Tales from the Coffeeshop: Impossible to stomach relentless victimhood after 50 years

I HAVE to say, at the risk of being labelled unpatriotic, that all this fuss about the 50th anniversary of the coup and invasion has become quite boring. It is not as if the 49th or the 35th anniversaries were never marked, and we had been waiting for half a century to be completed before going back to what happened in 1974.

Every single ‘black anniversary’ of the ‘twin crime’ has been marked by the parties, the media, governments and organisations with the same monotonous, melodramatic copy-pasted speeches, sparsely attended events, documentaries rehashing the same stuff and the obligatory reminders of Turkish barbarism.

Anyone, who was around in 1974 and has had to live through these anniversaries and heroic speeches for half a century, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to take all this institutionalised wallowing in victimhood and self-pity seriously 50 years after the event.

Remember and honour every year all those who fell defending their country in ’74. But turning every anniversary into some celebration of victimhood in a country in which people flaunt their wealth 365 days a year and spend the black anniversaries in their holiday homes in Protaras, with their BMW or Range Rover parked outside, is a bit too much to take, for a grumpy old man like me.

CONGRATS to Kathimerini newspaper who took the initiative of reminding us not to forget about the invasion. Last Sunday’s issue came with a glossy paper poster of the ‘δεν ξεχνώ’ (I don’t forget) logo, featuring the map of Cyprus, with red paint running down from the northern part.

The logo, which is probably due for its own 50th anniversary soon, was made into stickers which were placed everywhere for at least 30 years after the invasion. Its popularity eventually faded as it was seen as rather uncool and kitsch, a bit like supporting Diko.

It soon became something to laugh at. Satirical nationalist paper Enosis did the best piss-take of the logo, featuring under the bleeding map of Kyproulla the slogan ‘δεν ξερνώ’ (I don’t puke). Very recently, on social media someone had another version – ‘δεν ξυπνώ’ (I don’t wake up) – that was as defiant as the original.

On Saturday, Phil columnist, Costas Venizelos’ article, titled ‘50 δεν ξεχνώ’, featured the famous logo and eloquently explained the slogan’s philosophical importance. “Memory might fade, generations with experiences may have gone, but ΔΕΝ ΞΕΧΝΩ remains relevant. Is it our fate? It is our future. Because if we forget we are lost.”

The big question is why the article provided only 15 things that he doesn’t forget, despite the headline advertising 50? Could he not remember the rest?

DESPITE Maria Angela Holguin’s mission turning out to be bit of a fiasco, Prezniktwo has not lost any of his childish optimism about the prospects of a Cyprob breakthrough and even in the week of the black anniversaries he was claiming there would soon be developments.

“Soon we will have a substantive effort to achieve our objective of ending the occupation and reuniting our country,” he said last weekend and has repeated subsequently. Before that, he said there would be “positive news as regards the Cyprus problem and the efforts to resume negotiations”.

His prediction – if there is any substance to it – could only be based on information from the UN in New York. UNSG Antonio Guterres may have been given the go ahead from Greece and Turkey to have another go at the Cyprob.

If he does, according to a diplomatic source, there would be no open-ended negotiations of the type we like, but time frames and a talks structure would be imposed. The same source claimed this could happen in September when everyone will be in the Big Apple for the UN General Assembly.

I can’t wait to see how our man will wriggle out of this substantive effort.

A FEW days ago a big effort was made to arrest the prez’s steady decline in his popularity ratings, which are measured every week by the presidential palace.

Public parasites were given a 1.5 per cent rise on their basic salaries, an increase that is estimated to cost the taxpayer €60m per year. The parasites’ union, Pasydy, aware that the rise would not go down well among the second-class citizens of the private sector, issued an announcement informing us that this was the first general pay rise in 15 years. The last was given in 2009.

It omitted mentioning that its members have still received pay rises. Apart from the hefty increase thanks to CoLA, they also get pay rises by moving up the incremental scales every year. Funnily enough the rise was given just a month after the IMF advised reducing the public payroll and in spite of assurances by the prez that the government was committed to fiscal discipline.

Then again €60m is a small price for us to pay to increase our prez’s flagging popularity by one or two percentage points. I just hope it does not become a habit.

WHY IS the government that had pledged to bring transparency and accountability, keeping the identities of the advisors it has hired a carefully guarded secret?

Although the presidency is obliged to post the names of all the advisors it has appointed on its website, in accordance with legislation prepared by the presidency and approved by the legislature earlier this year, it has refused to comply with its own law. It has posted only the initials of each advisor on the website.

There are currently a whopping 28 such advisors, costing us more than a million euros per year. The House institutions committee was going to discuss the matter a couple of weeks ago, but the meeting was cancelled because the chairman had covid and will be held when the legislature reconvenes in September.

Why is the government of transparency and accountability refusing to make public the names of its advisors? Is it because the presidential couple has hired its friends, relatives and koumbarous as advisors?

THIS COMMITMENT to transparency was also evident when the First Lady of Kyproulla, Philippa Karsera Christodoulidou, went to the legislature to tell deputies that the names of people donating money to the First Lady’s charity fund, could not be made public.

She did not give one convincing reason for keeping the names of the donors a secret. Why would a law-abiding, upstanding individual or respectable business not want their name known when they are donating money to a worthy cause? Does the First Lady and her other half not understand the meaning of the word transparency which Nik promised he would introduce?

Incidentally, as PKC is still a civil servant (she is on unpaid leave), is she legally allowed to handle large amounts and make donations? I suspect not, but she is the First Lady of Kyproulla and does whatever she likes, in the name of transparency and accountability.

AS HAD been widely expected the Chinese consortium CMC that was contracted to build the LNG terminal at Vassiliko pulled the plug on the project on Thursday, lambasting the natural gas infrastructure company Etyfa in the process.

How much will this fiasco cost the taxpayer in compensations and delays? The two sides are already at arbitration court with CMC demanding €200m from Etyfa, but to be sure more claims will be made.

There is one person to blame for this fiasco – Preznikone, who forced the natural gas company Defa to sign the deal with CMC, a consortium without experience in building LNG terminals, without a competitive tenders’ process, because it was “a project of national interest”. His decision, ignoring all the advice against signing the contract, could cost us between €200 to €300 million.

Perhaps his energy minister at the time, Giorgos Lakkotrypis, who quit soon after the contract was signed, could shed some light on how the decision was taken.