Cyprus Marks 50 Years of Independence Amid Persistent Division

30 September 2010

Glafcos Clerides, president of the Republic of Cyprus from 28 Feb 1993 to 28 Feb 2003, Sep 2010

For 92-year old Glafcos Clerides, a British-educated lawyer and the first speaker of the Cypriot parliament, memories remain vivid of the young inexperienced first government of Archbishop Makarios.

"I can't describe that there were young politicians before the independence, because there was no parliament or no government elected in Cyprus," said Clerides. "There was a governor sent by the Colonial Office and he used to recruit some people round him, called executive councilors. It was an advisory body to the government, so there was not much political life in the sense that a democracy works."

One early consensus between new parliament members was they all saw a fundamental problem with the constitution, which was drawn to safeguard the rights of the nation's 100,000 Turkish Cypriots, as well as the 500,000 Greek Cypriot majority. For many it was a document that was woefully inadequate.

"There was a feeling of dissatisfaction after independence both on the Greek Cypriot side and the Turkish Cypriot side," said Clerides. "For the Greek Cypriot side, the struggle was not merely to get rid of the colonial rule, but to unite Cyprus with Greece. That was not achieved. On the other side, the Turkish Cypriots' concept, was if the British had to leave, then Cyprus must be partitioned. And they did not get that either. So there were two communities that were very disappointed."