Monday 17 August 2009

The War is not over

The War is not over

The war is not over yet! The funeral of my uncle in law, which he was missing since 1974, reminded me that the Cyprus problem is on the solution track for the last 35 years. He was shot and buried in a massive grave after the invasion of Turkey in Cyprus. He surrenders to the Turkish troops only after he run out of munitions. His executors, according to testimonies, were paramilitary’s troops and not the Turkish Army. Whoever did that should be judged for violating the International Law for Prisoners during the war.

Is not the case to hate or blame the one or the other site! Greeks assassinate Turkish Cypriots before the war; Turkish did the same on Greek Cypriots during the war. The invasion of Turkey in Cyprus remains a fact that breaches the International Law. The UN and Security Council Resolutions still wait for their implementation. For the sake of both Nations!

It’s time to remember what happened only a few decades ago. The Cyprus Parliament should open the Secret Files referring to the period before and during the Civil War within the Greek Community, the Coup d’état invoked by the Military Regime in Greece and the subsequent Invasion of Turkey and the following till to date occupation of the North part of Cyprus.

It’s time to Remember, to know, to judge, and simultaneously to Forgive each other, Greeks and Turkish. If we really want to live together, site by site, with respect on each other’s Culture, Religions and Civilization, then we must forgive and move forward.

I know that the most of you, reading these words would think that I am Utopian. Why then the Germans and the French, only a few decades after the WWII that followed centuries of rivals, wars, ethnic cleansing, occupation and more, became Allies in the NATO and Partners in the EU? If they found their way to move on in a peaceful world, we should also search for this path. The Nuremberg trials that followed the defeat of Nazi’s Germany had no aim to judge a whole nation which fell in the Nazi’s catch and illusions of supremacy of any nation or person on the rest human beings. However the trials stepped forward the reconciliation progress between the two nations.

Such as Turkey is not going to act in this direction, neither we are strong enough or naïve to put on trials our compatriots. Nevertheless it’s time to undergo ourselves in a self-criticism. Only then we can resurrect once again like the Phoenix, the mythological bird that reborn through its ashes.

I am ready to Remember and to Forgive … Are you willing to fight for that, too?