By Antonis Elias Kasapis<\/p>\n
I am a Cypriot.
\nNeither Greek nor Turk.
\nI am of Christian Catholic Maronite religion, not because I chose to be so but because I was born into it.
\nI have many close relatives who are of different religions, Christian Orthodox, Moslem, Christian Protestant, and others.
\nI love Cyprus and it is my only country, my motherland.<\/p>\n
I was born in Cyprus 60 years ago, in 1956.
\nIn a place near my village, there is a military camp which existed in all my life.
\nIn this camp, I saw three different flags. First it was the British Flag, then it was the Greek Flag, and then, since today, it was the Turkish Flag.
\nThe flags of three different countries, supposedly the guarantors of my own country, the Republic of Cyprus.<\/p>\n
In all my life I have been learning about the same things, in two different ways.
\nWhat was good for the Greek speaking Christian Cypriots was bad for the Turkish speaking Moslem Cypriots. And vice versa.
\nWhat was a heroic act for the one side, was a barbaric act for the other one.
\nWhat one side called a massacre, was called fighting for freedom by the other side.<\/p>\n
Both sides have been \u201cfighting for liberty and justice\u201d for decades.
\nAnd the result?
\nWe have made our country, from a beautiful island in the Mediterranean which could have been one of the happiest places in the world, into one of the most unhappy places on earth.
\nWe have turned it into a place where our children have no future.
\nWe have given half of it to one \u2018mother\u2019 country and the other half to the other \u2018mother\u2019 country, who use their respective halves for their own purposes, not really being concerned about the real welfare of the legitimate inhabitants of the island, the real Cypriots.
\nAnd the third \u2018guarantor; power, Britain, having secured what was wanted by her, watches indifferently, taking care only to prolong the stalemate, playing the divide and rule game, and really being concerned only about safeguarding its own interest in continuing to use the \u2018sovereign\u2019 bases on the island freely and without any problems by the locals, who are kept busy fighting between them. Can we blame them?<\/p>\n
Every time there is even a theoretical chance for some kind of a solution to be reached, the powerful forces that have big interest in keeping the island divided and the status of uncertainty continuing, intervene and make sure they destroy the progress towards the solution.
\nThey have set supposed \u2018red lines\u2019 beyond which they are not able to accept a solution.
\nThey make sure that these red lines are so far apart that a solution will be impossible.
\nThey use their influence in the education system of each side, the religious establishment of each side, the public media and propaganda machines of each side, to present a possible agreement, where compromises beyond the artificial \u2018red lines\u2019 will have to be made, as unacceptable betrayal of the nationalistic pride of their side.
\nThey hide their economic and other parasitic interests behind the mask of patriotism and religion.<\/p>\n
These are the real enemies of the people of Cyprus.
\nThese are the main responsible people for the suffering of the people of Cyprus.
\nThese are the enemies that we must face and we must overcome if we will ever manage to change our beautiful country to what it should be, the ONLY motherland for ALL its own children, of any religion, of any language, but of ONE motherland, Cyprus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Antonis Elias Kasapis I am a Cypriot. Neither Greek nor Turk. I am of Christian Catholic Maronite religion, not because I chose to be so but because I was born into it. I have many close relatives who are of different religions, Christian Orthodox, Moslem, Christian Protestant, and others. I love Cyprus and it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"category-46"},"yoast_head":"\n