Dr. Zinon Stavrinidis has an article on the internet, with title:
Dementia Cypria: On the social psychological environment of the intercommunal negotiations, 25 July 2009
http://www.inter-security-forum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77:dementia-cypria-on-the-social-psychological-environment-of-the-intercommunal-negotiations&catid=51:regional-security&Itemid=168
Well, then, if Mr. Stavrinidis finds it allright and appropriate to misrepresent the reality of the Turkish military occupation, we may as well judge it worthwhile to deal with his article. It is, indeed, a characteristic example of the way that the Kypros problem is misrepresented, the victim, rather than the invader himself, is found under accusation, and is then sent to the gulag of psychiatry.
So..., Mr. Stavrinidis's article is highly misleading, because it represents the facts of the current situation as a point of view of "the two sides".
That there is a foreign military occupation in Kypros, it is a fact. It cannot be aprroached as the view of this or that.
That the people of Kypros have been forced to abandon their homes, and are prevented from returning, is not a point of view.
It is indeed a fact that many Greeks and many Turkish Cypriots have a different perception of what has happened in the last 50 years. This different perception is also expressed in the intercommunal talks. But the existence of a difference of opinion, does not negate and does not wipe out elementary principles and ways with which we perceive social and political events.
Obviously, there was a difference of opinion between the black people of South Africa and the racist regime. Does that justify an approach that says, this side is saying these and these, this other side is saying these other things? Are we really ready to approach the struggle against South Africa apparthide as a difference of perceptions and opinions?
I am guessing that no, we are absolutely not willing to approach apparthide as a difference of perceptions.
We can produce a rather long list of political conflicts where, although there are indeed, and understandably, and unavoidably, two sides with different opinions and policies, we are nevertheless totally unwilling to take this difference as the major characteristic, much more and the cause of the conflict, and to perceive these conflicts as a difference in perception and opinion.
Human beings are not machines or stones, and so conflicts do shape the psychology of the people. But this is a secondary consequence, and in no way can it be regarded as the cause of the situation.
These things being like that, why is the problems caused by the Turkish military occupation approached as a difference in perceptions? Obviously enough, what such an approach does is simply to cover up the Turkish military occupation, and silently to introduce two sides. And indeed, two sides on an equal footing. No international law, no human rights, no justice. Just two quarelling sides, obviously both nationalists, and which we are now told that they may even fall in the glorious domain of psychology.
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Dementia Cypria: On the social psychological environment of the intercommunal negotiations, 25 July 2009
http://www.inter-security-forum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77:dementia-cypria-on-the-social-psychological-environment-of-the-intercommunal-negotiations&catid=51:regional-security&Itemid=168
Well, then, if Mr. Stavrinidis finds it allright and appropriate to misrepresent the reality of the Turkish military occupation, we may as well judge it worthwhile to deal with his article. It is, indeed, a characteristic example of the way that the Kypros problem is misrepresented, the victim, rather than the invader himself, is found under accusation, and is then sent to the gulag of psychiatry.
So..., Mr. Stavrinidis's article is highly misleading, because it represents the facts of the current situation as a point of view of "the two sides".
That there is a foreign military occupation in Kypros, it is a fact. It cannot be aprroached as the view of this or that.
That the people of Kypros have been forced to abandon their homes, and are prevented from returning, is not a point of view.
It is indeed a fact that many Greeks and many Turkish Cypriots have a different perception of what has happened in the last 50 years. This different perception is also expressed in the intercommunal talks. But the existence of a difference of opinion, does not negate and does not wipe out elementary principles and ways with which we perceive social and political events.
Obviously, there was a difference of opinion between the black people of South Africa and the racist regime. Does that justify an approach that says, this side is saying these and these, this other side is saying these other things? Are we really ready to approach the struggle against South Africa apparthide as a difference of perceptions and opinions?
I am guessing that no, we are absolutely not willing to approach apparthide as a difference of perceptions.
We can produce a rather long list of political conflicts where, although there are indeed, and understandably, and unavoidably, two sides with different opinions and policies, we are nevertheless totally unwilling to take this difference as the major characteristic, much more and the cause of the conflict, and to perceive these conflicts as a difference in perception and opinion.
Human beings are not machines or stones, and so conflicts do shape the psychology of the people. But this is a secondary consequence, and in no way can it be regarded as the cause of the situation.
These things being like that, why is the problems caused by the Turkish military occupation approached as a difference in perceptions? Obviously enough, what such an approach does is simply to cover up the Turkish military occupation, and silently to introduce two sides. And indeed, two sides on an equal footing. No international law, no human rights, no justice. Just two quarelling sides, obviously both nationalists, and which we are now told that they may even fall in the glorious domain of psychology.
-.
