THE SEARCH for a new ethnarch appears to be over. Archbishop Georgios, who kept a low profile in his first year as head of the Church, revealed his intentions to take on the role in the last few days, although his fire and brimstone Christmas message hinted at this unholy but patriotic agenda.
His speech, at an event to mark the anniversary of the enosis referendum held by the Church in 1950, was a wake-up call to the slumbering Greek Cypriot who did not realise that “never before, even without an independent state, were we in as great a danger as today.” The “signs were many and evident.”
The good news was that the priests would take over the unyielding struggle. “If the polity, at some point bows to pressure, the Church will not hesitate to lift the weight of the 4,000-year history of Hellenism in Cyprus,” he asserted, before reprimanding his flock.
He pilloried the “national discoloration, demographic collapse, productive decay, cultural decadence, distortion of the demographic physiognomy of free areas, disconnection with the Orthodox tradition from our identity and linguistic alienation.” Amen.
ON THE SAME day he held an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod at which he again advertised his ethnarchic aspirations. He decided to restore the dethroned bishop of Kyrenia, Kyprianos who passed away dethroned many years ago.
Kyprianos was one of the three bishops who had dethroned Makarios in the early 1970s on the reasonable grounds that as head of state he could not also be head of the Church. The three were dethroned a few months later by a Major Synod, called by Makarios.
In 1982, then Archbishop Chrysostomos called a Major Synod to restore the three priests whatever that meant. One was dead, the other accepted but Kyprianos, showing a rock and roll attitude, made it clear he did not want his dethronement reversed.
Georgios, however, to show what a magnanimous ethnarch he can be, persuaded the Synod to lift the dethronement on Monday, showing complete disregard for the wishes of Kyprianos, who has been dead a long time. Was he hoping that by ignoring the dead man’s wishes he would give him access to paradise?
THE SYNOD also decided to write to all the bishoprics of Greece to ask them to mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish occupation of Kyproulla just as they had marked the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek revolution against Ottoman rule in 2021.
Marking the start of the 1821 Greek uprising against the Turks was something to celebrate. So how 50 years of the Turkish invasion could be marked in the same way, I am too stupid to understand. Perhaps Georgios is following the Makarios example of rallying the support of the Greek public for his positions against their governments. It may be necessary to remind Greeks of the occupation now the governments of Greece and Turkey are going through a new romance.
The last ethnarch was a total disaster for the country. He failed to achieve any of his objectives, apart from his self-aggrandisement, and as president managed to lose 40 per cent of the Republic’s territory to Turkey. If Georgios becomes a new ethnarch I would agree with him that never before “were we in as great a danger as we are today.”
NOBODY expected the appointments of the boards of the semi-governmental organisations to go smoothly after the accidental cabinet reshuffle, and they did not.
A few hours after the nobodies who think they will become somebodies by sitting on the board of Cyta or EAC were announced, Prez Nik II revoked the appointment of an Elamite because the social media mob demanded it. The prez did not have the authority to do this because the appointment had been ratified by the council of ministers and only that body could have revoked it, but he is so terrified of going against public opinion he acted immediately.
Konstantinos Kostalias, who had been appointed to the board of Tepak university, came under a merciless attack because he had shown support on social media for the head of the Greek Junta, Colonel Papadopoulos. He was denied his right to become a somebody because of his politically incorrect views. That’s social media democracy for you.
APPOINTMENTS were based on the laughable system, inaugurated by the Prez, whereby the losers that wanted a seat on an SGO board could submit applications to the so-called Consultative Council, which would vet them and forward the names to the council of ministers for final approval.
It is the type of political showbiz that the prez specialises in. He claimed this would ensure there was no rusfeti, as the consultative council would recommend capable nobodies to the cabinet. Almost every appointment was rusfetological, a host of his supporters during the election campaign getting positions.
The fact that Diko and Edek publicly expressed satisfaction with the appointments is emphatic proof that rusfeti was rampant.
A COUPLE of months ago at a meeting at the presidential palace the leaders of Diko, Edek and Dipa complained to Christodoulides the consultative council would prevent them getting their people appointed.
Their line was that ‘we elected you so that we could get a share of the spoils of power and have our people appointed to boards and state posts’. The prez’s response was that they should not worry – ‘tell the people you want appointed to apply to the consultative council and they will be appointed.’
Responding to comments from Akel and Disy about the way he had handled the appointments, Nik II told hacks on Saturday “every innovation and significant reform sparks reactions.” Finding a less brazen way to conduct rusfeti qualifies as significant reform?
If this great innovation actually reduced rusfeti the reactions to the appointments would have been by the idealists of Diko and Edek, not the commies of Akel, who had a legitimate gripe as their applicants were all rejected by the consultative council. And it was not because some expressed sympathy for Stalin, a much nastier dictator than Colonel Papadopoulos.
YOU HAVE to admire the positive spin the Prez manages to put on his vacuous statements. Speaking to hacks on Saturday, he thanked the consultative council and praised his innovation.
“Fellow citizens, for the first time, had the opportunity to express interest in participating in the boards of SGOs. Many of them, he added, will participate in SGOs for the first time.” Really? Has it never happened before that some appointees will participate in SGOs for the first time?
Before Nik’s election were all fellow citizens participating in SGOs for a second time? As for the opportunity to express interest in participating, why does he not extend this to ministerial appointments as well? Next time he unintentionally decides to reshuffle the cabinet, he could invite applications so that fellow citizens could become a minister for the first time.
AKEL battleaxe deputy, Irene Charalambidou issued a statement demanding the resignation of the state official who had refused to undergo a second alcotest when stopped by the cops.
And if she failed to do so the prez should demand her resignation because the refusal to have a second test constitutes a criminal offence, she said.
She was referring to Law Commissioner Louisa Zannetou, who had been pulled over by the cops and asked to take the breathalyser test. The cops believed she did not breathe in the way she was meant to, and demanded she take another test but she flatly refused and drove away.
As the Law Commissioner she was perfectly entitled to disobey the cops, although, from what I hear, to her credit, she did not use the ‘do you know who I am?’ gambit.
