bigOz wrote:Mr Militades, I am sorry to say you are a veryt ill informed man! To start with your false allegation that Cyprus is a Greek island and everyone else are invaders or foreigners let me prove you wrong for once and all, so that you may give your senseless claims a rest. Below shows the occupants of the island from very early ages:
c.8,500 - 8,000 BCHunter Gatherers
7,000 - 5,300 BC The first settlers: the Khirokitians
4,000 - 2,500 BC Chalcolitic (Copper) Age: stone crucifix pendants are carved
2,700 - 1,600 BC Cypriot Bronze Ages, Early and Middle: cattle, horses, and bronze making are introduced as well as highly indi- vidual pottery style
1,600 - 1,050 BC The Late Bronze Age: period of sophisticated literate city states such as Enkomi-Alasia and Kition
1,500 - 1,450 BC Hittite rule in Cyprus
1,450 - 1,000 BC Beginning of the Egyptian domination of the island
1,200 - 1,000 BC Establishment of the city states of Salamis (capital at the time), Soli, Marion, Paphos, Kurium, and Kyrenia; arrival of Greek colonies
1,000 - 850 BC Iron Age - Cypro-Geometric Period. The coming of Iron, the Dorians and a Dark Age also known as Cypro-Geometric I and II
850 - 750 BC Iron Age - Cypro-Geometric Period. The Phoenician-led Renaissance and Assyrian rule on the island.
750 - 475 BC Iron Age - Cypro-Archaic Period. Time of the city-kingdoms despite the island being ruled by a succession of foreign countries for much of the period (Assyrians, from 709 BC; Egyptians, from c.570 BC; and Persians, from 545 BC).
568 - 525 BC Egyptian domination
525 - 333 BC Iron Age - Cypro-Classical Period sees the Persian occupation and the rule of the island and the duel between the city kingdoms of Kition and Salamis.
333 - 58 BC Hellenistic rule: the heirs of the Alexander the Great rule the island
58 BC - 395 AD Roman Empire ruling Cyprus: 350 years of quiet provincial prosperity
395 - 649 AD Island becomes a part of the Byzantine Empire when Cyprus is gradually converted from paganism to Orthodox Christianity (Early Byzantine period)
649 - 965 AD A second Dark Age: the island is caught on the frontier between the two warring empires of Byzantium and Islam
965 - 1191 Return of the island to Byzantium (Late Byzantine period)
1191 - 1192 Rule of the island by Richard I (the Lionheart), of England and later by the Knights Templars
1192 - 1489 Rule of the island by the Frankish Lusignan Dynasty
1489 - 1570 Venetian domination of Cyprus
1571 - 1878 Conquest of the island by the Ottoman Empire
1878 - 1925 In accordance with a defence-alliance between Britain and the Ottoman Empire, the administration of Cyprus passes to Britain
1925 - 1960 Cyprus is annexed by Britain when Ottoman Empire enters into the World War I on the side of Germany; subsequently the island becomes a Crown Colony and under the British rule
1960 Foundation of the Republic of Cyprus (by the Turkish and Greek-Cypriot communities)Now, going back to your baseless comments, perhaps you can answer these:
What makes the Greek invasion of the island by the Greeks more legitimate than others by Hitites, Egyptians, Romans, Ottomans etc?
Any documentation expenses involving Turkish Cypriots' Citizenship is well covered by the generous EU econimic aid the Greek Cypriot government representing Cyprus.
None of the land in the North is stolen anymore than the land Turkish Cypriots left behind in the South. The private property occupied in the North is equivalent to that left behind in the South!
Turkish army is not "a foreign invading army" as now accepted by most EU countries who have had the chance to face the facts. Turkish Cypriots do not see them as an invading or intruding force, but as a source of protection that has stopped the animals of EOKA slaughtering innocent women and children. Thery will be here until your kind of Greek Cypriot mentality becomes extinct - and I do not believe you speak for the majority of Greek Cypriots so I wish you would stop referring to your own ideas A "We..." all the time!
What has this Turkish army you hate so much done to you or Cyprus?
1. Cyprus has enjoyed its longest period of peace (33 years) over the past 100 years. In other words their presence has effectively stopped the inter-communal fighting and death of many innocent.
2. It brought down the Greek JUNTA and brough democracy back to Greece!
3. Turkish army never attacked or slaughtered any Greek civilians, women, or children during this period - unlike the Greek mainland army helping general Grivas (EOKA), destroy many Turkish villages and slaughter their inhabitants between 1963-67 and the same again in 1974.
4. Unlike the invading Greek mainland army did to Makarios in 1974, they did not bombard the Turkish Cypriot presidential palace when a left wing government came to power (CTP).
5. Turkish army is restricted to their barracks as a peace keeping force, and do not occupy or run North of the island. Those Greek Cypriots crossing to the North must have witnessed that the Turkish Cypriots are governing themselves, without soldiers patrolling the streets everyday.
6. By your definition, Cyprus must belong to mainland Turkey, because the HITITES (see above list) who were the occupants of Anatolia at the time, were the first rulers of the island - long before any invading Egyptians, Greeks or Romans set foot on it. 80 miles from Turkish mainland, more than 800 miles from Greece - what gives you the right to claim that Cyprus is Greek?
In your other posts you give avery biased and narrow account of population proportions without looking into history again. Ottomans ruled Cyprus for 350 years, during which time nothing "pure" was left! So this "pure" Greek majority you keep referring to (which sounds like Hitler's claim for an Aryan race) that has occupied Cyprus, do they include all the mainland Greeks who came to settle in Cyprus between 1963 and 1974? Do they include thousands of mainland Greek soldiers brought to Cyprus to reinforce the National Guard and offered citizenship by Makarios?
Have you considered the vloume of Turkish Cypriots who left Cyprus for Turkey 1920 onwards, after the British annexation of the island. Have you considered hundreds of thousands of Turkish Cypriots living in UK, Australia, Germany, Holland, U.S.A. - forced to sell and move out of their lands after persistent EOKA aatcks between 1963-1974 and the ensuing economic frustation? Noiw you try and ecriticize the influx of some 20,000 mainland Turks - who now number around 40,000 with their offspring. After 30 years they are just as Cypriot as you and I are - especially their children who were born here.
You lack of knowledge amazed me when you claimed in another post that yoiu are a Greek citizen of Cyprus. Allow me to give you some free advice befor you embarrass yourself any further. The distionary meaning of a citizen is "a native or naturalized member of a state or other political community". This makes you a CYPRUS citizen and nothing more. The same applies for the Turkish Cypriots currently living in the North.
Anyone who is not happy with hearing Greeks speak Greek or Turks speak Turkish in the island is welcome to move and live in Greece or Turkey (and many do) - nothing wrong with that! But the chances of ANY Greek Cypriot majority ruling over a Turkish Cypriot minority during our lifetime is as good as you or me taking a trip around the World tomorrow in a Space Shuttle!
