It was very good to see Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriacos Mitsotakis visiting Cyprus for the sole purpose of attending Sunday’s church memorial service for former president, party leader and peace negotiator Glafcos Clerides. Mitsotakis also made a speech at the church service, praising the political judgment and pragmatism of Clerides, which was often presented as a weakness and lack of patriotism by his rivals.

In the years after the Turkish invasion, through the late seventies and eighties, Clerides had the entire political system accusing him of lacking patriotism and of being prepared to give in to all Turkish demands. When he spoke about the federal settlement being the only way forward, he was vilified, labelled a traitor and a foreign agent by the pro-Makarios parties. Needless to say, Makarios and his political heir Spyros Kyprianou subsequently put their signature under the federal settlement, without their patriotism being questioned.

Clerides always had the courage to tell people unpleasant truths, truths that most other politicians were too scared to mention, preferring empty patriotic slogans, platitudes and false defiance. Citing the experience of Clerides, the Greek PM said that the events of the last decades “taught us that behind the platitudes of pseudo-patriotism often hide the failures of the future.” How accurate this remark is, even though none of the hardliners would dare to admit that thanks to their uncompromising patriotism the occupied north of the island has become a province of Turkey in all but name.

We had no need of this pseudo-patriotism, neither in Nicosia nor Athens, said Mitsotakis. “We need the patriotism of responsibility, realism and result.” This was the patriotism that Clerides always stood for although it was often defeated by the patriotism of big, empty words that most of our politicians and media specialised in. Mitsotakis also reminded that Clerides was “among the first who diagnosed that an independent Cypriot state was the optimum solution for Hellenism after the end of the Eoka struggle.” Again, the majority of politicians thought otherwise.

And most importantly, it was Glafcos Clerides who ensured through close cooperation and a joint strategy with the Greek government of Costas Simitis, that Cyprus joined the EU in 2004. Clerides had been a champion of the European orientation of Cyprus since 1976, said the PM. At a time when the majority of Cyprus’ political parties were West-hating supporters of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, Clerides stood on his own against this lunacy. He was pro-West when it was considered treachery to back the West and led Cyprus into the EU when half the population was against this.

Mitstotakis’ conclusion was the perfect tribute to Clerides. It was a badge of honour, he said, for a politician “to be remembered as a guide of action to challenges that follow his life, not because he won all the battles but because was not afraid to fight them.”