Cyprus-Forum.com

[BirKibrisli]

Pyros...thanks for pointing out to Eric Dayi that I was just reporting in general of what I know about certain prejudices mainland Turks have about TCs...I am sure FilthmouthErika knew exactly what I meant but chose to take it personally,so he can indulge in his favourite pastime :throwing personal insults and filth at those whose opinions he does not agree with. He is truly a classical bully...Bullies are really cowards deep down,who put on this act of brovado to cover up their feelings of inadequecy. And they have very thin skins...They cannot take one hundreth of the insults they throw at other people,they explode,go way over the top,as he did with me...

I gave him the benefit of the doubt,and was consolitary towards him,because I felt guilty for causing him some anguish. He is a human being after all,and did not deserve to be insulted the way I insulted him after his filthy attacks on me...I have high expectations of myself ,but failed to live upto them on this ocassion.I am sorry you and the rest of the forum had to be exposed to such language that came form him and from me too...Hovever much I was provoked,I should not have retaliated the way I did...

I am off to Canberra for a few days to visit a cousin who is dying of cancer at age 45...Stuff like this puts everything into perspective. It makes you realise what is what is not really important in life...Please do me and yourself a favour,and do not respond to Erika's provocations. He is best left to roll in his own filth...

Bir its obvious you are more in synch with GCs than you are TCs why dont you just move to the "RoC" and live there happily ever after? you have what you want there with your brothers, why do you demand we do the same when we are obviously do not think like you, if you are so keen to live in a GC state as a minority then you have it made in the south.

Vp...As Kikapu points out I am in synch with all Cypriots who want to learn from their past mistakes,put the tragedy behind them ,and move forward in peace and harmony as Cypriots...You, and sadly most Turkish speaking Cypriots, prefer to hang primarily onto the very factor which was the principal cause of all our pain and suffering;namely,your ethnic background...That road,in my opinion only leads to more pain and suffering,and total extinction of us as a community in Cyprus...

Believe it or not,I am proud of my ethnic background as well,and do not want to lose what makes me unique in this world:my Turkish Cypriotness.
On my own,or with a few thousand like minded TCs living in the South,we have little or no chance of influencing the GC community to give up their "Hellenism"...But with an influential minority of 20% we can have a fighting chance of maintaining our identity into the foreseeable future,plus moderating the Hellenic influence on the GCs...
But if the choice is between living in the trnc as it is now and living in the RoC,I would always chose the RoC...At least there I would be amongst my own people,the Cypriots...And some of whom would be True Cypriots...

[BirKibrisli]

But it's so true. Kikapu and BK DO mean well. Well at least BK does and Kikapu from time to time..I know this...but they're so biased it's beyond belief and theres no way of making them understand anything!

AND they completely fail to be objective and worse they TAKE SIDES!!!! This is not what objective people do!

I appreciate their good cause but they're literally insulting us by taking sides while hiding behind the "unificationist" or "True Cypriot" title. When we say something it's "you just don't like what I'm telling you" or we're precived as evil for daring to speak up against unificationists even though they're acting in a completely biased manner!

Remember when we started to AGREE on 18% - 82% split, and of all the GCs in the forum a Turkish Cypriot KIKAPU jumped in to tell the TCs that "don't for one minute think you are going to have anything to do with running of the state..." or something along those lines...I am running out of the excuses I am telling MYSELF to keep calm and try to understand where they're coming from!

Sorry to cause you all this anguish,Garagoz...
If you want to know where I am coming from,please listen to me for a few minutes. And without prejudice...I will tell you as simply as I can put it...You don't have to agree with my analysis,of course...But you will see where I am coming from.

I believe that the main problem,the germ if you like, which has caused the Cyprus tragedy,is unthinking nationalism...Because we were made to think that we were Turks and Greeks first and Cypriots only as an accident of geography,that we started killing each other. If we could point the middle finger at those egging us on (Britain,Greece,Turkey,America,USSR etc) during the 40s and 50s and told them to piss off and leave us alone to live as Cypriots,we wouldn't be here today. I also believe that take the language and religion out of the equation,and Cypriots are a unique nation,one people ,one community.Our traditions,our mentality,our sense of humour,our food,our folklore,our world view etc are distinct from our respective mainland cousins...Even our gene pool is scientifically proven to be distinct. That means we are biologically mopre like each other than the mainlanders!

Now. We have had this sad common history which has left us bitter and mistrustful. We have had one and only one opportunity to determine our own fate back in the 50s and we chose to throw it away with dreams of Enosis and Taksim...Here is the key to my thinking... By insisting on putting our ethnic origins above else we are serving the interests of other nations.

