‘Don’t touch our history books’
By Paul Malaos
COALITION partners DIKO yesterday lashed out at government plans to foster bicommunal reconciliation in schools, outlined in a circular from Education Minister Andreas Demetriou.
The circular, which was presented to teachers on Monday, proposes action to help the unification of the people of Cyprus through the application of new teaching schemes, to be applied during the school year.
Among the aims proposed by the Ministry of Education are changes to the history curriculum currently taught in schools, and the development of reciprocal respect between Greek and Turkish Cypriots with the aim of delivering Cyprus from occupation.
At a news conference yesterday, deputy president of DIKO Giorgos Kolokasides said the Ministry’s initiative gave his party serious reason to be concerned.
“The impression given by the Minister’s circular is that our education system so far has been chauvinistic,” said Kolokasides, “and the suggestion that we should rewrite our history books causes us to doubt the Ministry’s priorities.”
Kolokasides said the circular had failed to address serious issues in the education system, focusing instead mainly on issues “which have not been a problem for us in the past”.
His outrage was echoed by DISY deputy Andreas Themistocleous, who described the aims set out in the Ministry’s circular as the “self-castration of our Hellenic heritage”.
“The Minister must realise that he is not the Minister of Education for the occupied areas,” said Themistocleous. “It is important we recognise that if there is to be a solution to the Cyprus problem, the first step towards it will be the mutual and absolute respect of national identities, and this must honored by both sides.”
DIKO deputy Athina Kyriakidou said supporting the initiative of Greek and Turkish Cypriot unity in schools was constructive, but could not become a reality with the presence of the Turkish regime.
“We are content to promote the idea of peaceful coexistence,” said Kyriakidou, “but must take care that all the sacrifices are not made by us.”
Takis Hadjigeorgiou of AKEL hit back at the critics, saying Demetriou deserved to be applauded for his actions, in what he described as a display of courage and true Greek spirit.
In response to DIKO’s accusations that the Ministry of Education intended to distort or twist the history curriculum, Hadjigeorgiou answered: “Our intention is to present history as it took place, and not avoid issues we have steered clear from until now.”
Hadjigeorgiou went on to say that there were parts of history that were often overlooked, such as the mutual suffering of Greek and Turkish Cypriots and the times when both sides had united to fight alongside each other for a common cause.
“We have an obligation towards the new generation to give them the truth,” said Hadjigeorgiou, insisting it was imperative “that we teach the youth of Cyprus that we were not always a divided state, and are working under extremely difficult conditions to find a solution to unite us once more”.
The Education Minister himself expressed surprise at the criticisms, saying it was important to teach today’s youth a rounded, balanced view of the island’s history.
Demetriou said history school books had remained virtually unchanged since 1950 and that the new approach to the subject would be drawn up a by number of experts with different approaches to provide historical truth and accuracy.
Nevertheless, the minister said the discussions under way were fruitful and indicated that society was ready to discuss its reorientation towards a modern, European community capable of discussing the problems of its past and how to solve them in the best possible way.
He added that by changing the approach to teaching, “we would be sending the Turkish Cypriot community a very powerful, political message that we were ready to co-operate and that an end to the occupation was possible”.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
‘Don’t touch our history books’
‘Don’t touch our history books’
by turkkan » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:42 pm
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by turkkan » Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:51 pm
You choose what to post, and are judged accordingly - post a story which shows Greek Cypriots in a good light, I dare you
Are there such stories
What i choose to post is irrelevant, as for being judged by you (Lol) thats very rich when your silence on the numerous negative posts concerning TC's that fill this forum is quite deafening but when i post an article published by a greek cypriot newspaper without any comments you suddenly become judgemental. As if there was no way i could have posted it for a discussion. God forbid anyone portrays your side in a negative light. The only person with double standards here is you.
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by Bananiot » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:35 pm
This is a serious issue and the fact that turkkan has started a thread on it is irrelevent. Besides the essence of the issue (I agree entirely with the Minister) I think it is of interest to see who is vociferously against the proposals of the Ministry.
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by Sotos » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:40 pm
I agree they should change. They are too kind with TCs. They don't say how the TC minority was created on our island. This is how: The Turks invaded our island. They murdered 10s of thousands of Cypriots. They stole our lands. They brought Turks from Asia Minor and gave them our lands. Then now they call those Turks as "TCs". The Turks did this many times since then. Even now they bring in more Turks, give them the lands they stole from us and call them "TCs" again!!!!!! Same story over and over. The Cyprus Problem is a problem of TURKISH EXPANSIONISM. I think this should be clear in our books.
