Will the wall be torn down?

"The separation wall in Cyprus will fall when the international and European institutions will directly ask Turkey to withdraw its troops from the occupied northern part of the island". Diomides Diomidous, secretary general of the Democratic Labour Federation (DEOK) in Cyprus, put it in clear terms: "Turkey must leave the Turkish-Cypriot community free to negotiate a solution with the Greek-Cypriot community for the reunification of the island". For those like himself, fighting for the preservation and improvement of working conditions, for social justice and democratic values​​, the wall is an open wound causing the suffering of the island. Cyprus is still living the consequences of war and the invasion that saw the forced relocation of 180,000 Greek Cypriots to the south and the simultaneous migration of 50,000 Turkish Cypriots in the occupied north. Today, the Republic of Cyprus is a democratic state, a member of the EU, while the Northern part is occupied by Turkey. This situation is made ​​even more difficult by the recent discovery by the Greek Cypriots of oil and gas fields in their territorial waters, which Turkish Cypriots questioned for alleged trespassing. It is difficult and paradoxical at the same time as the complaint comes from a country, Turkey, which aspires to join the EU.The Pope’s historical visit. SIR Europe met Diomidous upon the conclusion of the international study seminar on "European 2020 strategies and Mediterranean Europe: structural challenges of the job market", promoted by the Christian Workers’ Movement (MCL), that closed on October 6 in Nicosia (Cyprus). Diomidous recalls the words of peace pronounced by Benedict XVI during his visit to the island in June 2020, "a historical event that showed to the rest of the world the suffering of our divided land as well as our historical and cultural civilization".The impact of the crisis. Since then, however, the division was accompanied by a social and economic crisis, which, the trade unionist says, "brought the unemployment rate from 2.8% at end-2008 to 11.3% in 2012, investing in the most important sectors of local economy, construction, trade and services, bringing the country to a serious budget deficit with serious consequences for public debt which rose from 48% in terms of GDP in 2008 to 75% in 2012. Youth unemployment has reached 27%, and an increasing number choose to study and look for work abroad. In Cyprus on a population of about 400,000 people, the unemployed are more than 40,000. The drastic government measures envisage cuts in salaries of civil servants, higher taxes, reduced welfare benefits, which, according to the unionist, further damage the poorer classes and the weaker brackets. These measures were criticized by DEOK, along with the standstill of real economy. "Many companies are laying off, thus we are forced to negotiate new contracts and labour conditions", said Diomidous, who spoke in favour of "the fight against tax evasion that would provide revenue to spur growth", for example "through investments for the green economy and renewable energy". These efforts seem to have had no response owing to Brussels’ directives stipulating that the country must undertake a tough fiscal and financial policy. Cyprus, it must be remembered, has requested aid to the Troika (ECB, IMF, EU) for the banking sector in crisis, due to exposure to Greece, and may need approximately 10 billion euro recapitalization.The EU is too distant. This is yet another open wound for the trade unionist of Cyprus: "the European Union is very far from the expectations of the people, of its sufferings. There is – he says – a veil of exasperation regarding EU policies. There cannot be bank and financial institution bailouts coupled by austerity measures that penalize labour. A large majority of Cypriots are in favour of the EU, but they ask European institutions to create development and labour. Too much rigor discourages consumer confidence and public investment in the real economy. The EU appears to be distant from people’s expectations". Thus DEOK’s commitment for labour and employment levels is particularly important. The initiative dates back to February 4, 1962, a turbulent period when the Cypriot working class, recently freed from British colonial rule, was in need of organization, vision, and passion. Today DEOK is present in the political debate through union activity for a decent job, for safe working conditions, minimum wage, for welfare and health care. Since 1988 DEOK sits at the government’s negotiating table on issues regarding the life of the country. With the Christian Workers’ Movement it also teamed up to promote European social dialogue in support of Italian and Cypriot workers and for the dissemination of social justice, solidarity and Christian values ​​in the workplace.