Από την σκοπιά της Λευκωσίας – αν όχι και της Αθήνας – εύλογα τίθεται το εξής ερώτημα: θα είχε πρόβλημα ο Ρώσος ή ο Αμερικανός Πρόεδρος με την Λευκωσία ως φιλοξενούσα πρωτεύουσα για πραγματοποίηση της πρώτης τους συνάντησης; Η απάντηση είναι ουδέν πρόβλημα: η Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία είναι ακόμη πιο ουδέτερη κι διπλά αποδεκτή από Μόσχα και Ουάσιγκτον μιας και είναι κράτος μέλος της ΕΕ αλλά όχι του ΝΑΤΟ. Η τελευταία ιδιότητα, η συμμετοχή δηλαδή στην Βορειοατλαντική Συμμαχία, ενίοτε ενοχλεί την Μόσχα, αν και παρατηρούμε ότι στην περίπτωση της Λιουμπλιάνα ο Πούτιν ασμένως έσπευσε να δηλώσει ότι δεν έχει αντίρρηση.

Πριν προλάβω να βάλω την πέννα στο χαρτί για να προτείνω την Λευκωσία για την συνάντηση κορυφής Τραμπ-Πούτιν ξεσπά η αχρείαστη ψυχοφθόρα και ζημιογόνα διαμάχη για θέματα της συγχρόνου ιστορίας μας αυτονόητα και αυταπόδεικτα: η έγκριση της Βουλής και του ΠτΔ για την ενημέρωση (Ν.Β. όχι την επισταμένη έρευνα και εμβριθή μελέτη) μιας καθόλα ιστορικής στιγμής της νεότερης Κύπρου: του Ενωτικού Δημοψηφίσματος του 1950. Γιατί ένα απλό θέμα προσφοράς στοιχειώδους ιστορικής γνώσης προς τους εφήβους μας να χρειάζεται ψήφισμα της Βουλής και προεδρική υπογραφή για να εφαρμοστεί; Ποιος ο λόγος ύπαρξης τότε του Υπουργείου Παιδείας; (Ο γράφων έχει εδώ και εικοσαετία αναλύσει αποδεσμευμένες Βρετανικές εκθέσεις επί του θέματος του Δημοψηφίσματος 1950. Δέστε σχετική ανάλυση με τίτλο: Το Ενωτικό Δημοψήφισμα 1950 με Βρετανικά Μάτια: Γνήσια Βούληση του Κυπριακού Λαού http://www.inter-security-forum.org). Φυσικά η υπερβολική αντίδραση του ΤΚ ηγέτη και η αποχώρηση του από την αίθουσα των συνομιλιών κρίνεται ανάξια σχολιασμού.

Το κεφαλαιώδες ερώτημα που τίθεται είναι τι είδους κράτος είμαστε και πώς στεκόμαστε στη διεθνή σκακιέρα; Αυτομειωνόμαστε και υποπίπτουμε σε διεθνή ανυποληψία ενόσω αναλωνόμαστε στα αυτονόητα και στα αυταπόδεικτα αντί να έχομε την προσοχή μας στραμμένη στη επίρρωση του κύρους της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας ως κράτους Ευρωπαϊκού, παράγοντα σταθερότητας στην ταραγμένη μας περιοχή, κράτους διατηρούντος άριστες σχέσεις με τις δυο υπερδυνάμεις όπως και με όλους τους γείτονες πλην βεβαίως της κατοχικής Ισλαμο-Φασιστικής Τουρκίας.

Από πού κι ως πού ο ΠτΔ να αναλώνεται σε πεντασέλιδες εξηγήσεις προς συγκράτηση του αφηνιασμένου Ακιντζί, άθλιου υποχείριου της φασιστικής Άγκυρας του νέο-σουλτάνου Ερντογάν, αντί να αναλαμβάνει ωραίες και λαμπρές διεθνείς πρωτοβουλίες όπως η προαναφερθείσα μιας και διατηρεί προς πίστη του άριστες σχέσεις τόσο με την Ουάσιγκτον όσο και με την Μόσχα; Κύριε Αναστασιάδη όρθωσε διεθνές ανάστημα όπως σού αξίζει, πάψε να αυτοϋποβαθμίζεσαι σε Κοινοτάρχη, πάψε να ρυμουλκήσε από τα Τουρκικά καμώματα και πάρε τον δρόμο τον λαμπρόν της σύζευξης των δύο υπερδυνάμεων στον αγώνα κατά των επί των θυρών ημών Δυνάμεων του Σκότους του Ισλαμικού Κράτους και των προστατών τους συμπεριλαμβανομένης της κατοχικής Τουρκίας. Αυτό επιτάσσει η ιστορική στιγμή!

This step will allow the Russian aircraft to fight against militants more effectively because the flight time of bombers to targets in Syria from Iran is less than two times the flight time needed flying from Russian airports.

