When they were accusing the resistance of the Cypriot nation against the violent invasion of 1974 as an aberrational act, the general argument of the politics of reality, was that even if the Cypriot issue was solved, no one would’ve gone back to the occupied territories.
The basis of this argument was based on the assumption that the people were more interested in their well being within the free area of their land.
Therefore as there are economic problems in the occupied territories, no one would go.
The reality of life is however different.
Because life is not merely politics.
It is also blood and earth.

Just within a few days the nostos had turned into passion and the nostalgia was no longer a bitter melancholy.
Within the past of the occupied territories, there’s also the future of Cyprus.
The constant public pressures upon the wall of oblivion created for themselves a new dynamic which is not a response, but a necessity.
The refugees have been experiencing for decades on, the need of the return.
The women with their course, Tasos and Solomos with their sacrifice, showed us the way.
They didn’t want to forget the occupied territories, they didn’t want to accept the amputation of memory.
And with our accession into Europe which becomes more real every day, the aberrational became the writings of history.
The lament of the mothers became an epitaph in the occupied territories.
Our empty churches are filled again.
It’s as if they were waiting for us.
Many centuries have gone by, that for them, some decades are not more than the nightmare of a night.

Even the delays that exists at the barricades are positive, because they’re creative.
Whether we like it or not, it forms the political context which by definition is diplomatically enslaved.
Just think of the interpretation of Europe who fought in its own way regarding the Cypriot issue, if after the opening of the checkpoints none of our own wanted to go to the occupied territories, if no one had gone back to bring even a bit of soil from our lands.
Merely the existence of this thought is frightening!
And if it’s hard to comprehend what that means, allow me to give a personal example.

When I came to Cyprus for the first time and up to then I only had pictures in my mind as a true Greek kalamaras, my friend Nikos Nikolaou gave me one of the most beautiful gifts of my life: a small plant pot with soil from the occupied territories.
And when my other friends from Paralimni, my co-villagers now, Andreas and Lena Papafilippou took me to Isaac’s grave, they gave me a flower, which I’ve planted in that pot, and which accompanies me since, whenever I write about our Cyprus .
The picture, even though is aberrational for some, nevertheless became a reality.

Pressing upon the wall of oblivion, our nation strengthens our memory.
That memory which they’ve wounded back in 1974. And it’s in practice indicative that we wish to live peacefully with the Turkish Cypriots. That’s why the conservative interpretations may be easy, but they don’t contribute anything.
When the Greeks during the Ottoman occupation often dedicated our churches to Aghios. Georgios, it wasn’t only due to religion, nor at random.
They knew that he was one of the rare saints who was respected by the Turks.
With this strategy many churches were saved in Greece.
There was a specific situation and they responded creatively!
If you can see a situation, then you ought to observe it, in order to know how you should move.
Closing your eyes to a situation doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.