Spotlight on Cyprus, in the company of Evagoras Mavrommatis, the President of the Cypriot community in France and in Europe. It is the Cypriot National Day.
In the midst of the Ukrainian conflict, while the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan plays the intermediary and deploys his own geopolitics, what is happening in Cyprus, an island forgotten in the news?
franceinfo: No one talks about the Cyprus issue?
Evagoras Mavrommatis: Nobody talks about it, in fact. Measures have been taken against Russia, which occupies a foreign country, but nothing against Turkey, which since 1974 has occupied 40% of the area of Cyprus. Cyprus, as you know, is part of the European Union, the whole island, and the occupied part is not recognized. But the acquis communautaire is suspended until a solution is found. It should be noted that it is one of the most militarized territories in the world, since Turkey deploys 45,000 soldiers there.
How many Greek Cypriots are there?
Barely 750,000. I point out to you that the Turkish Cypriots were not in the occupied part. It was after the invasion of the Turks that the English sent them to the other side. There was never a problem until 1974 with the Turkish Cypriots. Today, many have left the island, they have gone to Australia, to England, there are very few Turkish Cypriots, but there are 350,000 Turkish settlers.
Where are these Turks from?
From Anatolia, as soon as the invasion took place in 1974. Turkish earthquake victims also moved to Cyprus last month. The Turkish authorities want to make the occupied part of Cyprus a Turkish province, and from there occupy all of Cyprus. If Turkey occupies all of Cyprus, the rest of the Aegean islands are in danger.
However, in the Greek Cypriot part, the Republic of Cyprus, there are two sovereign English military bases. How is it possible ?
In 1878, Turkey sold Cyprus to the English, it became a protectorate, so we were part of the crown. In January 1956, there is a referendum which was organized by the church for the annexation of Cyprus to Greece. Even the Turkish Cypriots voted for the annexation of Cyprus to Greece. The English never accepted. There was no political or diplomatic solution. The struggle for independence began in 1955, it lasted five years against the English. It is necessary to know all the same the behavior of the English. They executed a 7-year-old child who was shot in the head and they asked his father to bury him at night so that the people wouldn’t rise up. The father refused, and no one knew where the English had buried him. And hold on tight, recently, thanks to DNA, his body was found and a funeral was held.
Were there other abuses?
They tortured, they executed women, they created concentration camps. But all this is not known. There are families asking for damages. It didn’t stop with independence, because British military bases are still sovereign in the Republic of Cyprus.
Who supports the Republic of Cyprus today, apart from Greece of course?
We hope for a military cooperation agreement. France is very involved in the region, but hey, you know, I think that after Ukraine, it’s the Middle East that will ignite. In the region, political, geopolitical and economic interests are very important.