Activist Iasonas Apostolopoulos has responded through SigmaLive to what he calls the “slander of insulting Cyprus,” following criticism of a recent social media post linking solidarity for Palestine with silence over Cyprus.
In his statement, titled “A necessary response to the slander of ‘insulting Cyprus’,” Apostolopoulos said:
“Dear friends in Cyprus, you may not know this, but every time solidarity with Palestine is expressed in Greece, the standard reply from the Greek right is: ‘Yes, but you say nothing about Cyprus.’”
He argued that there is “no greater vulgarity than using Cyprus as an alibi to justify a genocide,” nor a greater contradiction than “denouncing the Turkish occupation of Cyprus while supporting or remaining silent about the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
“If you accept the legitimacy of one military occupation anywhere, you accept it everywhere,” he wrote.
Apostolopoulos added that those who invoke Cyprus as a counterpoint to Palestine “remain silent for the other 364 days of the year about the Turkish occupation, Varosha, the enclaved, and the missing persons.”
“They remember Cyprus only when someone dares to stand with the Palestinians – not to defend another occupied land, but to smear the idea of solidarity.”
He concluded:
“Anyone who truly cares for Cyprus has nothing to fear from ‘Freedom for Palestine’. On the contrary, they have everything to gain, because every voice raised against occupation, displacement, and destruction also strengthens Cyprus’s own cause.
In reality, they don’t tell you to ‘speak for Cyprus’ – they tell you to ‘shut up about Palestine’.”
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