Last week I was in Athens airport and I heard a Greek lady saying ‘but who is this Anorthosis… and Omonia? Where are they from? Then I realised they are from Cyprus. Pfffffff’ she said making a spitting sound. Initially I thought she was upset about her lack of geographic knowledge, it wasn’t until I asked about the match that she, like most Greek ‘hate’ Cyprus right now, because we beat them, and they do not understand why a country, well technically half a country, thanks to their junta, can defeat them.
When Anorthosis arrived, Olympiacos’ fans actually attacked the football players bus, forcing the driver to stop for two hours until the riot police turned up. After the match the president of Anorthosis was attacked, raising questions about Greek security at football venues. If you can’t protect the head of a football team, what chance do the supporters have? And last night, the Greeks were calling us Turks. So the Greeks were trying to put Cypriots down by using the word Turk as an insult. Racist is the only way to describe it. Even Cypriots, having half the island occupied by Turkey does not show such a high degree of racism towards Turks or the Greeks.
In that case, if they dislike living or being with the Turks (as they now refer to Cypriots) then the Greeks who come to Cyprus visa-free and with a welcome committee at the airport can pack up and leave. No one is asking them to live in Cyprus; Nicosia is now filled with Greeks. Obviously if you live here, Cyprus offers you something your country doesn’t, in the Greeks case, triple the amount they would make in Athens. And yet they come to Cyprus and behave superior to us, saying comments such as ‘you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for us’ and that ‘you have no literature or arts.’ But we have money and a more organised civil society. But that’s for another blog post about the delightful opinions of the Greeks.
During the match, Anorthosis’ supports were flying the Greek flag (not Cypriot) as they coincided with their teams colours, blue and white. Olympiacos’ colours are red. And yet the Greek still insulted the people who were holding their national flag. And this is what infuriates me; that Cypriots’ identity has to come from another country. One that clearly does not like us very much because… wait for it… we beat them at football. Only God know how much they must hate the Turks who beat them at war.
Don’t misunderstand me, I have nothing against the Greeks; their nations’ interests are often tied with ours (although each year this is become less likely) and our cultures mirror the other. I like Greeks, they are smart, witty and gutsy. But they also have something against the Cypriot ‘Rich Farmers’ and resent our own country’s success. They view Cyprus as a Greek island while regarding Cypriots as complete foreigners and believe that Cypriot politics weigh Greece down. And the football match exposed their dislike of Cyprus. But the real losers are us. Despite all this, we are still going to continue our total and insatiable love with Greece; we will revere Greece and continue to build our identity around them despite them wanting nothing to do with us. Some Cypriots want to be more Greek, Greeks don’t want this at all, or don’t even care. Let’s hope some of us realise this.
Finally allow me to congratulate Anorthosis, it’s a good day for Cypriot sport.
1 comment:
Thing is, Cypriots are like sheep.
They just follow suit with the crowd.
Yiayias and daughters and sisters, everybody talks about Anorthosis or Omonoia or Cypriot football in the last couple of days.
As it was with Baghdatis two years ago, or as it was with Pelendritou, the partially-blind swimmer. And these are just two recent examples.
In a glimpse of an eye, the media forgets all about them, and so does the crowd.
It's kind of an irony to cheer for things achieved by great people, and then just forget about it and get on with their lives.
Someone said something wise: "Cyprus eats its children". And it does indeed.
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