‘Cyprus in the grip of paranoia’
By Elias Hazou
PARANOIA has taken over political life, crippling all initiative and creative thinking, and the government is solely to blame for this sad state of affairs, the United Democrats concluded during a seminar held over the weekend.
Under the banner ‘Fear is our greatest enemy: a phobic and insular Cyprus, or an optimistic and extrovert Cyprus?’ the seminar featured speakers from politics and academia.
These included Professor Niazi Kizilyurek of the University of Cyprus, sociologist Nicos Peristianis of the Intercollege, Mustafa Akinci leader of the Turkish Cypriot Peace and Democracy Movement (BDH) and Georgios Pachalides a minister of the former PASOK administration in Greece.
“Our aim was to demonstrate how our government’s overall philosophy and mentality is working to the detriment of the Cyprus problem and of our relations with the EU,” United Democrats leader Michalis Papapetrou explained to the Mail.
The seminar was essentially an across-the-board condemnation of the Papadopoulos administration’s foreign policy, though it also homed in on other areas such as the economy.
“We need to stop living inside our own microcosm and look outward. The government’s antagonistic attitude is earning us a bad reputation abroad. We see conspiracies everywhere, we think that all foreigners are out to get us – as if they have nothing better to do.”
“Then there is the whole polarised climate inside Cyprus – lack of tolerance for the opposite opinion, where dissenters are branded traitors and so forth.”
Papapetrou cited the example of the government’s consistent failure to undertake a new initiative for the Cyprus issue.
“We [the government] say that the UN Secretary-general knows our positions, and then we rest on our laurels. But it is we who must get things going. Otherwise nothing will happen.”
According to Papapetrou, Cyprus holds a “world first” in that it typically prefers to delay solving its problems “rather than dealing with them right here, right now.”
“Take our approach to joining the eurozone. We keep postponing the year of entry, as if the Europeans are doing us a favour.
“But the advantages of EMU are immense and will help the country in more ways than one. This mentality of our government is incomprehensible.”
Papapetrou had no qualms about pointing the finger at President Papadopoulos personally.
“It is no secret that the President has a certain world view and approach to politics. Moreover, he is very steadfast – for want of a better word – in his views, which he does not easily change.
“Mr Papadopoulos has a very strong personality, and tends to dominate the people working for them,” he added.
The seminar contrasted the achievements of the pre-Papadopoulos era to the current situation.
“From the 1970s through to the 1990s, and despite the mutilation suffered by the Turkish invasion, Cyprus held the moral high ground, insisting on a settlement, while Rauf Denktash and Turkey were held accountable for the occupation and division of the island.
This political and moral superiority reached a peak when a small and maimed island found itself inside the EU… which was a huge success…”
Added Papapetrou: “The fact that Cyprus joined the EU proves what we can achieve if we rid ourselves from fear and introversion, if we adopt an extroverted policy with confidence, initiatives and actions.
“In a word, we must get out of our shell and stop believing that we are the centre of the world.”
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005
