Forty two years ago this week, Cypriot trade unionist members Derviş Kavazoğlu and Kostas Misaoulis, two friends who believed in the unity of Cyprus and Cypriots were murdered together in their car by extremists. Their bodies riddled with bullets was a warning to all those who defied the imposed segregation of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Forty two years later, we are beginning to dismantle division, while our Cypriot leaders prepare for talks that will lead to reunification. But part of inventing the possibility of unity and undoing partition and the suffering caused by paramilitary groups in both communities is to honour those who paid the ultimate price for the unity of Cyprus and Cypriots. 

BRAVERY

Derviş Kavazoğlu and Kostas Misaoulis were both members of AKEL, the Cyprus Communist Party and trade union members of PEO" (Pancyprian Federation of Labour). Despite their political affiliation, which nobody can deny, in my eyes the struggle of these men was above party politics and transcended deeper. They were part of mass movement of Cypriots fighting for Greek-Turkish friendship and a common united Cyprus. Derviş Kavazoğlu and Misaoulis both attempted to convey a message of peace, friendship and brotherhood among the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities at a time when paramilitary activity was at its peak in Cyprus.

Perceived as a threat by paramilitary extremists who fought for partition on the one side and Enosis (union with Greece) on the other, both men were targeted and Kavazoğlu was asked to resign from the ethnically mixed PEO trade union. As Sevgül Uludağ mentions in her account of the life of Kavazoğlu, paramilitary groups did not approve of his membership of a mixed trade union and political party. Multiculturalism as a concept then was unheard of. Trying to paint the impression that it was not ‘normal’ for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to be friends and in a bid to warn off others, paramilitary extremists ambushed both men on the Nicosia – Larnaca road on April 11 1965; their bodies, which fell on top of one another were riddled with bullets. The killers were never apprehended and never faced trial for their murder. The sacrifice of these two men still inspires each sincere supporter of reconciliation and peaceful coexistence today regardless of their political affiliation. 

But their assassination was not an isolated incident. Other Cypriot progressives also paid the ultimate price for believing in the unity of Cyprus. Ontar Sella, Ahmet Yahya, Ahmet İbrahim, Ayhan Hikmet, Ahmet Gürkan and many other progressive Turkish Cypriot patriots were killed by paramilitary groups and never has any of the perpetrators been brought to justice. The aim of the paramilitary groups as always is to terrorise and intimidate the Cypriot population into silence.  
 

UNCHANGED

Forty two years later in Cyprus paramilitary extremists still attempt to intimidate writers, journalists and poets. Spurts of mobocracy on both sides of the Green Line still threatens anybody who speaks of the unity of Cyprus. At times, nationalists have beat students, harassed events of reconciliation, and threatened anybody who talks of the crimes of nationalists. And yes, they even kill.

In 1996, Kutlu Adalı, a Turkish Cypriot journalist and columnist for Avrupa Newspaper was murdered by right-wing extremists outside his family home in İnönü / Sinta, near Famagusta. His wife who has been campaigning for years for an autopsy and investigation into her husband’s death still does not know how her husband died, who killed her husband, while the killers roam free. During the 2004 Elections in the north of Cyprus, the home of the then opposition party CTP was bombed. At the same time, in the South, voters were intimidated by extremists into voting No, some had their vehicles smashed. Last year the same newspaper was bombed and its journalists threatened. In recent years the "Grey Wolves" (an ultra-nationalist paramilitary group from Turkey), together with "Chrisi Avgi" (a similar organisation from Greece) still operate on both sides of the Green Line. Cypriot peace makers still live their lives in fear. 

INSPIRATION

You would wonder with so many threats and risks….why do people bother? Bravery inspires bravery. It is the bravery of Kavazoğlu and Misaoulis and their refusal to conform to the idea of partition that had inspired Cypriots out of their own initiative to meet abroad before the Green Line Checkpoints were opened. It is the bravery of these men and others alike that inspire our writers and poets today to write what was once forbidden. It is this bravery that has inspired our journalists in Cyprus to finally dig up the past. Bravery gives birth to bravery, and that is why the Republic of Cyprus Ministry of Education defied segregation to create the first state multicultural school with language support for Turkish speaking students and Turkish lessons for Greek speaking parents with children singing songs in both languages. These brave acts continue all the time…

Attacked by nationalists in his own community, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat demonstrated his Cypriotness and bravery by buying an ice-cream south of the Ledra Gate while taking the time to talking and shaking hands with Greek Cypriot shoppers and shop keepers. In the end, Talat could barely carry the gifts he was given. Never has a Turkish Cypriot leader been so warmly welcomed by members of the Greek Cypriot community. 

SYMBOL OF FREEDOM

In a struggle people usually subscribe to an ideology and for some non-nationalist Cypriots that was a leftist ideology but what they believed in is what people share in common, not what separates them.  Brave, Kavazoğlu and Misaoulis believed in the unity of their island country against partition and Enosis, both of which they saw as harmful to Cyprus. They paid for their beliefs with their lives to create a country where (as John Rawls’ Theory of Justice suggests) where it does not matter if you are a Turkish or a Greek speaking Cypriot (or the other Cypriots or non Cypriot), rich or poor, old or young, educated abroad or at the university of life.  Their dream was a threat to people who like monocultures, "people like us". 

So whether you subscribe to Left wing Cypriot politics or not is absolutely immaterial. The real difference between the killers and Derviş Kavazoğlu and Kostas Misaoulis is not one of politics. In a democracy there is no smoking gun in the ballot box and in politics there is no acceptable intimidation. As our Cypriot leaders negotiate a reunified Cyprus, Cypriots of all backgrounds should feel free to honour those who gave their lives by their deaths, but those who gave their lives to keeping alive the belief that one day Cyprus would get the solution that Cypriots deserve - together not divided.