YOUTH POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS: CYPRUS'S FUTURE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NICOSIA 000640

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL CY
SUBJECT: YOUTH POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS: CYPRUS'S FUTURE
LEADERS AT WORK



1. (SBU) Summary: Every major political party in the
Republic of Cyprus has a youth branch. The two largest and
most significant are EDON and NEDISY, affiliates of Cyprus's
largest political organizations, AKEL and DISY, respectively.
Though distinct from the mother parties, these Greek Cypriot
youth organizations closely mirror them in structure and
policy perspective. The youth branches mainly focus on
advancing young people's rights and causes, but they also
provide vehicles for dialogue with Turkish Cypriots and serve
as valuable proving grounds for the country's future
political leaders. The organizations' ability to influence
young minds seems to be waning, however, a product of the
growing disinterest of Greek Cypriot youth in politics and
politicking. End summary.

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ALL PARTIES SEEKING YOUNGER BLOOD
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2. (SBU) Every major political party in Cyprus has a youth
wing. The two largest and most significant are the United
Democratic Youth Organization (EDON) and the Youth of the
Democratic Rally (NEDISY),affiliates of leading Cyprus
parties AKEL (communist) and DISY (right-wing),respectively.
Others include NEDIK, representing centrist DIKO, and EDEN,
an affiliate of Socialist EDEK. Youth organizations
concentrate on fostering electoral activism among young
people and promoting youth-oriented policies via the parties
and the Youth Board of Cyprus (YBC),a quasi-governmental
organization that functions almost like a youth parliament in
Cyprus. The YBC consists of a liaison to the Council of
Ministers and one representative each from EDON and NEDISY,
all of whom the government appoints. It acts as a link
between the government, parliament and youth parties, and
dispenses some RoC funding to the organizations. As to
additional funding, NEDISY receives only 5000 CYP (approx.
11500 USD) per year from DISY, while AKEL provides EDON no
financial assistance (both NEDISY and EDON officials claimed
that the other organization received significantly greater
funds from its parent party, however.)

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EDON: KEEPING THE COMMUNIST FAITH
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3. (SBU) Symbolically located across the street from the
Cuban Embassy, EDON is the national organization for
left-wing youth, and has large subsidiary branches for
university students (Proodeftiki) and high school students
(PEOM). EDON also features organizations for Young Pioneers
and young workers, and it works closely with the youth arm of
SEK, the Cyprus Workers Confederation. EDON's membership
includes about 10,000 young people between the ages of 14 and

30. As expected, its leadership structures mimic AKEL's.
The party congress (all members belong) holds ultimate
decision-making authority and elects the 60-strong Central
Committee. The Central Committee chooses the 15-member
Executive Council that meets monthly to design policies. The
five-person Secretariat, which includes the General Secretary
and Organizing Secretary, comes from the Executive Council
and handles daily EDON operations. Due to the limited size
of its budget and leadership, volunteers carry out many
tasks. Despite the similarities between the youth branch and
senior party, EDON membership does not bring automatic AKEL
membership or rights to participate in party congresses or
elections.


4. (SBU) As expected based on its communist espousals, EDON
Organizing Secretary Christos Christofides told the Embassy
the party strives to "serve the overall goals of the
left-wing movement" and to "fight imperialism." Specifically
regarding youth, EDON aims to promote the rights of the youth
worker and achieve youth solidarity. EDON has proven
successful at mobilizing its membership to events such as
protests against capitalism and "imperialism," including some
outside Embassy Nicosia. Christofides boasted that while
EDON may compete with NEDISY for the title of the largest
membership, EDON's members are "undoubtedly" the most active.
Other prominent activities include pressing organization
views at the YBC, organizing an annual festival co-hosted
with other "progressive" groups, and canvassing support for
AKEL candidates in national and municipal elections. EDON
also has a significant presence outside Cyprus, with its
participation in the World Federation of Democratic Youth (an
international communist youth NGO) and various European
communist youth organizations. Proodeftiki mainly concerns
itself with support services like housing and social events

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for students, but it operates branches at all European
universities and colleges that Cypriot youth attend. The
strongest of these overseas arms are in Greece and Britain.

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NEDISY: YOUTH CONSERVATISM AND ADVOCACY
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5. (SBU) NEDISY's resemblance and ties to parent party DISY
are closer than EDON's to AKEL. All youth branch members
simultaneously and automatically hold DISY membership, which
allows them to vote at party congresses on policy platforms
and electoral candidates. DISY often consults with NEDISY on
policies affecting young people, and the youth branch
relatively easily advocates its stances to its senior
partner. Since 2005, DISY has required at least 30 percent
youth representation in its governing bodies. NEDISY's
structure reflects the divergent demographics of its
approximately 12,000 members aged 12 to 33, with three main
subsidiary organizations: its university student wing
Protoporia, its high school student branch MAKHI, and ONE, an
organization for recent graduates in the physical sciences,
the Organization of Young Scientists. NEDISY is a member of
the Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP) and the
Democratic Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC),the latter a
pan-European forum for youth conservative democratic parties.
NEDISY members choose the youth party leadership at their
congress, which is held one month after the DISY congress
every five years. The NEDISY congress elects the entire
full-time staff, which includes the president, general
secretary and economics secretary.

