Swedish rhapsody
Richard West
Larnaca, Cyprus
The Turkish press has claimed Greek Cypriot terrorists are now aiding Arme- nian terrorists in their murder campaign against Turkish diplomats and officials. In particular, a report says that Nicos Samp- son, a Cypriot living in Paris, gave help to the murderers of a Turkish diplomat in Canada. If true, this story would not be surprising. I first heard the name of Samp- son 25 years ago when he shot dead (in the back) a friend of mine who had gone to work in Nicosia. Sampson boasted of many murders on behalf of EOKA. In 1974, he had a coup d'etat on the Island, provoked the Turks to invade, and thus brought about the existing partition. Afterwards, the restored government of a now diminish- ed country put Sampson on trial and gave him a twenty year prison sentence; then let him out four years later to go to France for medical treatment. He has since declined all requests to return to prison in Cyprus. The Turks reasonably asked why Sampson could not receive his medical treatment in prison from one of Cyprus's many and able doctors. They may have noticed that several murder attempts on Turkish officials have taken place in Paris, where Sampson lives, in restored health. He is also said to have friends in other terrorist groups such as the IRA.
Greek Cypriots here profess to scoff at the story that Sampson is helping Armenian terrorists. 'The Turks just want an excuse to invade again and make me a refugee again,' said one old man. An ex-EOKA man said: 'I think it is going to be our turn again now that the Lebanon's quiet. But I don't believe Sampson's involved with the Armenians. Why should they want him? He's no good at organising things. I've known him since he was so high. He comes from near my village. He's not very in- telligent. Besides, why should Cyprus be blamed for what Sampson does? We want him back here in prison, don't we?'
Or do they? Motives are not always clear in what Evelyn Waugh described as 'the torrid and treacherous island of Cyprus'. The hotels and cafes along the shore are fill- ed with political gangsters, most of them from the Lebanon, and most of them from the Christian Phalangist group. 'I like fighting,' one of them tells me. Another, more pious, says: 'I have killed many times in the past eight years, but always with the thought of God in my heart.'
The Greek Cypriot Christians, who dislike the Moslem Turks, side with the Moslem Lebanese and Palestinian guerillas against the Christian Lebanese. Don't ask me why, When some of the Palestinians came from Beirut last week, a crowd
assembled to cheer them. The PLO support and train foreign terrorist groups like the IRA. The Phalangists, who get the backing of Israel, train some of the right-wing, anti- semitic gangs that have carried out bomb- ings in France and Italy, sometimes aimed at the Jews. Indeed the Phalange was form- ed by admirers of Hitler. On the boat to Beirut a couple of weeks ago I met a Phalangist gunman who also admired the IRA; and an Armenian who said he ad- mired EOKA, the IRA and the Israelis.
I have not been quite so confused since I met a Catholic Communist Unionist in a pub in Belfast who said that his two heroes were Enoch Powell and Joseph Stalin. Also in Larnaca I have met on different occa- sions a Liverpudlian Marxist sociology lec- turer and a South London National Front supporter; what is more both of them were intelligent, charming and funny. I have also met my old friend Alan Williams who has been in Beirut getting material for one of his very enjoyable thrillers. He goes about with a bullet that dropped from the skies, and claims to have found a Muslim Trot- skyist terrorist group. One of his novels was set partly in Larnaca, though he had never been here before; we went to inspect a bar he described and found his description ac- curate. This did not surprise me. Alan Williams put me into his first novel before we had actually met.
Partly because of its own terrorist record, and partly because of the Lebanese pro- blem, Larnaca teems with soldiers and sailors. The latter are mostly French, with pom-poms. The British have a base nearby and are also one of the UN contingents, along with the Swedes, Norwegians and Canadians. In one of the swaddie bars I saw a note pinned to the ceiling beam: 'The UN is a bag of shit. God help me if I ever come her again.'
Larnaca also suffers the Swedish pro- blem. I have written before from places as far apart as Thailand and the Gambia, on how the Swedes, like geese, fly thousands of miles to mate — but not with those of their own species. The men go to Thailand to catch VD from girls in the Patpong Road; and the women go to the Gambia to catch VD from the dusky beach-boys. Swedish women also come to Cyprus in large numbers, almost always alone or with other women. In the same swaddie bar that I mentioned, three big, mournful Swedish girls were at one end completely ignoring three tall Swedish UN soldiers who stood at the other. The Swedes do not seem to find each other attractive. The men want dainty Asian girls; the women like men brown or black. The Cypriot men have a lot of fun but their womenfolk are resentful. Some in- ternational body, the UN perhaps, should really set itself to the task of teaching the Swedes to have sexual intercourse with each other. Not being a sun lover, I take what little holiday I can afford in somewhere like Nor- thern Ireland, where apart from the natural delights, there is less sensation of terrorism than in this part of the world. There is also the thought that Cyprus might get involved in a full conventional war, as it was in 1974. Even without a war, a Cyprus holiday can be pretty depressing. For one thing both Cyprus Airways and British Airways (or 'British' as they seem to describe themselves) overbook every flight by about 30 per cent. The first of the five days I tried to get back, 124 passengers with confirmed bookings, were turned off a plane. I was told I could not even get my name on a waiting list for any flight until October. The computer was broken. Officially it was said that the trou- ble came from the closure of Beirut airport but no, I was told by a local hotelier: 'It was just as bad last year and every year. What they do is turn off forty or fifty passengers and put them on the next day's flight by turning off another lot of confirmed passengers.' On my fifth day of waiting around in the humid furnace of Larnaka airport, attempting to get on a plane to get back to a holiday in England or Ireland, a kindly Cypriot said: 'Don't worry about the plane. Just extend your holiday here In Cyprus.'
'We need a shorter banner or another member. Either way we'll have to alter ollr principles. '
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