I must confess, this whole saga around the much-vaunted Great Sea Interconnector cable and the supposed “tensions” between Athens and Nicosia feels dangerously like the ghost of the old Joint Defence Doctrine of Greece and Cyprus. Another of those topics we invent from time to time just to fill our political agenda. Energy cables, strategic depth, shared visions, we bring them up, decorate them with flags and grand speeches, and then abandon them halfway through.
Ankara, of course, watches and laughs. Because it knows that Cyprus, no matter how hard it tries to hide behind declarations about energy bridges and strategic depth, can do nothing without it. And we, instead of facing the obvious, keep stirring the pot: talking about electrical interconnection, defense cooperation, and common visions, while in practice we can’t even build a proper digital platform that serves the citizen.
The GSI affair is a case in point. A project that began as a step toward ending energy isolation has turned into a battlefield of rivalries, suspicion, and declarations of “sovereignty.” We taste the chorba and something’s missing, though we know full well that for the soup to come together, it takes the right oriental spices, and the whole neighborhood has to join in. Otherwise we face our timeless problem: a mix of grand plans and petty political insecurity. And in the end, no one remembers why it began or who needs it more.
Behind every cable, every doctrine, and every joint statement lies the same Cyprus, struggling to fix traffic, serve a patient, or deliver social justice. So allow me to suggest my way: before dreaming of marriages, strategies, and interconnections, let’s start with a flowerpot. If we can manage not to let the plant die, then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be ready to handle something more complex than a joint defence soup.