Ulaş Barış writes: "Longing for That Photo..."

I've been thinking since I heard the news, but I can't quite place it anywhere.

Most likely, I won't be able to place it at the end of this article I'm writing.

You see, as you know, the Turkish President Erdoğan will be on the island on July 20th for 'celebrations.'

He will participate in various events, including speeches at the parliament. But without much ado—and keeping the 'parliament' part for another article—I want to move on to the news I heard and have been thinking about.

Fileleftheros, the best-selling newspaper in the South, announced yesterday: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is going to attend events condemning the occupation on the island on July 20th! He will even be the first Greek Prime Minister in history to do so!

But that's not all: For the first time in history, the highest officials of Turkey and Greece—President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Mitsotakis—will be on the island at the same time!

Oh my, what's going to happen now?

There are signs, rhetoric, significant meanings included, but making sense of it all under normal circumstances isn't easy!

Therefore, let's wrap it up:

On July 20th, on both sides of the island, rhetoric reaches its peak, tensions rise, various demonstrations are held, in short, hatred is at its peak.

Indeed, our routine expectation on these days would typically be: The Turkish side celebrates victory as if it were an achievement, stages demonstrations, plays the victim, acts out the duo of the Greek-Greek Cypriot, expresses limitless gratitude to Turkish army, and goes beyond limits...

Meanwhile, the Greek side commemorates their material and spiritual losses, condemns the occupation, organizations like ELAM demonstrate at the border with slogans like "The best Turk is a dead Turk," some insolent ones attack Turkish-plated cars, but they overlook one thing: the fact that the Cyprus problem didn't actually begin on July 20, 1974.

Let's set aside this issue to discuss another time, and let's continue our scenario. In conclusion, the island turns entirely into a frenzy of rhetoric, leaving no room for reason...

Therefore, when Erdogan speaks, he will take into account all this rhetoric and speak, while Mitsotakis will take into account the anti-thesis of the same rhetoric and speak, spreading messages of hatred and enmity.

Moreover, all this will happen during a period when relations between the two countries are unprecedentedly good in history.

All this while Greece is full of Turkish tourists on the Aegean islands; the two countries, again—not to say unprecedented but—through rare cooperation, nominate a joint candidate for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); and growth is seen in socio-economic activities between the two countries, especially in economic activities.

Why then?

In other words, what is the madness of the Cyprus problem?

Or let's put it this way: What is the captivity of the Cyprus problem?

While there is the opportunity to focus on work, earning money, and the welfare of the two countries' people, why should we stop and indulge in rhetoric, risking all this?

Yes, perhaps certain interest groups, various focuses, I don't know, maybe politics benefit from the Cyprus problem. Maybe profit is being made from this issue. But until when?

It's unsustainable, can't you see? Isn't it so difficult to give up?

Look, for example, my life is based on earning a living from the Cyprus problem. That is, I am a journalist known for this topic.

Tomorrow, if Cyprus problem solve, God forbid!, what will I do?

My boss Polat Alper is making fun of me in the face of this danger, saying, "I'll buy you a fabulous camera, and you'll switch to being a gossip reporter."

Imagine that—a gossip reporter in a Hawaiian shirt, with a belly! What kind of job would that be?

Yet here I am sacrificing myself for this: Let the Cyprus problem end, and let me be a gossip reporter!

Now, while I'm willing to sacrifice myself this much, it annoys me that others don't even lift a finger... I'm tired.

Okay, aside from the joke, what if things were like the scenario I'm about to write?

Suppose it's like this, just as I'll write the scenario below:

Since, historically for the first time, 'motherland' leaders are on the island... And relations are already like Romeo and Juliet...

If they were to go out, go to the border, walk through the Ledra Palace barrier, and stand in the middle of the buffer zone and shake hands...

There wouldn't even need to be a conversation.

Just that photo alone would be enough to bury the Cyprus problem in history.

Would that work?

I wish it would happen, besides saying that.

I swear, I've lived my whole life longing for that photo...

I've lived my whole life to make that announcement...

To tweet that, to see that infamous slogan come true...

Even just thinking about and imagining this while writing these lines makes me cry...

I don't know, maybe I've gone crazy and don't realize it.

Or if I haven't gone crazy, maybe there's hope for me.

I'm like the line from the movie 'About Dry Grass': "I'm tired of hope..."

I don't know, but as I said at the beginning of the article, since I heard the news, I've been thinking about it...

But I can't place it anywhere.

Maybe you can...