A comment on an article from the dusty press archives

Below you find an article, published in the Greek-Cypriot daily Neos Anthropos and reproduced a few days later, on 19.3.1952 by the Turkish-Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi. The article is written by G.Ioannidis, K.Koliannis and P.Roussou and its title is “Liberation Struggle of the People of Cyprus - The Turkish Minority”. Here are some excerpts:

"The problem of Turkish minority is the main problem in the anti-imperialist struggle. And the AKEL has to put its policy on these problems with seriousness and certainty... It is obvious that the Turkish-Cypriot worker will not believe in the slogan of enosis with Greece...The Turkish-Cypriots do not believe in the Greek-Cypriots and they don’t trust the Akelists. Because they don’t trust the chauvinism of Great Greece... There has to be a single party of the working people. This can be the National Turkish Branch of this single party (AKEL)... Turkish problem in Cyprus is a special national question within the whole National Question. If the AKEL does not have a complete national policy for the Turkish minority, it will not be able to deal both with the enosis cause and the Greek National Cause..."

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Has the AKEL developed anything concrete in this respect since 1952 when this article was written or since 1974, when the so-called Minorities Department was closed down because of the de-facto partition? Is it because of this vital failure that we experienced the division of the Cypriot Working Class Forces, in 1958 physically and in 1974 geographically? Since our struggle is common, why are we still not in a position to form a united front of the G/C and T/C working masses?

 

(HADE, bi-communal magazine, Nicosia, No.4, September 2001)