The war in Ukraine – Article by Andros Kyprianou – Former General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL

 

Sunday 20 March 2022, “Haravgi” newspaper

Much has been said and is being written about the disastrous war in Ukraine.

The war launched by Russia against Ukraine violates international law. It violates the sovereignty of an independent state and its territorial integrity, which, together with non-interference in the internal affairs of states, constitute component parts of international law that must always be respected.

Everyone must adhere to this position regardless of who the aggressor is and who is being attacked. It cannot be that when Russia attacks that we should be enraged and furious, but when the US, NATO or the EU attacks we “turn a blind eye” or vice versa. There are numerous such examples of Western hypocrisy: Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and of course Cyprus. The same applies, of course, to who is under attack. It is unacceptable to be reacting right now because the victims are Orthodox Christians or blond, while we are indifferent when the victims are Muslims or dark-skinned, as most governments do.

The hypocrisy of the European Union with regard to sanctions is also noteworthy. In the case of Russia, they exhaust all their toughness, but when their strategic interests demand it (see the case of Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus) they ignore or refuse to listen. It is unacceptable that the EU opens its arms when the refugees are blond, but when these refugees are dark-skinned it pays Turkey to keep them.

Another question arises, however: Do we have the right to judge and criticise actions that have been taken in recent years that have fuelled conflicts? To do otherwise would be anti-dialectic and hypocritical and would not give a complete picture of the context and what is at stake in this and every other conflict. It merely serves the longstanding goals of the West and the Right who want their responsibilities to be hidden and for responsibilities never to be assigned to them.

What is the reason for NATO’s existence in the modern world? Have we accepted that its aim is combatting terrorism?

What is the reason for its expansion to every corner of the globe? Why does NATO want to encircle Russia?

Have we accepted that the narrative that NATO is the guardian of international law and law in general? Have we assigned NATO the role of international policeman?

Neither NATO’s previous history, nor its actions today suggest that. On the contrary, NATO’s interventions in every corner of the globe only generate instability, wars and disasters. Indeed in most cases, its interventions are based on lies and involve people they themselves have raised.

To conclude, we here in Cyprus also need to draw certain lessons from what happened in Ukraine. The US, NATO and the European Union pushed Zelensky to take actions (accession to NATO, confrontation with Russia) by promising they would support him. Zelensky, believing he had strong backing, took risks against Russia. When Russia attacked, everyone made it clear that their support would be political, economic, but just that.

We should remember this for our own case, when false hopes are cultivated among the people and when people listen to big empty talk.

For that reason, we denounce the inhuman and destructive war, the Russian attack. However, we also denounce the role of the West. We demand an end to the war, but also the dismantling of NATO, which represents a danger to the whole planet.