Our View: 48 years after the invasion, we are a step away from partition

We marked yet another anniversary of the Turkish invasion on Wednesday, the 48th, honouring those who gave up their lives defending their country and acknowledging the plight of all those who were uprooted from their homes never to return.

The dividing line carved out in mid-August of 1974, after the completion of the second offensive of the invading troops, has remained unchanged and is increasingly looking like a line of permanent partition. With the passing of time, inevitably it will become a border with Turkey.

It may sound harsh, but it seems the overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots have come to terms with the fait accompli of the invasion, despite the hollow rhetoric of the politicians. The truth is that our politicians have for decades cultivated and encouraged this coming of terms with the fait accompli with their choices and actions. They are comfortable with the status quo, as long as they have Unficyp to police it, and they have always been very skillful arguing they have no responsibility for the situation, as they invariably blame Turkish expansionism, intransigence, maximalist demands.

It would be unfair to place all the blame for the current situation on our political leaders, because they have the support of a large section of the population for their inaction and lack of flexibility.

In 2004, 76 per cent of the population voted against the Annan plan and even though the president at the time and the entire state machinery campaigned for a ‘no’ vote it was an emphatic rejection of a settlement.

In 2017, President Anastasiades walked out of the conference in Crans-Montana, when, according to all accounts, the two sides were very close to a deal and was elected for a second term a few months later.

If there was strong public support for a settlement, political leaders would not have been able to behave in this way. The desire for reunification and return to our villages was just hollow rhetoric that nobody seemed particularly interested in pursuing. There have always been many Greek Cypriot that did not want a settlement, some because they benefited financially from the continuing division and others because they did not want to put at risk their privileges as public employees by sharing power with the Turkish Cypriots.

Forty-eight years after the invasion, we are just a step away from partition, which our politicians had always said was the ultimate objective of Turkey.

Not only have they failed spectacularly to thwart Turkey’s long-term plan, they have now come to terms with it, even though they do not have the honesty to say so in public.