Cyprus-Forum.com

[Piratis]

No you are wrong.

First of all who we are are Greeks but also Cypriots. We are the result of the assimilation between the Greeks and the people that lived in Cyprus before that and those that came after that.

On the other hand you refused to assimilate, so you have nothing to do with the indigenous people of Cyprus. You are called "Cypriot" just because you live here.

Secondly, when the first Greeks came to Cyprus they funded new cities in uninhabited places of Cyprus. On the contrary the Turks invaded, killed, looted and captured the land what was already inhabited by us.

So don't confuse the two things, they are very different.

[halil]

WE ARE NOT LEAVİNG B.C.WE ARE LİVİNG AT 2007.WİTH A NEW CONDİTİONS !!!!!!!
İ don't care what u were or what we were ........

[Piratis]

Nobody asked you to leave!

It is you that you demand from us to abandon a big part of our homeland and that the north part of our island should be ruled by Turks after ethnically cleansing the indigenous population from their homes.

[miltiades]

Are Turkish Cypriots indigenous to Cyprus?

There is nothing complicated about this matter yet many are seemingly still confused. Indigenous means originating or occurring naturally in an area or environment.

The Turkish Cypriot people are the REMNANTS of the Ottoman invasion so there is NOTHING indigenous about them.

They DO NOT ORIGINATE and HAVE NOT OCCURRED NATURALLY from/on Cyprus but instead they first came to Cyprus UNINVITED in 1571.

Every single Turkish Cypriot should RECOGNISE, ACCEPT, and MEMORIZE the basic FACTS of Cyprus which are:

1. The Greek Cypriots are the ONLY indigenous people on the island of Cyprus.

2. The Greek Cypriots have a history on Cyprus spanning 10,000 years.

3. The oldest Greek Cypriot settlement found is older than that of anything ever found in Turkey or Greece.

Anyone who calls himself a CYPRIOT and expects to have any credibility and respect should first start by getting their basic facts right about Cyprus and that includes you VP.

Regards, GR.

Total nonsense , and may I say dangerous nonsense too. The opposite to indigenous is , immigrant , expatriate , alien , newcomer and many more such words. The T/Cs are part of the overall indigenous population of Cyprus. Almost 500 years on this island and you want to call them foreigners , immigrants !! Ger real and realise that this island is populated by the vast majority of G/Cs but also by a large minority made up of T/Cs and of late , many other sizable minorities.
Let me just add that having lived in the UK for 46 years I would find it offensive if I was referred to as an alien or a newcomer , and my children who were born here would reject the label of immigrants outright.
The Turkish Cypriots are very much part of the natives of Cyprus , you can not classify them in the same way as you would the settlers.
In an earlier post I stated that we , the G/Cs , march ahead with the same Greek tune , ignoring the fact that Cyprus is an independent nation that we claim to also include our T/C compatriots , and yet here we are on this thread challenging an indisputable fact that the T/Cs are part of the indigenous population of Cyprus.

[alexISS]

3. The oldest Greek Cypriot settlement found is older than that of anything ever found in Turkey or Greece

If you are referring to the Choirokoitia settlement, I doubt it can be considered "Greek Cypriot", since these people were extinct long before any other entities appeared

The village of Khirokitia was suddenly abandoned for reasons unknown at around 6000 BC and it seems that the island remained uninhabited for about 1.500 years until the next recorded entity, the Sotira group.

source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirokitia

[alexISS]

The T/Cs are part of the overall indigenous population of Cyprus.

That's correct, the Turkish Cypriots are indeed indigenous to Cyprus, they are "connected" to the land, their culture and way of life is in harmony with the Cypriot environment. The way their ancestors came to Cyprus 500 years ago is irrelevant.

However, the Turkish settlers who are now more than half of the population of the occupied north are certainly NOT indigenous to Cyprus

[bigOz]

The T/Cs are part of the overall indigenous population of Cyprus.

