A handshake to remember for the 2023 presidential elections in Cyprus and the great significance of the outcome (video)
Averof Neophytou and Andreas Mavroyiannis most probable cooperation in the second round of the presidential elections in Cyprus to prevent a victory for Nikos Christodoulides? Photo by @TheocharousH
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Cyprus became a Republic after gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. The first President was Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios III (1960 – 1977) and Vice President Turkish Cypriot Fazıl Küçük (1960 – 1963). In 1963 the Turkish Cypriot members of parliament rejected the budget causing a crisis.
President Makarios submitted proposals to Vice President Küçük for consideration that included constitutional changes which would address some of the causes of the conflict and contribute towards the sound functioning of the Republic. Turkey and the leadership of the Turkish Cypriots rejected President Makarios’ proposals and continued to raise tensions and apostasy, leading to the desertion of Turkish Cypriots from the Republic of Cyprus.
After abandoning the government of the Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot leadership demanded partition and Turkey immediately threatened to invade which they accomplished a decade later and to this day continue to illegally occupy almost half the island, violating international law and all UN Security Council resolutions.
Since 1977 the Republic of Cyprus had six presidents from three political parties while the Turkish Cypriot community in occupied Cyprus, five leaders. Many attempts have been made by every Cypriot President since 1974 to reach a viable solution, but Turkey’s intransigence has blocked each and every effort, therefore the status quo. Partition of the island or even the annexation of the occupied part has been on Turkey’s agenda since the late 1950s.
- Turkish Cypriots were never of great concern for Turkey but have always been used as protection excuse. Former Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu in his book “Strategic Depth” states: “Even if there was not one single Muslim Turk over there, Turkey would have to maintain a Cyprus question. No country could possibly be indifferent to an island like this, placed in the heart of its vital space.”
This is one of the main reasons talks are failing no matter how much effort has been put by all six presidents including current president Nicos Anastasiades. Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, unlike his predecessor, Mustafa Akinci, is not interested in reunification, on the contrary, he seeks a two-state solution and takes his orders directly from Ankara. In actual fact, Mr Tatar is more of Turkey’s representative of occupied Cyprus than a community leader.
One may ask what all this has to do with the upcoming 2023 Cypriot elections and why the outcome is of great concern? Currently, fifteen candidates are running for the presidency of the Republic of Cyprus but as polls show, only three have double-digit percentages.
Nikos Christodoulides is leading in all polls since May, averaging 35%, Averof Neophytou and Andreas Mavroyiannis at 18% each.
Mr Christodoulides is an independent candidate backed by several parties, Mr Neophytou by the ruling centre-right wing party DISY and Mr Mavroyiannis by left wing AKEL.
At a recent cross-channel debate, just before it commenced, centre-right wing Neophytou approached left wing candidate Mavroyiannis, extended his arm, smiled and said to all present, “remember this handshake”. Many laughed, most of them ironically with this unusual gesture and got many querying of its purpose and various interpretations were circulating within minutes but it seems that Neophytou and Mavroyiannis knew very well it had to do with the second round of the presidential elections in February 2023.
Although the two candidates often “disagree” and show their grudges often in public, they actually have a lot in common when it comes to Turkey.
At the first cross-channel debate for the 2023 presidential elections, Mr Neophytou made reference to Cypriot law and accounting firms who lost Russian clients due to the embargo and sanctions, stating that this would be solved if all Turkish tycoons use Cyprus as their base to have access to Europe should there be a Cyprus problem solution.
In other words, replace Russian oligarchs with Turkish tycoons. Russian oligarchs “invested” 3 million euros to acquire Cypriot citizenship, how much will Turkish tycoons pay?
During the same debate, Mr Mavroyiannis took it a step further, he proposed that the Republic of Cyprus let all its gas flow to Turkey for the country’s own needs as of now, even before the solution. He was President Anastasiades chief negotiator for Cyprus since 2013 but seems he forgot with whom he was negotiating with.
Coming back to the handshake gesture, rumour has it that the two candidates will go out of their way to make sure that Nikos Christodoulides doesn’t win the presidential elections in 2023.
This will really be a historic occurrence but disastrous at the same time, left supporting right and vice versa for personal greedy ambitions.
The Presidential elections of the Republic of Cyprus, will take place on Sunday, 5 February 2023.
Hopefully common sense will prevail.
*Harry Theocharous is a former pilot currently dealing with aviation research and consulting with vast interest in geopolitics
Ακολουθήστε τη HELLAS JOURNAL στη NEWS GOOGLE