THE WAY THINGS ARE

An Irish friend in Thessaloniki wondered why there was little coverage in Europe on the anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, a member state, part of whose land is illegally occupied. Where would I begin to explain the reasons why, not only in Europe but the UN, and even Cypriots after 51 years of political stagnation?

But possibly also because the Cyprus Problem has been all talk and no action while Turkey channels its monopoly of mainland citizens to outnumber Turkish Cypriots, possibly useful when it comes to voting as no one here is under the illusion that Mr Tatar is his own man.

Lessons from wars are often forgotten even though personal trauma can inhabit a mind and affect a life, long after a war has passed. War creates refugees or displaces populations. Cyprus speaks of struggle and refugees.

Yet placed beside the agony of Gaza or the exhaustion of Ukraine, we only struggle with our mouths, our refugees live in peace and comfort; the UN protects us. That is not to belittle what they have suffered or lost, but they had help to start afresh, as Ukraine had help from the willing West.

Yet, it took almost two years for European/UK leaders to awake from passive indifference to Israeli war crimes. Did VE Day reminders of being bombed, occupied, civilians shot en masse, niggle a nerve of guilt towards Palestine’s continued suffering and their complicity by inaction?

The Republican Irish used to say that Northern Protestants worried over Catholics there breeding like rabbits who would one day outnumber them with vote/people power; Israel implants settlers. De-population by batches is more subtle than mass extermination. Deliberate starvation, lack of medical aid, also accomplishes de-population by batches.

Most countries have a war to remember. Europe’s WWII included a Jewish genocide as America, now so concerned about Israel’s rights to defend itself, sat back and let events unfold until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour forced it to take part. At what time in the 21st century, as world leaders pay homage to victims of the Holocaust, will there be a similar day of respect to Palestine’s innocent dead when war crimes kept under wraps by Netanyahu’s ban on independent reporting have been investigated, and the guilt that should be owned by the IDF and its leaders can no longer be vacuously defended by cries of Anti-Semitism or self-defense?

In 1974, as a mother of two young children, I was staying with a neighbour, our menfolk had volunteered for the army. Shops closed, I walked around the area desperately trying to find basic food for my family. Now, when I guiltily eat a meal, as my radio reports children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza, I know what I ‘suffered’ then was nothing, but I feel their pain.  

My children cried in fear in the stifling blackout of hot nights as weapon fire resounded from the old town, or jet fighters pounded the Kyrenia Range, destruction visible from the veranda. I worried for friends ‘over there’ or that my husband might be taken prisoner or killed. I swore I would never again complain about routine boredom, but I do.

Word of a ceasefire in our short war was an unbelievable relief. I can only imagine how people in unrelenting war zones long for that to happen. My Irish friend, I lost count of how many protest letters I have written defending what I saw as lies being told about Cyprus since 1974, or how I confronted free PR-trip, Irish journalists who wrote of the messthat is Ayia Napa and Limassol compared with the pleasures of ‘the beautiful, unspoiled north’, reminding them of the occupation illegality, and of our own violent, North/South Irish political divide. I’ll write no more.  

Let those who are paid well, defend their comforts and their country with the fervour I once did.