By Costas Zachariades
With the election of Tufan Erhürman in the north, for the first time in the history of the Cyprus issue, both communities on the island are led by politicians from the generation of those in their 50s - Cypriots born just before or shortly after the Turkish invasion of 1974. Tufan Erhürman was born in September 1970, and Nikos Christodoulides in December 1973. Both lived through the events of July 1974 only faintly and have no direct personal memories of the traumatic events that brought about the disaster of that year.
However, they have experienced and continue to experience the hardships caused by the invasion, occupation, and division of the island for over 50 years, affecting both communities.
They belong to a generation that grew up amid the struggles of displacement and exile faced by tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, with barbed wire cutting the island in two, and with no contact between the communities, nurtured by narratives portraying each other as “bad wolves.” More importantly, they are part of a generation that has felt, deeply and personally, how stagnant the country has remained and how much society, on both sides of the dividing line, has fallen behind due to the ongoing occupation and division that has lasted for more than half a century.
Now, holding the reins of the two communities, these two representatives of this disadvantaged generation - Nikos Christodoulides and Tufan Erhürman - have a historic opportunity to end these difficult 50 years, finally resolving the Cyprus issue and turning a new page for Cyprus and its people.
Their predecessors failed spectacularly because they carried the baggage of past eras, clung to dogmas and “red lines,” were primarily concerned with their own legacy due to their age, lacked courage and willingness to take risks or break with the past, and, above all, had no vision for the future or the next generations. They viewed the Cyprus problem as a burden rather than as an opportunity for a radically different future and a platform for progress and development.
It is not suggested that solving the Cyprus issue is simple or easy, that it depends solely on the leaders’ willingness, or that it ignores the significant challenges posed by external actors (notably Turkey) and internal pressures from factions within both communities opposed to a settlement.
However, the leaders of both communities can and must play a decisive role. If Christodoulides and Erhürman show determination and the necessary will to pursue realistic and mutually beneficial approaches, they will receive broad support from many quarters, both within Cyprus and internationally. Should they succeed, they will be remembered in history as the leaders who brought about the solution.
The challenge is great, but they owe it to the people to fight for it.