That's correct, the Turkish Cypriots are indeed indigenous to Cyprus, they are "connected" to the land, their culture and way of life is in harmony with the Cypriot environment. The way their ancestors came to Cyprus 500 years ago is irrelevant.

However, the Turkish settlers who are now more than half of the population of the occupied north are certainly NOT indigenous to Cyprus

I respect most of your posts for speaking with an unbiased view alexISS!

But the information you've been given on the number of settlers is not correct. In a recent physical count of settlers in Cyprus after 1974, living in TRNC, had revealed they number somewhere near 40,000, half of which are their children that were born in Cyprus many years after they settled. Many of them had in fact married TCs so their children are at least half original TCs. Considering the TC population is currently 180,000 plus, they are not even quarter of the total population.

However I would like to add that: the same was true for thousands of Greek mainland soldiers who were imported by the RoC to support the National Guard before 1974, and who had since then married, settled and become part of today's GC population. The children of these people do not know any better and as far as they are concerned they are Cypriots (so they should be anyway).

The question that should be asked now: do we go on a witch hunt to discover who is of pure Cyprus blood or not, like Hitler was looking for the pure German (?) blood- or do we put all this nonsense aside in search of a solution for the real problems facing the Cypriots now?

I also would like to attract the attention of some others that keep referring to "settlers" at every opportunity. You cannot be so blind as not to see that TCs have done their best to keep their unique Cyprus culture and identity. Turkey is now 74 million, only 40 - 50 nautical miles from Cyprus with connecting sea and air ports like an umbilical chord! If there was ever any serious intention of changing the balance of ethnic populations on the island, there was nothing to stop another 200,000 Turks being imported from Turkey over the past 33 years!

In additions it is really annoying to see the very same people who keep talking of the TC population just prior to 1974 not noticing or asking how come the GC population on the island had practically doubled between 1963 and 1974 but the TC one somehow remained around 120,000 or even reduced to less (I personally believe it actually went down to less than 100,000). These are subjects open to discussion if and one some historian will decide to make a book about it and show some facts - until then the main issues concerning the current Cyprus problem lie in other areas which should not be ignored at the expense of discussing such useless information...

[alexISS]

BigOz,

The numbers that the RoC provides are these:
total population of the occupied areas is 200,000, 80-89,000 are Turkish Cypriots and 109,000-117,000 Turkish settlers. I won't argue over the validity of these numbers, besides when I said that the settlers are not indigenous I did not mean they should be sent away. Those people were used by the Turkish government to alter the demographics of Cyprus, they are not the ones that should pay for this act, maybe the ones that settled recently could be given an "immigrant" status or something like that when a solution is agreed. Also, the few hundreds of Greeks that settled in Cyprus are not altering the demographics of the RoC in any way, not only are they much less than the Turkish settlers, the Greek Cypriots are much more than the Turkish Cypriots too

[bigOz]

BigOz,

The numbers that the RoC provides are these:
total population of the occupied areas is 200,000, 80-89,000 are Turkish Cypriots and 109,000-117,000 Turkish settlers. I won't argue over the validity of these numbers, besides when I said that the settlers are not indigenous I did not mean they should be sent away. Those people were used by the Turkish government to alter the demographics of Cyprus, they are not the ones that should pay for this act, maybe the ones that settled recently could be given an "immigrant" status or something like that when a solution is agreed. Also, the few hundreds of Greeks that settled in Cyprus are not altering the demographics of the RoC in any way, not only are they much less than the Turkish settlers, the Greek Cypriots are much more than the Turkish Cypriots too

I agree with all the above, except RoC claims that 109-11700 are Turkish settlers have no factual basis. It is the first I hear of it and believe me no such "count" was ever carried out either by RoC or the UN. So feel free to accept the reliability of these quoted figures...

[alexISS]

I agree with all the above, except RoC claims that 109-11700 are Turkish settlers have no factual basis. It is the first I hear of it and believe me no such "count" was ever carried out either by RoC or the UN. So feel free to accept the reliability of these quoted figures...

No matter how many the settlers are, don't you agree that they are more than enough to change the demographics?