielded Cyprus, because they can supposedly corner and punish Turkey. All these years of grand gestures and communication games have created an image, but now we are facing the stark reality before us. We are facing a danger that is growing day by day. Turkish provocativeness will intensify as long as it finds room, and as long as facts allow it, it will be launching attacks. That is precisely why we must at long last tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
The only way to salvation is for a serious, consistent and substantive effort to resume so that we can finally arrive at a peaceful and just solution to the Cyprus problem. A solution of a bizonal, bicommunal, federation, with political equality, for the benefit of all Cypriots. We declare and are ready for the resumption of negotiations from the point where they were interrupted on the basis of the Guterres Framework and the convergences that have been recorded so far in the negotiations. We declare and are ready to take initiatives and submit proposals that will take us forward in the negotiating procedure. We declare ourselves ready to make use of every incentive and every opportunity to give an impetus to the procedure for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
The solution of Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation is a good solution and can be viable and fair and ensure the future and the protection of the human rights of all Cypriots in a modern European society.
Only on the solid foundations of peace and security in a Cyprus free of armies and reunited can we build a promising tomorrow. A place where free people can now truly develop, where the potential of the economy will be multiplied and the resources from it can be channeled for the benefit of society, research, innovation and overall development. We want Cyprus to become a model country, a bridge of peace and cooperation, an example of harmonious coexistence and creation. This will enable our country to find its feet again, both at home, but also among the international community.
We want to build the future we envision and the Cyprus we deserve on these solid foundations. Overcoming the mentalities of the 1960’s, we want to honor in practice our contract with the people for a governance that will have transparency, good governance and accountability as its flagship.
We want to give our young people opportunities to develop and advance, but we want them to be able to stay here in their own country and move forward.
With a state that provides quality education and is a catalyst for the development of science, the arts and letters, culture and creativity.
With a state that responds to the needs of the many, by pursuing policies that protect the weak, improve public health, safeguard labour and social rights, and stamp out corruption and entanglement/interwoven interests.
I have stated many times that it is a great honor for me to have AKEL’s support for my candidacy. I do not say this lightly. Nor do I say it because it is the biggest opposition force. It is a great honor for me to have the support of a political force with a consistent and correct political line for a solution to the Cyprus problem over time. It is a great force that has stood up and made bloody sacrifices to defend and protect the Republic of Cyprus, whose 62nd anniversary we are marking today.
AKEL has fought and continues to struggle for the reunification of the country. It is also, as the most experienced political party in the country, the political force that has always contributed creatively to the development of the Cypriot state, the promotion of a democratic culture and the development of institutions in our country.
I feel awe and at the same time a great burden of responsibility. But I am certain that together, all of us who want change, real, progressive change, can!
Our country needs a fresh start.
Our country needs, in the words of the poet, to “write a new History”. Let us go, together, determined, to be the hands that will write it! The Republic of Cyprus has gone through many ups and downs and survived thanks to its people. And once again it will stand on its feet. Cyprus can!