by New Worker correspondent
THAT WAS the watchword for Cypriot communists charting the way forward
in the fight against austerity and for the peaceful reunification of the
island. Fraternal observers from all over the world, including New
Communist Party leader Andy Brooks, joined some 1,500 delegates from the
island and from the overseas Cypriot community, in Nicosia for the 22nd
Congress of the Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) last
week.
Seventy fraternal observers representing 55 parties and movements took
part in the Congress and an AKEL-sponsored conference on the threats of
fascism and reactionary forces in the era of imperialism and wars.
Ruling communist parties were in the hall including delegations from
People’s China, Cuba and Vietnam, as well as Sinn Féin, the Kurdistan
National Congress and some parties of the European Left movement
including Greece’s Syriza and Podemos from Spain.
AKEL was founded in 1941 but it has a much longer history as it is the
direct heir of the old Communist Party of Cyprus (KKK) that was
established in 1926 and later banned by the British colonial
authorities. Following independence in 1960 AKEL struggled to defend the
island from imperialist plots that culminated in the 1974 coup
organised by the reactionary Greek military junta that gave Turkey the
pretext to invade and occupy northern Cyprus.
AKEL formed a left-leaning government after it won the Cyprus
parliamentary elections in 2006 and its then leader, Dimitris
Christofias, won the presidential race in 2008. Working people made
considerable gains when AKEL and its allies were at the helm. But
welfare, pension rights, public health and education are being cut to
bone by the right-wing, who took control of parliament after the 2011
elections and defeated the AKEL candidate in the presidential race in
2013.
The new government is implementing austerity with a vengeance to meet
the demands of the European Union and the banks to make working people
bear the entire burden of the so-called “bailout”. Unemployment has
doubled in the last four years — officially now at 15.6 per cent. In
reality it’s much higher if part-time and seasonal employment is taken
into account. Tourism, the major industry, was hit by the worldwide
capitalist slump that began in 2008. The drop in numbers of visitors
from western Europe was partially off-set by others coming from Russia.
But now even that sector has dipped as Russians, angry at the European
Union’s sanctions over Ukraine, cross the EU, including Cyprus, off
their holiday lists.
“Today, one could say that we are at the most dangerous juncture of this
difficult path of struggle. The Cyprus problem remains unresolved with
the danger of permanent partition growing day by day. Our people’s gains
and rights, all that it has so painstakingly built and won over the
years are under attack,” AKEL general secretary Andros Kyprianou
declared.
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| Andros Kyprianou |
“The elderly on low pensions, the unemployed, refugees, single parents,
large families, recipients of public assistance, young scientists,
farmers and workers are all thinking that perhaps for the first time in
their lives they cannot hope that tomorrow things will get better.”
Nicosia is now the only divided capital in the world and the continuing
division of the island, of course, dominated much of the Congress. The
Turkish government publicly says that it will never betray the interests
of the Turkish Cypriot community to obtain admission into the European
Union. But everybody knows they would if that was the price to join the
European club. And everybody also knows that Turkey’s accession is as
far away as ever in these days of slump.
If the Turks were seriously concerned about the fate of the Turkish
Cypriots they would have done more to preserve their community in
northern Cyprus rather than seeing it evaporate over the years through
immigration. Although the ethnic balance is maintained through
immigration from the poorest parts of Turkey, about half the original
Turkish Cypriot population now live in Britain and other parts of the
European Union while the rest are outnumbered by Turkish immigrants
encouraged to settle since the invasion in 1974.
Some 200,000 Greek Cypriots were driven out of their homes after the
invasion while 50,000 Turkish Cypriots were incited to move to the
north. Turkey occupies 36 per cent of the island, which is administered
by “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” — a phantom state governed by
Turkish Cypriot leaders and recognised by no one apart from Turkey
itself. Real power lies with the Turkish “ambassador” and the 40,000
Turkish troops based in the north.
The end of partition and the restoration of a united republic with full
rights for both the Turkish and Greek communities has, all along, been
the paramount objective of AKEL and its allies. But no major advances
can be made while the island remains divided and occupied by Turkish
forces. Now there are glimmers of hope on the horizon.
The first is the search for oil and the development of natural gas
fields in Cypriot waters, which has fired hopes for an economic
turn-around based partly on offshore reserves. The Aphrodite natural gas
field off Cyprus is commercially viable and plans are being prepared
for producing eight billion cubic metres a year and the construction of a
pipeline to Egypt. The big oil corporations along with Greek and
Israeli oil and gas companies are all looking at the potential in the
eastern Mediterranean. And so is Turkey, which has intervened,
supposedly on behalf of the Turkish Cypriots it claims to represent, but
in reality because they too want a share of this new energy cake.
The second was the victory of Mustafa Akinci in the northern Cyprus
presidential elections. Akinci is a social-democrat and his Communal
Democracy Party (TDP) is committed to reaching a compromise to end the
division of the island. Following his election in April Akinci held
talks with the Turkish government in Ankara and reported that they would
support the resumption of negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side amid
speculation that Turkey would respond realistically to long-standing
Cypriot government demands in return for concessions on the oil and gas
issue.
The Cypriot communist movement has always fought against nationalism and
chauvinism. The Party has Turkish Cypriot members and from the very
beginning the Cypriot communist movement worked to end ethnic divisions,
to build united unions and a united working class. AKEL considers that
the Cyprus problem should be resolved on the basis of the UN resolutions
and calls for an end to the Turkish occupation and for the
demilitarisation of the island and the closure of the British, Turkish
and Greek bases.
Andros Kyprianou said that the party was working with other peace-loving
forces on the island to help create a “dynamic solution” to the Cyprus
problem. “But not just ‘any solution’, he said, “a solution that will
reunite the island on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation,
which will lead to a state with a single sovereignty, international
personality and citizenship; a solution without guarantees, without
intervention rights and foreign armies; a solution based on the relevant
UN resolutions, the High Level Agreements, international and European
law; a solution that will serve the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots and the cause of peace in the region.”
No one knows what the future will hold but the talks are going ahead and
many Cypriots on both sides of the island are hoping that, at long
last, an end to the conflict is in sight.
