Oh my beloved Cyprus

We are delighted to have received an article from John Aziz Kent, The Honorary President of the North Cyprus Hoteliers Association in which he talks about his love for his country, all its people’s and his ongoing understanding of the Cyprus problem and his views of how it could be resolved.

By John Aziz Kent

Oh my beloved Cyprus

In my personal diary I have been recording for a long time my thoughts about my beloved Cyprus and, with recent events, we have seen the Cyprus Republic receiving an EU bailout but with very painful conditions for so many people and worse still, there is still no sign of the Cyprus partition problem being solved.

I have been reviewing my earlier thoughts and taking into account the changes we have seen and I would like to share my thoughts with you, the readers.

“Cyprus is disappointing me every day. Cyprus is going nowhere especially for the Turkish Cypriot people.  They have got themselves so muddled up. They don’t know what they are doing, they live for the day, there is no vision of tomorrow whatever I can grab, I grab today, because I don’t know what they are going to do to me tomorrow is the attitude. I would like everyone to know this really and that is the reason that these people are always grabbing, especially in North Cyprus.

In the south they have a government that is recognised by the international community and even there they have problems, and yet it’s their fault. In the south it is the Cyprus Government’s fault, which is recognised, but their greed does not allow them to share anything, power or any of the economic gains they could get from the international community.

Now they might have got another lesson, they tried to borrow from Russia, from China and they gave them the impression they were going to lend them the money but at the end of the day they said, well go and get it from the European Union. The European Union now is beginning to say, well how can we lend money to a country that is chairing the European Union chairmanship for the next six months.

It’s a bit like “putting the foxes amongst the chickens” said the German Finance Minister. Wolfgang Schaeuble. How can we do that?

It remains to be seen and everybody suffers so Cyprus does not need all this. Cyprus has plenty of wealth, plenty of everything, everybody will come to Cyprus for tourism and that’s enough for us. Plus our agriculture plus our people and they are all over the world, Greeks and Turkish,

If we could utilize their resources, we could really, really make a very rich island and it will be the envy of the world for everyone to come to.

Now they’re finding gas and oil as well and yet they are poor! They’re poor? Well they’re not poor, they’re poor in the attitude, and they live the Ottoman Empire days coupled up with the Greek mythology. Where mythology ends, realities begin.

So those were my thoughts some months ago and time has moved on and we have a brand new President in the Cyprus Republic who has had the unenviable task of leading his country and administration into agreeing less than satisfactory terms to get a European Union Bailout.

What can be done I ask myself? I always thought, and still think, the solution to the problems of Cyprus is to come to an agreement with Turkey, the biggest and most powerful state in the region and it can be beneficial to Greeks and Turks alike.

Lift the embargoes on North Cyprus and open the Turkish airports and seaports which would be available to the Cyprus Republic and thus trade and tourism to both sides of Cyprus will quadruple in two years. And of course if Turkey joins the European Union it will be Enosis (union) for Greece, Cyprus and Turkey alike and simultaneously.

Half a century ago the concept of Enosis between Cyprus and Greece led to the impasse we have today and if we all believe in peace and harmony, then agreeing a federal solution with equal rights for both sides is the most sensible solution.

My final thoughts are that peace and prosperity can be achieved through tourism and co-operation.