Moreover, large-scale naval exercises involving vessels equipped with the modern strike systems Caliber were carried out in August in the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas. This powerful weapon system has already passed ‘the baptism of fire’ in early October 2015, during a massive strike on ISIS positions. The Russian Defense Ministry also stated that Iran and Iraq have both allowed Russia to use their airspace to carry through cruise missiles Caliber-NK.

Meanwhile, this ‘military activity’ once again aroused serious concern of the US administration. Washington’s statements about the dangers allegedly posed by Russia to the countries of the Caspian Sea region make this US concern evident. According to the White House, the Kremlin is conducting maneuvers of combat ships with the purpose of showing neighbours in the region – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan – its military superiority and strengthening the status of regional leader. In this regard, the American politicians with the assistance of the media began to blow up another story about ‘aggressive Russia’ which allegedly ‘threatens the security of its neighbors and seeks to bear all sorts of pressure and forces them to obey her will’.

Once again, the USA is trying to present Russia as an ‘aggressor’, considering that the whole world does not notice their double standards, those ‘unilateral interpretations’ they are trying to impose to achieve their goals. If suitable to US interests, Washington shamelessly ignores international treaties, laws and regulations. The US does not have ‘permanent enemies or permanent friends’, they have only solid ‘permanent interests’. For serving US interests Washington is ready to ignore the entire world community.

 Losing positions on the international stage, the United States is anxiously watching the strengthening of Russia’s position in the Caspian Sea region, the Middle East and around the world in general. Consequently, Washington is seeking to stall this development. But to their great regret, in recent years many countries have begun to understand that Russia is not ‘the aggressor’. Unlike Washington, Russia has proved to be a serious, reliable political and economic partner.

Indeed, those who closely follow the politics of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ascertain that this is his ‘absolutism dream’: to celebrate the centennial of the Republic of Turkey as the supreme ruler, the neo-Sultan, whose ‘wisdom’ in governance is challenged by no one let alone the unruly ‘mountainous Turks’: a Turkish government’s official jargon term for the Kurds. Yet, common sense, let alone sophisticated political analysis, tells that the endless bloodshed that Turkey experiences in recent months are a direct consequence of the Turkish President’s relentless and authoritarian rule. In other words, Erdogan’s dream is everybody else’s in the country nightmare!

Today, Turkey lives a daily nightmare: from the continuous massacre of Kurdish freedom fighters in the southeast and the genocide conducted against the civilian Kurdish population of this vast region, to the terrorist attacks and the bloodbath caused by the week in week out clashes of pro-Kurdish and pro-democracy demonstrators with the police in Ankara and Istanbul.

Consequently, yesterday’s fresh bomb blast in the heart of the capital, Ankara, killing 34 and wounding more than hundred innocent citizens should come as no surprise. The moral responsibility for the country’s shameful drift to bloody chaos lies nowhere else than the brutal policies of Erdogan seconded by Prime Minister Davutoglu; policies that sadly target all well-intentioned detractors: be it the freedom-loving Kurds, the free press, the investigative journalists, the intellectuals, the Fethullah Gulen movement, the secularists and so on and so forth. Erdogan has created an endless list of enemies both inside and outside the country, locking himself up in an untenable position of brutal repression of dissent. In true terms, Erdogan is shooting himself in the foot, putting himself in the solitary confinement component of his country’s political landscape, from where he finds no escape. Sadly, all this happens at the dawn of the 21^st century! Erdogan’s foreign policy mistakes are equally horrible: endless meddling in Syria’s internal affairs, including underground support and personally benefitting from ISIS illegal oil sales, taking on Russia: downing its fighter plane September last in a futile gimmick to drag NATO into the conflict, using the Turkmen Syrian minority to secure future territorial gains at the expense of Syria, stifling engulfment of the dwindling Turkish Cypriot minority while implanting backward devout Muslim settlers and other dubious foreign elements in occupied Cyprus.

Concluding our short analysis with a view to end the massacre of both Turks and Kurds: as I pointed out to my well-meaning Turkish intellectuals, friends and colleagues, at Istanbul’s Pugwash Conference in 2013: there can be no military solution of the Kurds’ inalienable right to self-determination. The more high-armoured troops the ruthless Erdogan-Davutoglu duo sent to the southeast to brutally suppress the rebellion, the more Kurdish-inspired terrorist attacks we are bound to see in the Turkish political and financial capitals. And this is to the severe detriment of the peace-loving average Turk in the street.

In our next article, we shall substantiate our analysis by revisiting the historical precedents – of the not too distant past – to Erdogan’s ruthlessness against the country’s minorities. Precedents that almost exterminated Asia Minor’s culturally rich Greek Orthodox minority.

Recently, the American leadership has expressed readiness to invite Russia in a coalition against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, noting that Russia is not ready to join her. “They focus on other thing – the support of the Assad regime, and this does not allow them to create their own coalition, at least close in size to the one that US created”, the White House exclaimed.

