A ghost hovers over Cyprus, the ghost of justice. As of yesterday, justice committed suicide before the Supreme Court following the decision to extradite the Kurdish militant Kenan Ayas to Germany. He could not stand it. It could not stand its rape and the rhetoric condemning this man and committed suicide ostentatiously in front of its building and in front of its so-called spokesmen. By those who have decided to defame our land, to humiliate any sense of justice and human dignity, in the service of the German and Turkish authorities, to send a message of consent for all that Turkey is committing against the peoples, the Kurdish and Greek peoples in this case.
Along with justice, democracy has committed suicide. The guiltily pontiopolitan attitude of the Cypriot state, in a case that should have been closed on 15 March, is a burden on this Turkish-occupied state, which should have always stood by those who resist our conqueror. And yet, 63 days had to pass before it was made public – at the behest of the President’s communicators, probably – that President Christodoulides would raise the issue of Kenan Agia with the German Chancellor. Next week. And after a thousand and two opportunities for the President, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General to intervene, so that Kenan Ayas would not be treated as a common criminal.
Cyprus, however, in order to confirm its servility, eats its children. The Kurdish intellectual Kenan Ayas, who was recognised as a political refugee ten years ago and arrived on our island to live and fight for the justice of his homeland, was also its child. Here, he made a second homeland, absorbed the agony of Cyprus and connected the struggle of our peoples, as many others have done before. As did Theophilos Georgiades, whose ghost also hovers over the Supreme Court, expressing indignation and despair at the decision to reject the appeal of our brother Kenan.
“The trial was going on inside, but justice was outside.” Since then, the decision has sat as a sting in all of our chests. Darkness and shame darken the sky, from Limassol to Kyrenia and from Akamas to Karpasia. Cyprus has been involved in the cannibalism of Turkey and Germany, in the process of ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, in the silencing of those who resist the persecution of political beliefs, however much the judges who zealously condemned Agias as a member of the PKK, which we ought to bless, not denounce, may deny it. But he himself, proud and consistent, wished freedom to those who extradited him as the police officers pushed him into the cage of a democracy.
“Freedom for Cyprus, freedom for Kurdistan”, he said and formed the symbol of victory. Because he knows that the freedom of Cyprus passes through the mountains of Kurdistan and vice versa. The thick-skinned executioners, judges, politicians and those who wished to “send him back where he came from” stood by Turkey because they do not know how freedom is spelled. Nor will they ever learn. Keep well, our brother Kenan Ayas.