Who’s still paying attention, 50 years later?

I am starting this piece by answering a question I often get from my followers on social media. They ask me whether it had crossed my mind that dark July of 1974 and later in August of that same year - when the betrayal of the Athens junta was complete, and under a democratic Greek government - that 50 years would go by and the situation in Cyprus would still be the same. The answer could be a simple "no." But 50 years of occupation cannot be dismissed with a single word, a simple denial.

In November 1976, I hastened to be the first to ring the bell of Agia Foteini Church in Anafotia, outside of Larnaca, after Cyprus' RIK radio station announced Jimmy Carter's victory. It was my greatest disappointment during these 50 years: we had believed in the new American president, but great hope was followed by great sadness, which persists in our hearts to this day.

I left for...