It is obvious that the cause of disputes between Moscow and Washington in the settlement of the war in Syria lies not only in fundamentally different approaches to solving the Syrian crisis, but also mainly in the real goals of Russia and the United States in the Middle East. The main difference of the two respective coalitions is the goal of their creation. The US formed a coalition under the banner of the fight against the IS. However, their activity was limited only to this slogan. The Russian leadership announced the same purpose, adding that it intends to stop the spread of terrorism. Another difference lies in the actual measures taken to achieve positive results. In this respect the Americans are totally confused.

Washington and its allies, which are gathered under American banner, clearly demonstrate their unwillingness to destroy the IS. The main reason of their inaction is that it is their own creature. They created, instructed and trained opposition fighters in the Middle East. As a result, these very same structures became the allies of the Islamic State or directly passed under the control of this terrorist group. However, they still remain “clients” of Washington, although they went out of its control.

Syrian opposition forces are also close allies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These countries have already invested lots of money in the training of Syrian and Iraqi terrorist groups, the supply of weapons to them and the conduct of combat operations.

In addition, these structures are related ideologically. The lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia looks like a deep rooted problem, whose solution, may optimistically, be reached in the next century. Currently, there are is no hope that Riyadh will proceed on the democratic path. All attempts to force the Saudis to do so constantly end in failure and rebuke. The Saudis persistently shout out: “Do not meddle in our affairs”. They do not make concessions and do not heed the admonitions of human rights defenders. All of them in fact, are ideological allies: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Islamic State share the same ideology based on the Salafi interpretation of Islam.

Russia sees the IS as an enemy, a threat to Muslims and all of Islam, because the Islamic State uses religion as a front cover to promote their political and economic goals. The terrorists train their followers, intoxicating them with ideas of their understanding of the concept of Jihad, which is explicitly contrary to the tenets of the Holy book of Moslems – the Koran. The main goal of Moscow is to prevent the propagation of this distorted ideological infection among Russian compatriots of the Muslim creed, whose number in the country is estimated to be around twenty million.

On the contrary, the US created terrorist groups. Washington sought to bring the Middle East into a state of managed chaos so as to control the entire region. It is easier to negotiate with small terrorist groups and their marginal unimportant leaders than with a strong country, defending its national interests.

Moscow still considers the different possibilities of its joining the international coalition against militants of the ISIS, but it has not decided on its participation in a military operation yet. For the time being Russia has been more active on the diplomatic front, incessantly holding consultations with the Syrian government as well as other concerned governments of countries in the region. The Russian government recently hosted Adel al-Jubeir, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the Saudi King is expected in Moscow within October. Considering that the Syrian government is the only credible force fighting jihadists, Russia continues to support Damascus, supplying equipment and weapons, as well as assisting in the training of Syrian soldiers.

It is becoming obvious that Moscow stands firm on its principled position. Such a position envisages that Syrians themselves must determine the political future of their country, and that Bashar Al Assad is the legitimate President. Let us ponder for a moment. What will be the immediate result of Assad’s forced removal from power in Damascus? Which forces will fill in the power vacuum? Negative developments of this summer show that odds are that, following Assad’s departure, Syria will be sadly dismembered, while the best part of the country will inevitably fall under ISIS iron rule.

Washington seems to be stoking tensions. Recently, the Obama administration has shown increasing readiness in using the US Air Force – or the Turkish Air Force for that matter – in an effort to impose a no-fly zone in Northern Syria. Such action may lead to exacerbation of the situation. By making the overthrow of Assad its primary task the US risks an uncontrollable escalation of the Syrian conflict.

On the other hand, Russia is taking additional measures in order to forestall the out-break of armed conflict in Syria with the participation of foreign troops. The US government sought to ban the overfly of Russian planes through Bulgarian and Greek national airspace. But if Athens had the courage to say “no” to the US whim, Sofia, succumbed to US pressure. Bulgaria, now demands the landing of Russian planes loaded with humanitarian aid bound for Syria in Sofia for inspection. Apparently, Washington manipulates weak Sofia into stopping Russia’s help to the Syrians. Moscow answers back by opening another air corridor through Iran and Iraq.

This development shows Russia’s determination to prevent the Syrian armed conflict’s escalation. Western press abounds in reports on hundreds of Western jihadist fighters that made it to Syria through Turkey hell bound to overthrow Assad. Moscow has showed firmness, in abiding by the framework of international law. The UN has clearly stated its intention not to allow unilateral US military action aimed at the forced removal of the legitimate government in Damascus.

In contrast to Washington, Moscow exhibits moderation and reason. The US foments contradictions between Iran and the Persian Gulf countries, resulting in the continuation of the war in Syria. Moreover, it transpires that the Obama administration put forward a request to Egypt to return Muslim Brothers in power structures. However, much depends not on the US and Turkey, but on the positions taken by the Arab countries. All of them, including Egypt, have publicly declared their commitment to a political solution in Syria. Cairo has an open line consulting with Moscow on coordination of political decisions which will influence the position of the whole Arab world.