About three weeks ago the grim remains of 4 Turkish-Cypriots were uncovered on a worksite on the outskirts of the village, after a tip-off. A reminder of the dark, turbulent 60s that Ktima and Cyprus endured and is paying for to this day. The men had been killed by a band of Greek-Cypriots and hurriedly dumped in a shallow grave, only to be discovered almost half a century later, as verified by local Koniates and historical hearsay.
Nearby followers of ELAM (National Popular Front) commemorated the event by daubing the pristine concrete wall with the evocative ‘Long live ELAM-EOKA – may the murdered rot in hell’. That lasted a week. The wall was soon whitewashed and after a few days replaced with ‘F**k the fascists – ELAM=EOKA B’.
A matter of days later, the message was whitewashed yet again and replaced by ‘Greeks be proud – down with the communist traitors’.
Only one day later, and a richer white paint salesman prepares the concrete canvas for: ‘Fascists – rotten to the roots’.
ELAM then upped the stakes by hijacking a huge motorway billboard a few hundred meters further down with a hastily stitched together banner proclaiming: ‘Not even a centimetre of land to a Turk’
The petulant game of slogan tennis will no doubt continue for a while yet, much to the amusement of passing motorists. Amusing, that is, till you take into account the sentiment and long-term harm the rise of a bigoted, racist and extreme-right party such as ELAM will have on the jobless generation. Associating themselves with EOKA rekindles old ill-feeling and prejudices on both sides of the buffer zone. Sadly, the parallel of ELAM and the rise of the Nazi party in the 30s will be lost on Cyprus school-leavers with a controlled historical education.
The only good to come out of this neo-Nazi electioneering? ELAM’s finest are advocating that no Greek-Cypriot should cross the line to the North.
How nice to think that those of us that do take advantage of the freedom of movement since 2003 and make the attempt to meet compatriots on the other side and attempt to make amends, can do so without the hindrance of the blinkered, retrogressive, paint-splattered sloganeers throwing nails in our path.
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