Τhe ultra-nationalists of Elam and Edek, supported by a couple of newspapers, went on the offensive last week, after hearing that public schools were allegedly organising excursions to areas in northern Cyprus as part of the Imagine programme, set up to promote the values of peace and respect among children and teachers from the two communities.

The programme was established by Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci in 2016 as a way of building trust and understanding among the younger generation. It was run by the technical committee on education and in those nine years 6,700 schoolchildren and 1,200 teachers took part in the programme, until now with the full support of the government. Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar did not approve of it and withdrew Turkish Cypriot public schools in 2022, although a couple of independent schools continued to participate.

President Nikos Christodoulides had also been a champion of Imagine because it “provided the opportunity for thousands of schoolchildren and hundreds of teachers from both communities to participate in this peace education effort which contributed significantly to the promotion of a culture of peace and reconciliation.” The last UN report included a letter from Christodoulides in which he accused Tatar of placing obstacles in the operation of this worthwhile programme.

Given this support for the programme, it was very strange that the president failed to publicly back his education minister Athena Michaelidou when Elam called for her sacking, because student excursions to the north were being arranged. Elam took great exception to the fact that these excursions were being organised by a German NGO funded by the German government. “It is inconceivable to allow an NGO, with dubious intentions, to invade our schools and promote such actions,” the party said in an announcement that accused the education ministry of “not serving Greek Orthodox education”.

Edek expressed the same sentiments, although it stopped short of calling for the minister’s resignation. The intentions of the NGO Historic Dialogue and Research, which was given access to our schools was “dangerous” said Edek reminding that it had always been opposed to the opening of crossing points and did not approve of visits to the north for any reason. Edek and Elam were in the same camp as Tatar in opposing this programme.

It was rather sad that the education minister received no support from the government, which did not respond to the attacks from the ultra-nationalist parties that want no contact between the two communities. Even Michaelidou adopted an apologetic tone in responding to Elam instead of defending the programme and highlighting its positive effects. She made it clear that the ministry had no involvement in the activities undertaken by schools within the programme’s context, while visits to the Green Line and occupied area were not during school time and students had the consent of their parents. Schools were not involved in organising these visits.

And if they were, would this have been a betrayal of the country as the pro-partition media and parties maintained? The government should never allow these supporters of partition to intimidate and bully anyone attempting to build a little trust between the two sides. The president cannot criticise Tatar for cancelling Turkish Cypriot participation while saying nothing when Greek Cypriot parties are calling his government to do the same.