For many the Cyprus issue is a Greco-Turkish affair, all else is secondary. But for the first time in the history of the Cyprus issue this week attention was temporarily diverted to the needs of another lesser known Cypriot community – the Cypriot Maronites. Their plight long condemned as a crisis internationally has been for the most part ignored by the numerically larger and politically more influential Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, but is now the focus of a new campaign led by the progressive New Cyprus Party (YKP). Yet as can be expected YKP’s campaign reiterates that the key for saving the existence of the Maronite community rests in the hands of Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

A GREAT UPHEAVEL

One of the first things people point out about the Cypriot Maronites is their size. The community, whose ancestors came to Cyprus 1500 years ago from Lebanon, numbers some 6000 and are scattered around the southern areas of Cyprus. Yet despite being a ‘minority’ the Maronite did not endure minor suffering in the shared tragedy of the Cyprus issue. In 1974 almost the entire community dispersed around the south of Cyprus living as refugees but discouraged from returning to their ancestral villages: Kormacit / Kormakitis, Karpaşa / Karpasha, Özhan / Asomatos and Gürpınar / Ayia Marina.

As with all refugees from 1974, Cypriot Maronites suffered many losses. Not only were properties, churches and material possessions lost, life opportunities were also lost. Bright students were forced to abandon their dreams, businessmen saw their investments vanish, romances and friendships stop flourishing and plans of all sorts were mercilessly shattered in an instant. Those who chose to stay behind often lived in difficult conditions for many years with no schools and with military presence repeatedly restricting their every motion.

Change even minor change can be painful in the lives of most people at any one time. But abrupt major changes that separate families and break dreams are undeniably a tremendously heavy burden for anybody to have to bear. To survive it requires a lot of determination to continue living. The tragedy of this community is no different to what other Cypriot communities experienced except with the Maronites who lived almost entirely in the north the effects were earth-shattering. Removed from the focal point of their community and dispersed, 1974 is to the Maronites of Cyprus, what the Great Upheaval was to the Acadians of the Americas.  

ASSIMILATION

Dispersed into a sea of Greek Cypriots, many of whom were also refugees the process of assimilation inescapably followed with great speed lurching the community forward on the dark road of uncertainty. Today, younger generations of Cypriot Maronites face assimilation to the larger Greek Cypriot community through inter- marriage. Encouraging assimilation as an unofficial state policy, the Republic of Cyprus government now requires Maronites to do military service where the Catholic community is forced to swear an oath to Greek Orthodox symbols. Meanwhile the language of the community Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA) is now listed as seriously endangered. Left to die because it is neither Greek nor Turkish, only 150 enclaved Maronites speak CMA. A language which is our only window to antiquity is now condemned to die as the Republic of Cyprus government refuses to even recognise it as a language yet alone list it in the European Charter for the Protection of Minority Languages.

The situation is bleak for the Maronites but not incurable. This week Maronite Community Representative Antonis Hadji-Roussos gave an interview to Turkish-language publication Kibris Gazete for the first time speaking to Turkish Cypriot media. In his interview, Hadji Roussos warned that “in order for the Maronites to become a community again, they should return to their villages in north Cyprus.” Hadji Roussos said that if Maronites do not return to their villages, he is worried that the community will soon be extinct as a result of assimilation and mixed marriages.

Hadji Roussos noted that despite the fact that his community voted yes to the Annan Plan in order to regain their property and some political representation rights to maintain their existence, the outlook of the Maronite population is now uncertain after the failed Annan Plan. He said that the Maronites have no right to vote or to speak in the Republic of Cyprus House of Representatives and therefore they have no political influence. Hadji Roussos accused the Turkish army of turning the properties of the Maronites in the Maronite villages of Karpasha and Asomatos villages into military camps and of not allowing the Maronites to see their houses there and conduct their religious rituals.  

CAMPAIGN FOR RETURN

Again in the north, the issue of the Maronites was again brought to the fore this week by the New Cyprus Party (YKP). The party is launching a public campaign calling for the return of the Cypriot Maronite community to their homes in the north as part of a series of confidence building measures. Entitled: “Hemen şimdi, Maronitler evlerine dönsün!” (Let Maronites return to their homes right now!) the party and its activists reflect changing attitudes in Cyprus.  The campaign alongside similar campaigns calling for a "Demilitarized Nicosia" and "Let's Unite Famagusta" are designed to facilitate the solution process.  YKP claims a return of the Cypriot Maronite community to the north would have a positive impact to a solution of the Cyprus issue encouraging Cypriot multicultural society to flourish again. In its press release the party broke the myth that in Cyprus there are only Greeks or Turks adding: “It is our duty to protect all cultures of our island and to protect our multicultural colour.”

An almost moribund community, there is no doubt Maronites must too help themselves under such bleak circumstances by promoting and teaching privately if necessary their own language and culture, and in a world that is increasingly atheist, by finding new ways for its church to continue to reach out to the younger generations. But long put off until a solution, the YKP are right to identity the key to the survival of this community as lying ultimately in the hands of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. Effectively it is these communities who have the political power who will determine whether the Maronites survive or die.  

URGENT CALL TO SAVE THE MARONITES

In this urgent call to save the Maronites, Greek Cypriot legislators of the Republic of Cyprus must take Maronite issues as seriously as they do their own communal issues. If they are a government of Cyprus and of Cypriots, this ought to be automatic. If Turkish Cypriots too are serious about sharing the island in a federation which will inevitably return to being multicultural, their elected leadership must begin now to alter their attitudes and actions towards Cyprus’ minorities. Facilitating the return of the Maronites to the north does not mean asking occupants to move out of homes as many Maronite villages have long been abandoned in military zones but can be part of a step towards demilitarization. Their return, far from overwhelming Turkish Cypriot resources would be a gigantic leap forward in the transition to a solution. Last of all, and most significantly, saving a community from imminent death is a tremendous step towards peace and trust between the communities, and a prerequisite for restoring and embracing the island’s true multicultural character, which will undoubtedly form the backbone of any future federation.