From heaven of 1955 to hell of 1974

I had the blessing of being born before 1955, i.e. before the start of the EOKA match which is one of the most important milestones in Cyprus’s newest history. I consider it a blessing because before 1955 E / C and T / C lived peacefully and brotherly. Social solidarity was then the main constituency of Cypriot society and relatable to immediate and widespread reciprocity.

Our homeland was, without exaggeration, a paradise. Of course, based on economic statistics the standard of living of that time, compared to ours today, was much lower but I’m quick to add that happiness is difficult to define, as different people may have very different concepts of happiness and therefore there is no scientific method of correlating happiness and economic prosperity.

While good living conditions certainly contribute to happiness, people in poor countries often express an amazingly high level of happiness in polls. For some people, fulfilling work and social relationships probably adds more to happiness than being able to enjoy luxury products that don’t feel their lack anyway.

More specifically, happiness depends more on a person’s mental state than on fulfilling desires and accumulation of goods, especially luxury goods. Our fathers and grandparents did not have air-conditioned homes but did not discomfort because they did not have this luxury so this lack of luxury goods did not affect their mental state.

In short, unlike us who have long joined the consumer society, our grandparents were satisfied with the goods they produced. Above all, they did not have the stress of uncertainty of the future. Instead they had peace of mind. They were not concerned, as we worry about tomorrow.

The thought of what would happen to them in 10, 20 years did not concern them at all. This is what the certainty exuded by the British Empire contributed to. So even if a country dared to look at Cyprus, its flirtation would spread to the 5 winds with the first roar of the British lion.

I also had the blessing of being born in a mixed village, Upper Lefkara. In all mixed villages, Greeks and Turks lived in harmony and learned from a young age to respect and accept diversity. The whole village participated in weddings, christening and funerals. In the evenings at the cafes, Greeks and Turks would meet to play backgammon, cards, pool or just talk.

This idyllic image of Cyprus was meant to destroy the maximalist struggle for the Union and by armed means. When we talk about the negative consequences of the EOKA struggle, little is said about destroying E / k and T / k friendship. Thinking about how different Cyprus would be today if we demanded together, like all colonies, independence and not Union which was an impossible goal.

Of course we were all in favor of the Union then after being lactated in the breasts of the broader but short-sighted Ethnarchy. We didn’t even know or believe that the leftist government elected after World War II in the UK would grant us independence as proved by the 1948. Interactivity.

After all, the then UK Secretary of State Ernest Bevin constantly said that it was a scheme an oxymoron for a leftist government to support colonialism (See F. Williams, ′′ Ernest Bevin: Portrait of a Great Englishman ′′).

In Lefkara, the first EOKA bombs froze the atmosphere. The police stopped coming to the E / C cafes, too, of course, happened in all mixed villages. When in 1958 the EOKA opened a front against the T / k, friendship was completely destroyed. Ending friendship was achieved by a feeling of intense hostility.

What followed in my village on January 2, 1964, i.e. a few days after the start of the bicommunity conflict sums up the tragedy that unfolded in many other parts of Cyprus. On that day the TGs went to work normally. Around noon it was spread that Samson and Lysaridis teams would go to slaughter the village Turks.

Before the spectrum of their burglary, all the T / k left (around 500) until dusk and went to Kofinou. Almost immediately hit ′′ patriots ′′ looters and looters who grabbed, traded and vandalized all T / k houses. This was the dramatic end of the multi-eternal presence of the T / k in Lefkara. The disaster occurred in just a few hours. Similar nightmare experiences had, of course, E / k from many villages in 1974.

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Picasso, influenced by the destruction of Guernica, created an enigmatic composition, with mutilated forms of humans and animals in black, white and grey. This huge composition is a tribute to the small town ruthlessly bombarded by the forces of fascism.

If the famous painter lived in Cyprus, another masterpiece would be inspired. He would probably paint a bloodstream monster that would represent fascism chasing in the midst of corpses of Cyprus on the brink and hooked by some skinny branches to avoid falling into the abyss….