SIPDIS


6. (SBU) NEDISY General Secretary George Lysandrides told
the Embassy the party targets specific issues confronting
Cypriot youth, namely drug use and abuse, education,
recreation, and employment. NEDISY intensely opposed the
recent government attempt to increase in the retirement age,
as the rise adversely affected youth, especially those
seeking rare openings as secondary school educators.
Lysandrides said his organization places great effort into
backing the electoral campaigns of DISY and DISY-supported
candidates; the organization intends to back fully
presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides this fall.
Protoporia, with active branches throughout Europe and the
United States, assists overseas NEDISY students in returning
to Cyprus to vote for DISY candidates in key elections,
processing their paperwork and even assuming some of their
airfare costs.

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EXTENDING A HAND ACROSS THE GREEN LINE
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7. (SBU) Without the fears of popular backlash that limit
senior Greek Cypriot politicians, engagement with Turkish
Cypriots, the G/C youth organizations enjoy greater freedom
to conduct bicommunal dialogue and activities. Both
Christofides and Lysandrides noted that their information
campaigns about the Cyprus problem are among their most
important endeavors. Lysandrides said the purpose of
NEDISY's program was to keep Greek Cypriot youth "related" to
Turkish Cypriots and to reinforce in young people's minds,
that those north of the Green Line were also Cypriots.
Christofides said EDON's information program mirrors
NEDISY's, but he also noted EDON's history as the largest
Cypriot youth organization with a tradition of bicommunal
relations. EDON's links to Turkish Cypriots extended
further, with unofficial ties to the Youth of the BKP (the
Turkish Cypriot communist party) and links to "former
comrades" in the CTP Youth. Both NEDISY and EDON, in
addition to NEDIK and other youth organizations, actively
organize and attend bicommunal events, including music
concerts and social outings. In addition, the youth
organizations are active in their support of Gardash, a
bicommunal community center in Nicosia that runs youth
programs geared at understanding and reconciliation.

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NURSERIES FOR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
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8. (SBU) That many Cypriot leaders hail from the youth
organizations' ranks is proof of their contribution to the
local political landscape; Christofides and Lysandrides
separately described the passage of promising individuals
from youth branch to senior party and political prominence.
As demands from employment and family life made participation

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in the junior organizations' seemingly endless recruitment
and mobilization difficult, they noted, late 20s/early 30s
up-and-comers can take advantage of ample opportunities to
move first into the highest echelons of the youth groups and
eventually into the parties themselves. The persistent
decline in youth political participation in Cyprus gives
these young leaders even more prominence in the eyes of
senior party leadership. Further, the often nepotistic,
opaque system of in-party promotions works to the advantage
of these young leaders, who easily can be taken under the
fold of a well-known and guiding senior politician.


9. (SBU) The list of Cypriot politicians with roots in the
youth organization system reads like a Greek Cypriot Who's
Who. Parliamentary president and AKEL presidential candidate
Dimitris Christofias was extensively involved in EDON, and
former EDEK leader Vassos Lyssarides chaired EDON's Executive
Council in his youth. Cyprus's European Commissioner Marcos
Kyprianos began his political career with a stint in NEDIK's
leadership. DISY-backed presidential hopeful Ioannis
Kasoulides, former President Spyros Kyprianou, DIKO President
Marios Karoyian, and Lyssarides all held leadership positions
with overseas student branches of Cypriot youth political
organizations. The pattern of studying at a European
university and leading an overseas Cypriot student political
organization appears to be a fairly consistent harbinger of
later prominence on the national political stage. It would
not be surprising for Christofides or Lysandrides to emerge
prominently in their respective senior parties within the
next 20 years.

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STILL, INFLUENCE AMONG YOUTH SCANT
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10. (U) For all their organizational and mobilization
skills, EDON, NEDISY and the others have only limited
influence over Greek Cypriot young people. Historically, few
G/C youth participated in non-governmental organizations and
social causes. As Cyprus's economy expanded strongly in the
mid-1990s, however, greater numbers of students chose to
study abroad. Upon their return to the island the youth,
more active in non-governmental organizations in their
adopted countries, replicated their activity on-island,
leading to higher patterns of activism. Despite more than
half of Cypriot youth now being involved in at least one
organized youth group, most do not exhibit interest or become
involved in politics. Only 15 percent of island young people
belong to political organizations, and more than two-thirds
are "hardly interested" in politics, according to a 2005
Council of Europe report. Further, a 2001 survey found that,
of reasons Cypriot youth indicated for not joining NGOs and
other entities, "too political" ranked high. Both
Christofides and Lysandrides acknowledged that participation
in their bicommunal projects was "not what it could be."

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BODING POORLY FOR INTERCOMMUNAL DIALOGUE AND A LONG-TERM
SOLUTION
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11. (SBU) Comment: The number of successful national leaders
to come from the youth organizations' ranks and the
development of decision-making institutions like DISY's youth
representation quota highlights the political youth groups,
ability to affect issues at the national level. This
influence might even increase if the YBC succeeds in
implementing plans to establish a real Cypriot youth
parliament. The youth wings' persuasiveness with their
target audience remains marginal, however, and could in fact
grow weaker should G/C youth continue to turn away from
politics. Despite the junior parties' genuine attempts at
constructive bicommunal activities, this slide in interest
means the youth branches can less shape young people's
attitudes on the Cyprus problem, an unfortunate turn given
the negative trend in Greek Cypriot youths' views toward
their Turkish Cypriot counterparts (over 90 percent voted
"NO" in the 2004 Annan Plan referendum, for example). As
long as the senior parties remain inclined to a solution, the
youth branches and their leaders almost assuredly will follow
the same line. Yet they would seem to be swimming upstream,
since both empirical and anecdotal evidence demonstrate that
Greek Cypriot young people are among the hardest-liners. End
comment.

SCHLICHER