Yiolitis defends saying Cyprus should not use Greek anthem

Former justice minister Emily Yiolitis defended on Saturday her comment that she disagrees with Cyprus using the Greek national anthem, saying critics had distorted her words and chosen to “sell pseudo-patriotism”. In a podcast interview with Fidias Panayiotou, she said, “I disagree with us having the national anthem of Greece”, and argued that Cyprus, as an independent state, should be regarded as a country in its own right, free of both Greece and Turkey. In a post on Saturday, she said she honoured the anthem and the Eoka struggle, remarking that the ‘hymn to liberty’ is “inextricably linked” to the history of Hellenism and that she neither questions nor renounces that history. Her point, she said, was that “a reunified Cyprus, the product of a genuine agreement between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, could one day have a common anthem”. Such an anthem would “vindicate the sacrifices of Eoka fighters”, she wrote. She said she envisions a democracy of “one person, one vote” and that she would be glad if her remarks helped start a dialogue away from “bizonal, bicommunal federation-type rigidities”. Cyprus has used the Greek Hymn to Liberty, written by Dionysios Solomos in 1823, since 1966. Independence in 1960 came with a constitution that set out a flag but made no mention of an anthem, and the two communities could not agree on one. Upon Archbishop Makarios’ ascension to the presidency, the only anthem was a military march played at the general salute. Makarios, when told it resembled the Greek anthem, insisted it was Cypriot. On trips abroad, he requested that part of a Beethoven symphony be played for him. The Greek anthem was adopted on November 16, 1966 by the Greek Cypriot members of government, after Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the Republic following the constitutional crisis in 1963. In the podcast she also said she would “happily vote for a Turkish Cypriot president” if the candidate were more capable than a Greek Cypriot rival. “In a country with both Muslims and Christians,” she said, “the leader could not ever again be a priest”. She said a bizonal, bicommunal federation was “not a good solution” and that she wanted Cyprus “freed from all foreign forces, Turkish or Greek”. She called for an “end to propaganda about the other community in schoolbooks on both sides”. Yiolitis also spoke on leaving government, stating that she resigned as justice minister after a dispute with then President Nicos Anastasiades, who she said told her she was damaging the government’s image, partly due to her friendship with his daughters. She claimed she was the only minister of Anastasiades’ cabinet who left “with clean hands”.