Tales from the Coffeeshop: Bringing people together undermines Cyprus’ reunification efforts

THE PATRIOTIC forces scored another resounding victory for the national cause a few days ago when they succeeded in seeing off the threat posed to our national survival by a techno music concert that was scheduled to be held next to Kyrenia castle on September 18. Under the pressure of our government and politicians, the Serbian company EXIT, organiser of the Nexus concert, announced on Thursday it was pulling out, expressing its “sincere and deep regret that we agreed to participate in this project.” It said it understood the “deep historical and emotional significance” of Kyrenia to the Greek Cypriots, but its intention, “from the beginning was to bring people closer together.” Our patriotic forces made it clear to EXIT that bringing people closer together could undermine efforts for reunification of the island. They also said an international event at the historic site could contribute to the normalisation of the situation in the occupied north, or as Diko astutely pointed out, send the “wrong messages,” familiarising international audiences with “faits accompli of the occupation.” All would be lost for us, if we send the wrong messages to kids on drugs, having fun, dancing for hours. The ravers had to be stopped, or the world might start doubting Greek Cypriots’ epic pettiness. AFTER EXIT’s exit was announced, many heroic patriots proudly claimed the credit, speaking like the liberators of Kyrenia, when all they did was to get a concert cancelled. Elam described it as “a great victory” and took great pride that it brought the event to public attention. The party undertook all “necessary international and diplomatic actions,” with leader Christos Christou sending the “necessary letters” and MEP Geadis Geadis contacting the embassies of Serbia in Nicosia, Brussels and Switzerland. Geadis eventually contacted the organisers. The dim Disy MEP Loucas Fourlas also claimed a large part in the Kyrenia triumph. He did not restrict his protests to embassies, but wrote to Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, explaining to him that “the Republic has never stood against cultural and artistic exchanges between people.” But it had to make an exception in the case of the Nexus festival which was using culture “as a tool for recognising or strengthening illegal separatist structure.” Diko, Elam and Fourlas would do us a service if they explained how a music event in the north would lead to the recognition or strengthening of the illegal structure. Would a techno concert lead to the ‘TRNC’ becoming a member of the UN? THERE was no way the Christodoulides government would allow Elam and Fourlas to take credit for this techno triumph. In keeping with its policy of publicly taking ownership of all heroic achievements, unnamed government sources told Tass news agency that prior to EXIT’s decision there was “discreet and systematic diplomatic mobilisation by the Cyprus Republic with the aim of preventing the instrumentalisation of an international event by the occupation regime.” “Even more significant was that through these contacts the prospect of the event being moved to the free areas was opened,” said the unnamed source, which spoke very much like the Prez, adding: “This is a characteristic example of what targeted diplomacy can achieve when it operates with persistence, discretion and a specific target.” This turned out also to be a very smart way for the president to show his good faith and underline his sincere desire for a resumption of the talks, which some nasty, unpatriotic people have been questioning recently. We will even take the pop concert and make it our own as a show of good faith. Targetted diplomacy failure: Mehmet Dana was able to outline Turkish Cypriot positions TARGETED diplomacy practised with discretion does not always seem to work. In the case of the briefing of foreign diplomats at the House of Cooperation by Turkish Cypriot negotiator Mehmet Dana, the government appears to have completely missed the specific target of preventing them attending. Before Wednesday’s event, which was to be held in the Nicosia buffer zone, the Cyprus foreign ministry had been telephoning diplomatic missions imploring them not to attend the briefing at which Dana was to give the Turkish Cypriot positions on the recent Cyprob developments or, to be more precise, non-developments. The Greek Cypriot negotiator had briefed foreign diplomats about the situation after Antonio Guterres’ visit so it seems bizarre that the Prez gave orders (no other government official would have done this) to the foreign ministry to call diplomatic missions and urge them to snub Dana. Funny way of cultivating trust and building confidence with the other side. THE PREZ may have realised that nobody believes him when he says that he wants a resumption of the talks and has decided to drop the theatre and focus instead on winning over the hardliners with a tough stance on the Cyprob, even though he hasn’t decided yet whether he will seek re-election. UN personnel dealing with the talks cannot hide their frustration. One was complaining about how the Prez consistently seeks the discussion of new topics. When talks fail to reach an agreement he proposes the discussion of another new topic on which there is no agreement. Sharing the glory: Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas ALTHOUGH he has not decided whether he will be seeking re-election, the proposals for reform of the pension system, which was presented on Wednesday to the social partners, had ‘2028 elections’ written all over them. The undecided presidential candidate even had a film of himself boasting about the reform broadcast so that not all the credit for burdening the Social Insurance Fund with an addition bill of €50 million each year would not go to Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas. It is after all the Prez who decided that pension reform would consist of increasing pension payments without increasing the Fund’s revenue. It was left to Mousiouttas to tell us that every single one of the 123,000 pensioners will receive an increased amount paid to them. And the Prez is demanding that the Legislature approves the reform before the end of the year so that the 123,000 pensioners receive the extra dosh in 2027. With higher pensions, they would be more inclined to vote for our Nik in February 2028, assuming that he will decide to seek re-election. When the union bosses argued that the reform should not be rushed through parliament because it was of such far-reaching importance it needed to be properly studied and discussed, the government ruled out the suggestion of delaying it another year. Elections had nothing to do with it. ALTHOUGH he has not decided yet whether he will be seeking re-election, the Prez has got the presidential scribe employed at Phil, Andreas Bimbishis, working hard to cause divisions within Disy and attracting voters to his camp. Bimbishis has seized the opportunity to weave theories about divisions in Disy, after former leader Averof Neophytou, the lone Greek Cypriot voice publicly supporting a Cyprob settlement, had spoken about the opportunities wasted by Akel and Disy. The presidential scribe reported that Disy leader Annita Demetriou was “incensed” by Averof criticising Disy, which seemed a bit stupid considering he was talking about missed opportunities in 1992 and 2017. Anyway, Bimbishis is on a presidential mission to cause chaos in Disy and attract voters to the Nik II camp, assuming he will decide to seek re-election.. On Saturday he reported that Annita was being urged “directly and indirectly” not to stand in the presidential elections so that Averof can stand. Annita however has responded negatively reported the authoritative Bimbishis, without being “incensed.” APART from the imaginary internal squabbling in Disy, Bimbishis also writes about the diplomatic triumphs of the Prez. In the last week, the targeted diplomacy of discretion and persistence scored another major success he reported in Saturday’s Phil. This time it was in faraway Somalia and did not feature a techno music concert. This is what he reported: “Somalia is one of the countries over which Turkey’s control is absolute, on all levels, something the occupation regime is trying to exploit with a view to a political upgrade. These attempts by the regime were dealt with effectively by Nicosia through the immediate mobilisation of the Foreign Ministry.” Thanks to this mobilisation by Nicosia, “the foreign ministry of Somalia went ahead with an announcement making it clear that there was no issue whatsoever of recognising the pseudo-state.” My question is how the foreign ministry knew what was going on in Somalia. Does our network of agents and spies go all the way to Somalia? .