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by iceman » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:59 pm
To rewrite history, you need to rewrite the history books
SURELY you should be applauding us, AKEL deputy Takis Hadjigeorgiou meekly pleaded yesterday in the face of the vicious onslaught against his government’s efforts to foster a climate of reconciliation and co-operation in schools in the hope of preparing the ground for a reunited Cyprus.
He’s quite right, we should be applauding the Education Minister. His aims are not just worthy, they are absolutely critical if we are the slightest bit serious about ever wanting to live side by side with the Turkish Cypriots in a reunited Cyprus – a broad aim for which there is supposedly consensus across the political spectrum, irrespective of the form that reunification might take.
First it was the teachers, worried about the bicommunal activities suggested in the circular: what if a school in the north invited them, and teachers and pupils refused to cross? Next thing, they’ll be asking us to refer to the Turkish Cypriots as our brothers, one outraged headmaster told this paper.
And then the political bandwagon swung into action, particularly outraged at the fact that the history books would be rewritten. We would be emasculating our identity thundered one DISY deputy, reminding the minister that he was not the Education Minister of the occupied areas or of rapprochement. The reforms suggested that our education system until now was chauvinistic, piped in an outraged DIKO deputy.
Well, yes… Let’s take a look at the History of Cyprus, the textbook taught in the first year of state secondary schools: the brutal intercommunal fighting of 1963-64, after Makarios tore up the 1960 Constitution, is headlined as “The Turkish revolt”, which saw the Turkish Cypriots unilaterally pull out of government and force their population into enclaves, from which Greek Cypriots were barred.
Then in the summer of 1964, the Turkish air force bombed Tylliria and Turkey threatened to invade. Out of the blue. Just like that. As they do… There is not a single mention of the vicious civil war that raged between December 1963 and the summer of 1964, an event as traumatic to the Turkish Cypriot community as 1974 to the Greeks.
If we think this is the kind of history that we ought to be teaching our children, then we should forget about reunification. If we think that an education that encourages children to drape themselves in the Greek flag and go out on nationalist political demonstrations during school hours is not chauvinist, then what are we doing even talking to the Turkish Cypriots?
Yes, our schools have actively bred the worst kind of chauvinism. Yes, it must be changed. But are we willing to make that change, and can it be effective overnight? The government is facing a very steep uphill struggle.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
SURELY you should be applauding us, AKEL deputy Takis Hadjigeorgiou meekly pleaded yesterday in the face of the vicious onslaught against his government’s efforts to foster a climate of reconciliation and co-operation in schools in the hope of preparing the ground for a reunited Cyprus.
He’s quite right, we should be applauding the Education Minister. His aims are not just worthy, they are absolutely critical if we are the slightest bit serious about ever wanting to live side by side with the Turkish Cypriots in a reunited Cyprus – a broad aim for which there is supposedly consensus across the political spectrum, irrespective of the form that reunification might take.
First it was the teachers, worried about the bicommunal activities suggested in the circular: what if a school in the north invited them, and teachers and pupils refused to cross? Next thing, they’ll be asking us to refer to the Turkish Cypriots as our brothers, one outraged headmaster told this paper.
And then the political bandwagon swung into action, particularly outraged at the fact that the history books would be rewritten. We would be emasculating our identity thundered one DISY deputy, reminding the minister that he was not the Education Minister of the occupied areas or of rapprochement. The reforms suggested that our education system until now was chauvinistic, piped in an outraged DIKO deputy.
Well, yes… Let’s take a look at the History of Cyprus, the textbook taught in the first year of state secondary schools: the brutal intercommunal fighting of 1963-64, after Makarios tore up the 1960 Constitution, is headlined as “The Turkish revolt”, which saw the Turkish Cypriots unilaterally pull out of government and force their population into enclaves, from which Greek Cypriots were barred.
Then in the summer of 1964, the Turkish air force bombed Tylliria and Turkey threatened to invade. Out of the blue. Just like that. As they do… There is not a single mention of the vicious civil war that raged between December 1963 and the summer of 1964, an event as traumatic to the Turkish Cypriot community as 1974 to the Greeks.
If we think this is the kind of history that we ought to be teaching our children, then we should forget about reunification. If we think that an education that encourages children to drape themselves in the Greek flag and go out on nationalist political demonstrations during school hours is not chauvinist, then what are we doing even talking to the Turkish Cypriots?
Yes, our schools have actively bred the worst kind of chauvinism. Yes, it must be changed. But are we willing to make that change, and can it be effective overnight? The government is facing a very steep uphill struggle.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
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