*** "The sharks" are those who make money, gain benefits like "power", "status", "trips abroad" and "recognition" for something that they don't actually deserve since they never worked for it…
"The sharks of Cyprus…"
Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436
"They are like sharks", Kallis would say, with a movement of his hand, expressing the way the sharks would manoeuvre to the left and to the right…
"They smell money and they come" he would continue…
"The sharks" he meant were those who made money, who gained benefits like "power", "status", "trips abroad", "recognition" for something that they did not actually deserve since they would not put any real effort in what they were supposed to do…
"The sharks" Kallis was talking about were everywhere: Not just in official committees, in government offices, in semi-governmental positions but also in various "civil society organisations" who were meant to "represent" those who needed a voice in humanitarian issues…
There were so many examples around us and they kept popping up… But Kallis with just a look and a few sentences with any "probable suspects" would have a sure idea about what that person was actually after…
"He is a shark, be careful" he would warn me… "See, such people act very "clever" and wherever there is "power", they would smell it and go and look as though they are "friends" with this or that person… They would try to have connections with everyone in case they need it in the future…"
SHARKS OF THE CYPRUS CONFLICT…
They would not only use the issue of "missing persons" but also the actual "Cyprus problem" in order to gain "benefits" and become a sort of an "insider"… Such persons whom we knew very well would become like leeches around the diplomatic community in Cyprus, they would hang around the UN and UNDP and EU and they would be present in every single activity, every single cocktail party, every single reception – they would be the ones who would "advise" the foreigners in Cyprus about this or that issue, they would be the ones to "take care" of their "needs" to try to show that they were doing something "meaningful" in Cyprus… They would be the ones providing "services" in this uncanny way to the foreign diplomatic community in Cyprus – including the UN and EU and whoever concerned – so that such foreign communities would have something "nice" on their reports to show to the outside and this would also help them to climb up the diplomatic ladder and whatever that was concerned in order to gain something…
SEMINARS, INTERVIEWS, WORKSHOPS, PODCASTS…
Such people would arrange seminars, interviews, podcasts, workshops and whatever was "needed" by the UN and the other foreign communities who had to show that they were doing something meaningful in this partitioned island… Kallis would say "This is an industry!" about their "activities"…
Sure, it would not hurt to have peace activities on this island but who is actually involved in such activities? Who do they actually represent?
For instance trade unions from both parts of the island who have been cooperating since the late 1970s have completely been excluded from such UN and foreign diplomatic communities' activities…
NO FUNDING, NO INVITATIONS!
Those NGOs who did NOT take any "funding" from such circles but did activities on their own, without depending on outside funding would NEVER be invited to these receptions or seminars and their voice would practically be "killed" at the doorstep of the "buffer zone" where such activities took part… Even when such NGOs and trade unions who formed a broad front invited them, it would be extremely rare for them to even "show up" even for an event… Because what is there to boast about in your reports if you haven't actually funded them and show them as "progress" or "action for peace"?
ONLY FUNDED ACTIVITIES…
A very interesting case was that of a woman who had never been involved in any sort of bicommunal activity in all of her life… She had been busy making a career, teaching and progressing in a higher educational institute… And a time came when she would become an advisor to a politician at the highest level… And after he was gone, she would continue to do "funded bicommunal activities" with the full support of the foreign diplomatic community on the island of Cyprus… Noone would question the integrity, the past and the lucrative funding she had been receiving in order to hold such "activities for peace"… This was the very tragic face of Cyprus, allowing those who would only do "peace activities" if only there would be "funding for it". No funding, then no peace activities… She is not the sole example, there are many similar examples…
UGLY ARTICLES…
Another such a "shark" was actually another person who had written very ugly articles under a pseudonym when checkpoints had been opened. She had a column with a pseudonym in a right-wing newspaper and when the checkpoints opened back in 2003, she wrote some articles claiming that all those Turkish Cypriot women who went to cross to the southern part of the island were actually going there in order to "prostitute themselves", putting on nice dresses and make-up etc. Some Turkish Cypriot women NGOs protested her articles and her column was terminated but did she stop? Of course she did not… Some years later, when the EU was doing some activities in the northern part of our island, they would choose her place to do such activities. When some of the organisers of the EU were told of her "murky past", accusing the Turkish Cypriot women who crossed to the southern part of the island as "prostitutes", the organisers said "they did not know" but continued to hold their activities in her place… Again, she is not the only example of having "benefits" since those involved with giving out "funding", would not bother to check out the "integrity" or "honesty" of such "receivers"…
POWER FOR THEIR OWN NEEDS…
Another "shark" would set up several "associations" in order to get EU funding to do "research" and "work" on various areas about the "conflict"… We knew her well – it was not just about the "money" and the "funding" – she didn't actually need it – but those who get most funding are the ones who don't actually need it, it is more about "power" and using that power for their own needs and concerns…
"FIREWORKS…"
Throughout the years, we came across many sharks, not just on "humanitarian issues" or the "Cyprus conflict" but in any other area you can think of… Kallis called some of them "the fireworks"… "See, they would spark up and make a great show like fireworks, mesmerizing you but in the end, nothing will remain… Beware of fireworks" he would say to me…
Once he challenged one such "fireworks person" as he named him… He said, "Why don't you go and do this and this? Write this letter to the UN, do this research in this office etc.?" and as he predicted nothing came out of it… He would disappear after some time from the scene since he could not "benefit" from what we were doing on the humanitarian issue of "missing persons"…
Another one such shark contacted me and sent me his material and in the beginning I did not realize that he was a real "shark"… After some time he would call me and ask me to apply for "funding" in order to "write a book of stories together"… I would meanwhile realize that the stories he was writing were not actually based on truth but was "fiction"… I would tell him that I am not going for any funding for the stories and he would disappear very quickly from my life, just like a "shark" would swim away since there was no smell of "money"… Many others like him (both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots) would approach me to "apply for funding to write books about missing or shoot documentaries about missing persons" or "give all my material so they can produce stuff with it" and I would decline… I encountered many of them throughout the years. What I mean is they aren't just a few, our island is full of them in both sides…
"This is Cyprus" of course and there will always be "sharks" just as there will always be people with enough humanity to work voluntarily with all of their hearts in order to make this island a better place… What is interesting is that the foreign diplomatic community on the island is more than ready to get "services" from such "sharks", instead of touching the hearts of real people who work voluntarily for humanity on this land…
Painting: Autumnal Cannibalism by Salvador Dali, 1936…
Links in Greek and Turkish:
Article published in Greek in POLITIS newspaper on the 7th of July 2024:
https://politis.com.cy/apopseis/stiles/809470/-oi-karcharies-tis-kyproy
Article published in Turkish in YENİDÜZEN newspaper on the 10th of June 2024:
https://www.yeniduzen.com/kibrisin-kopekbaliklari-22141yy.htm
