At 15/01/03 22:52 -0800, you wrote:
More than 50,000 in Northern Cyprus means more than 80,000,000 in the US. This is some kind of a revolution I would say.Best, Sabri ++++++++++
I agree.
After waiting for decades you pinch yourself to believe it, but sometimes there are qualitative changes. About 10 days ago there was the unprecedented criticism of Dentash by the leader of the new ruling party in Turkey.
But this demonstration, so long awaited, has not been unprepared, even if it was invisible to us. Warm salutes to the tens of thousands of communists and democrats from both communities who have worked so long for this. I know something must have been happening under the surface, because they have long been many Turkish and Greek Cypriots living side by side in north London, without any violence. That will be a tribute to their marxist roots in their respective communities, working on the old fashioned principles of proletarian internationalism, whether they are Stalinist or eurocommunist by disposition.
The demonstrators carrying olive branches are similar to those carrying carnations at the fall of Salazar. This is like the fall of the Berlin wall.
The revolution depends on the conjucture of crucial economic and political factors. It includes the fact that the Turkish ruling class could no longer go on ruling with regard to Cyprus in the same way. It includes the thousands of protests to the European Union by those opposed to Turkish human rights abuses, and the refusal of Europe to admit Turkey without changes in human rights. It involves the ability of marxists and communists to blend with their own communities and still not totally lose their influence, even while having to make major compromises with the capitalist tendencies that are sweeping aside petty national differences.
There may still be many more difficulties and much more patient work to be done. And a revolution does not always occur on one day. But the day of this demonstration by a quarter of the population of northern Cyprus may be the true day of the Cypriot revolution.
Chris Burford
London
