Lost territories
By Nicos A. Rolandis
IN MY capacity
as President of the Liberal Party of Cyprus, I attended the Congress of the
Liberal International in Helsinki, Finland, from October 4-7, 1990. During my
visit, I had a meeting with the Finnish Foreign Minister. The ambassador of
Greece in Helsinki was present at the meeting.
The Cyprus problem was one of the subjects we discussed with the Minister. I
briefed him about the continuing occupation of Cyprus and the displaced
persons, who were fighting for their return to their homes.
It was then that the Minister interjected that recovery of properties lost as a
result of war or armed conflict is an almost insoluble international problem.
“My home lies tens of kilometres from where we are now,” he said. “My family
lost it together with thousands of Finns who lost their homes, when 10 per cent
of our territory became Soviet territory. Try to find a solution to your
problem soon,” he advised, “because neither the return of territory nor the
payment of compensation is easy after an armed conflict.”
I was of course conversant with the tragic developments in Europe after the
Second World War. Many ambassadors had described to me how the properties of
their families and their fellow countrymen were gone for ever, without the
payment of any compensation whatsoever. Poland had suffered a net loss of 25
per cent of her territory, an area 12 times larger than the whole of Cyprus.
(The Soviet Union took 40 per cent of Poland’s land, while Poland recovered 15
per cent from Germany). Territorial adjustments were made in other countries,
like Romania and Hungary. Millions of people were thrown out of their homes and
properties and they did not receive any compensation. All this happened in
privileged Europe.
It is an undisputed fact that in the maelstrom of war all principles are razed
to the ground: values, human rights, objectives, dreams. And if one roams about
the less endowed parts of the globe, human rights and their implementation have
become a joke.
Here in Cyprus, we Greek Cypriots lost a war in 1974. A war caused, to some
extent, by imprudent and frivolous decisions and actions of Hellenism. In the
process we lost 37 per cent of the territory of Cyprus. Many people died. We
had missing persons and refugees.
Our losses were very large compared to the size of Cyprus but insignificant if
juxtaposed to world tragedies. How could we ever keep the interest in Cyprus
alive, when a few weeks are enough to erase the memories of avalanches, such as
the carnage of 500,000 people in Rwanda, the continuous loss of life in Iraq
and Palestine, the extermination of 2 million people in Cambodia in 1975-9, the
interminable pain, suffering and famine affecting Africa and Asia, where death
– and nobody else – exercises its rights? Truly, who is going to care about the
well fed Cypriot, who has lost a piece of land in the occupied part of Cyprus,
in the face of cataclysms caused by international human tragedies?
This is why I have been supporting since the 1970s a feasible federal solution
to our problem. It was obvious to me that what was in our dreams would never be
offered to us (and it was never offered). The European and the world
communities had reached the conclusion (rightly, I believe) that we had been
partly to blame for the predicament of Cyprus, so they wanted us to pay our
share of the price, through the various plans for the solution of our problem.
More specifically, on the question of property, all plans submitted so far
provided for the return of a rather large chunk of land and for the
compensation for those properties which would not be returned.
The Annan plan (it was worse than the previous plans, which we had rejected in
the past) provided that 8 per cent of the territory would be returned and
placed under Greek Cypriot administration. The area to be returned included
Varosha, a large part of Morphou and more than 50 villages. All in all 50 per
cent of all refugees (85,000) would go back to their towns or villages under
Greek Cypriot administration. Others would return under Turkish Cypriot
administration and the rest of them would be compensated. The plan was
rejected. We opted for the “Lost Territories” solution rather than the
reunification to which the Annan plan would lead us, according to AKEL.
The government now tries to handle the impasse caused by its own decisions and
actions. In the occupied part of Cyprus thousands of buildings have been
erected in the past two to three years and many other are under construction.
Colossal projects are programmed in the Morphou area. In Vokolida alone,
$500,000,000 will be invested.
The decisions of the past three years are clearly leading Cyprus to partition.
Only blind people cannot see this reality – but it appears that our blind
fellow citizens outnumber those who can see. Which properties and which
compensation will ever be granted to the refugees and through which methodology
will this be achieved, if one takes into account that seven opportunities for a
solution of our problem, all of them supported by the United Nations and the
international community, have been dumped by us since the invasion?
It has already been proved how ineffectual and politically dangerous are
recourses to the European Court of Human Rights. Is it therefore not to be
anticipated that all those who lost their properties will eventually join the
endless queues of Finns, Poles, Romanians? Or of the Greeks of Asia Minor (the
soil from their land is still, 84 years later, close to the hearts of their
descendants) or of the Syrians of Alexandretta (Iskenderun)? Or of the millions
who lost their properties elsewhere in the world?
In our case however there is an obvious difference. The decision to reach this
deadlock was taken by us. We opted for “wishful thinking”. We rejected what was
reasonably acceptable and feasible. Our mistakes of the past did not teach us,
so we were condemned to repeat them and to bear the final tragic consequences.
NICOS A. ROLANDIS
POLITICAL BUREAU
JUNE 2006
Tel:+357 22 353811/2, Fax:+357 22 353100, P.O. Box 21700 – 1508 Nicosia. Email:
nicos@rolandis.com