AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou address at the award ceremony for the winners of the 3rd Bi-communal Photography Competition organised by AKEL and the Left – GUE/NGL Group on the theme “Cypriot Culture – The Culture of all Cypriots”

 

 18 December 2021, Chateau Status, Buffer-zone, Nicosia

On behalf of AKEL, but also on behalf of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left Group GUE/NGL in the European Parliament, I would also like to welcome you to the award ceremony of our 3rd Bicommunal Photography Competition, which has now become a custom.

With the light, time and the indomitable spirit of the 49 photographers who participated in the competition as raw materials, we have before us today unique photographs that embody the common culture of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, the human nature of the moment, the history of our people, our own truth.

Each photo shot is a search for reality, a journey through history with our cultural ties in mind, a revival of our common tradition.

The photographic lens captures a story, reveals subconscious perspectives and seeks answers.   Photographs ranging from names such as the “Coffee Hour”, to “Ermou 1900” and subsequently to the carob picking…The Grandfather, Clay, the Cypriot embroidery with silk cocoon, the Lefkara village Embroidery, the donkey, Old Nicosia…the Harvesting season, clearing grass, Fishing for a life.

Through these glossy images, the photographers, in the role of a witness, reveal a page of our culture, projecting our identity and illuminating empathy in our relationships. They revive our culture as a means of awakening and cultivating consciousness, a field that provides us with an infinite power to fight back against what tries to enslave us.

Our common culture is our indestructible strength in the struggle we are waging for a humane and just world without exploitation. Our driving force in our struggle for survival, freedom, social prosperity and justice. All the more so today, when the sirens of nationalism, racism, the violence of ongoing wars, the violation of human rights, the exploitation of human beings and barbarism sound louder than ever before!

The photographs of these Cypriot photographers are a poem, a common code of communication, our past and our future, the beacon of the common struggle of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots for peaceful coexistence in a free and reunited Cyprus, the common homeland of all Cypriots.

Therefore, guided by our common culture, each from our own perspective, talking to our roots and looking to the future, we will continue to resist, for our common homeland, for the lifting of the occupation and the reunification of Cyprus and our people.