ANOTHER GREAT SHAME…
by Alkan Chaglar
Cyprus Mail
May 10, 2009 Sunday
THIS WEEK, undisclosed sources reported that in a conversation
with a representative of the Cypriot Maronite community in London,
President Demetris Christofias announced that Maronite villages in
northern Cyprus would not be under Greek Cypriot administration in
a future Federal Cyprus, as was the case with the Annan plan.
It is believed that the President, who is chief negotiator for the
Greek Cypriot community, ‘traded’ the Maronite villages in talks with
his Turkish Cypriot counterpart in order to regain Rizokarpaso/Dip
Karpaz.
To make matters worse for Cyprus’ 1,500-year-old Maronite community,
President Christofias declined a request by the Maronite community
that they are elevated to the status of a community; according to
the same sources, Mr Christofias said this would not happen with or
without a solution.
Cypriot Maronites originally came to Cyprus from the ancient
territories of Syria, the Holy Land and Lebanon in four principal
migrations between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries.
An ancient part of the Cyprus cultural mosaic, Maronites boasted 60
villages in 1224 and by the time of the Ottoman conquest of 1571,
the community still had 33 villages scattered around the island from
Lefka to Apostolos Andreas.
However, the Maronite community began a sharp and unbroken decline
during Ottoman rule, where they were subjected to 400 years of
religious persecution. Ottomans massacred many Maronites, whom they
considered to be agents of Venice, while a great many more fled or
converted either to Islam or Orthodox Christianity.
Only four villages had survived by the time the British arrived in
1878 and community life was centred in these villages. Tragically,
the racialist 1960 Constitution reduced the community to a future of
assimilation in the Greek Cypriot community, which was later speeded
up by the harrowing events of 1974, where the entire community was
uprooted from their ancestral villages and separated from their
churches and schools.
The 1960 Constitution, which segregated everything into ‘Greek’ or
‘Turk’ and allowed no ‘Cypriot’ to develop, forced communities like
the Maronites, Latins and Armenians to choose whether they wanted to
be listed on the Greek or Turkish electoral register.
Many chose the Greek electoral register for practical reasons but this
soon became incorrectly interpreted as minorities choosing to ‘become
Greek Cypriots’ giving certain circles in the Greek Cypriot community
the green light to pursue assimilatory policies towards the community.
By denying the communities any degree of autonomy, where they could
preserve themselves, Greek Cypriot politicians frequently talk of the
Maronites and Armenians as ‘belonging’ to their community as if they
are objects in a China shop.
For communities like the Cypriot Armenians "being part of the Greek
Cypriot community" has meant that when its own Melkonian School
required funding to survive, the larger community justified its
position to deprive it of funding because of the size of the community.
Employing a demographic yardstick may be practical elsewhere where an
economic view of demand-supply is applied to everything but in Cyprus
it clearly only has benefits for the numerically larger communities,
while cutting the lifeline of smaller communities. Surely, size cannot
be everything.
Victims of a ‘majority-rules-at-all-costs’ attitude, the Maronites
are in an unenviable position where another community with another
language and different religion controls their future and will not
let it save itself let alone grow.
I watched my Maronite friends debating on Facebook with sadness,
they did not have ambitions like Greek or Turkish Cypriots to become
President, Foreign Minister or to ever become a MEP – they seemed
resigned to their fate always trying to choose the lesser of two evils.
I suggested to one Maronite friend, "Why do you have to choose to be
under the rule of another community at all?" "That is the way it is
for us, Alkan… we are trying to survive as best we can."
But could it really be that if you are born Maronite through no choice
of your own that your rights and life ambitions will have to be lower
than other citizens? What kind of country are we forming if we permit
such an absurdity?
As unbelievable as it may sound to an outsider reading this, the crux
of the problem is that very few people think and act as Cypriots in
Cyprus – even those governing the Republic of Cyprus.
Majority rules in the south and majority rules in the north, and if
there is a solution, everything will simply be divided into Greek or
Turk. By refusing to promote a Cypriot inclusive identity where we
can bring all our people into one, we are simply not learning from
our mistakes.
As a result, communities like the Maronites who have got by and
survived only by quietly living in the shadows of the larger community,
are left tiptoeing in the background, deprived of a say in the unity
talks designed to shape the future of our Cyprus.
It would be interesting to see whether this state policy of
assimilation is legal under EU law, which has precedence over Cyprus
law. The EU can certainly play a role in reversing some anachronistic
practices on the island, even if Cypriot politicians remain blind
to it.
Regardless of communal rights and representation, Maronite Cypriots
and other minorities are EU citizens with citizenship rights.
One of the few countries on earth where communities, their rights and
their future can be traded like cattle, EU Cyprus must mature as a
state to end its ethnic rivalry between Greek and Turkish Cypriots,
and to realise that we possess all of us a sovereign state which is
home to minority communities that are not Greek or Turkish Cypriots.
As the internationally recognised Cyprus, the Republic of Cyprus
Government needs to act less like a Greek Cypriot government and
more responsibly as a Cypriot government giving communities like the
Maronites a choice over what they want as a community for their future,
before a solution is ever signed.
Out of respect and courtesy, Maronites should be offered the
opportunity to belong to neither Greek nor Turkish Cypriot communities
but be protected in a third, neutral Federal Zone. As a Cypriot zone,
this Federal area would not only free them from assimilation but
could be the blueprint for additional Federal zones for us Cypriots
who prefer to identify themselves as Cypriots without a prefix.