4 August 2025 - The lack of a solution fuels injustice, insecurity and division.
The illegal detention of Greek Cypriots in the occupied territories is an unacceptable provocation that demands a serious and targeted response.
However, the proposal to close the checkpoints, which was suggested and promoted by EDEK, ELAM, the Deputy President of the Environmental Movement and the Vice President of DISY Yiannis Karousos, is not a solution, but a trap. This is populism, which may satisfy anger, but in essence serves those who want two separate states in Cyprus like Ersin Tatar.
Closing the checkpoints will not put pressure on the occupying power, rather it will put pressure on citizens themselves, it will cut off every bridge of communication, it will forbid them from visiting their homes and villages or going to their jobs and it will legitimise, in the eyes of the international community, the logic of permanent separation. It is precisely the argument invoked by the most extreme voices: “them over there, us over here”.
It will be a political own goal with incalculable cost, with the signature of the Republic of Cyprus, which will make it accountable to the international community.
In this crisis, there were Turkish Cypriots who showed practical solidarity: journalists who spoke out publicly against the detention, Mustafa Akinci who condemned it, and five Turkish Cypriots who offered to post bail for the release of those arrested. These voices prove that intercommunal relations are working positively. Cutting them off would be strategic suicide.
Cyprus needs responsible, strategic politics, not soul-stirring moves that undermine the very prospect of reunification and liberation. Volt calls on the parties and executives who promote this dangerous position to assume their responsibilities and stop playing with the future of the country for petty party interests. And like every other aspect of the Cyprus problem, the property issue cannot be settled fairly and effectively as long as the Cyprus problem remains unresolved. For this, citizens pay the damage and suffering.
Real resistance to the occupation is not about closing doors, it is about building bridges and using them to demand a solution.