Divided island

Happy May the first. This is a special day celebrated by workers across the world and especially where I originally come from where there are strong trade unions and people who are not members are usually seen as the exception rather than the other way around.

I was contacted by a Greek journalist who knows about my involvement with the community here in London and my activities with Byzantinos and trying to organise ourselves. Anyway I was asked what my thoughts are on the Cyprus problem. Cyprus which is a member state of the European Union is still divided and 38% of its territory occupied by mainland Turkish troops.

I explained that I understood the external factors that allowed for the division of the island in 1974 and agreed that the 1974 coup instigated by the mainland Greek junta was a plan by the CIA and Henry Kissinger specifically who did not like the fact that the government there kept refusing the US air force the right to use the island as a base to bomb Arab lands and protect Israel. That is of course a simplification of the overall problem but the fact is it wasn't the people on the island that created the problem it was the major powers who wanted Cyprus (and still do) to be used as a huge aircraft carrier because of its strategic position.

I had a brief conversation with the journalist and expressed my frustration. I am particularly annoyed with the politicians on both sides of the island and believe that these people have not, so far, shown any imagination or the intelligence to take advantage of small opportunities that had occurred. The Gali ideas in the late 80s was, for example, a good plan/framework to find a solution based on a federal system. I consider the lack of any politicians with idealism to have been, so far, the real obstacle. Turkish troops should be removed as should all other military installations from the island and the people there should be allowed to live in peace and not be used by foreign powers who are so desperate to hang on to their imperialist past. Lets try finding where the idealists are and remove career minded politicians who are only interested in serving their own interest and we will then be able to find a just solution. The workers on both sides of the island are already working together to improve things so there is some hope to this 34 year old problem.