The only way we will find true peace and justice is to put our ethnic differnces aside and embrace each other as Cypriots...Because unlike those who say "if you want peace you must prepare for war",i believe that if you want peace you must prepare for peace...No excuses or fancy rhetoric...The best way to make sure you will never fight with your "enemies"ever again is to make them your friends.To love them and be loved in return. To make sure you will always have harmony,you need to remove the root cause or your discontent. The way to have good relationships with your neighbours is to interract with them fairly,friendly,and brotherly,not to put up walls between you and them,and both sides arming themselves to the teeth...I know I am repeating myself,but i am approaching it from every angle I can think of... With the hope that one of the approaches will work for you.

I have never said we have to surrender to anyone unconditionally. Those stories are made by up those who want to misrepresent and discredit my arguments. My starting point is the 1960 constitution.I believe it is the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem by initially returning to the Republic which is as much ours and the GCs...Then together as measures to build trust and understanding succeed,we can make the necessary changes to make our constitution more democratic. My ultimate aim would be to remove of ethnic based considerations,and live as civilised,peace-loving people in a modern,democratic republic based on strong human rights and equal opportunity principles,and rule of law...I firmly believe that once we start dismantling ethnic based provisions (in other words once we stop highlighting our differences),the root cause of our mistrust and disagreement would simply vanish in time...And with positive measures to highlight our similarities as Cypriots,the establishment of social cohesion and harmony will not be left to accidental
occurences...To cut a long story short,yes,I do believe in Osmosis for the long term peace and harmon y in our homeland...But the Osmosis I want is for both communities,and the other minorities,to come together as Cypriots,respect each others ethnic differences,celebrate these as richness in our culture,and live as one people,one nation,putting our country's interests above all else...Is this a realistic dream...I believe it is...In the sense that any other alternatives would only be postponing the inevitable...another bloody clush of our communities,and even more pain and suffering...I hope you are starting to see where I am coming from...

[Jerry]

But it's so true. Kikapu and BK DO mean well. Well at least BK does and Kikapu from time to time..I know this...but they're so biased it's beyond belief and theres no way of making them understand anything!

AND they completely fail to be objective and worse they TAKE SIDES!!!! This is not what objective people do!

I appreciate their good cause but they're literally insulting us by taking sides while hiding behind the "unificationist" or "True Cypriot" title. When we say something it's "you just don't like what I'm telling you" or we're precived as evil for daring to speak up against unificationists even though they're acting in a completely biased manner!

Remember when we started to AGREE on 18% - 82% split, and of all the GCs in the forum a Turkish Cypriot KIKAPU jumped in to tell the TCs that "don't for one minute think you are going to have anything to do with running of the state..." or something along those lines...I am running out of the excuses I am telling MYSELF to keep calm and try to understand where they're coming from!

Sorry to cause you all this anguish,Garagoz...
If you want to know where I am coming from,please listen to me for a few minutes. And without prejudice...I will tell you as simply as I can put it...You don't have to agree with my analysis,of course...But you will see where I am coming from.

I believe that the main problem,the germ if you like, which has caused the Cyprus tragedy,is unthinking nationalism...Because we were made to think that we were Turks and Greeks first and Cypriots only as an accident of geography,that we started killing each other. If we could point the middle finger at those egging us on (Britain,Greece,Turkey,America,USSR etc) during the 40s and 50s and told them to piss off and leave us alone to live as Cypriots,we wouldn't be here today. I also believe that take the language and religion out of the equation,and Cypriots are a unique nation,one people ,one community.Our traditions,our mentality,our sense of humour,our food,our folklore,our world view etc are distinct from our respective mainland cousins...Even our gene pool is scientifically proven to be distinct. That means we are biologically mopre like each other than the mainlanders!

Now. We have had this sad common history which has left us bitter and mistrustful. We have had one and only one opportunity to determine our own fate back in the 50s and we chose to throw it away with dreams of Enosis and Taksim...Here is the key to my thinking... By insisting on putting our ethnic origins above else we are serving the interests of other nations.

The only way we will find true peace and justice is to put our ethnic differnces aside and embrace each other as Cypriots...Because unlike those who say "if you want peace you must prepare for war",i believe that if you want peace you must prepare for peace...No excuses or fancy rhetoric...The best way to make sure you will never fight with your "enemies"ever again is to make them your friends.To love them and be loved in return. To make sure you will always have harmony,you need to remove the root cause or your discontent. The way to have good relationships with your neighbours is to interract with them fairly,friendly,and brotherly,not to put up walls between you and them,and both sides arming themselves to the teeth...I know I am repeating myself,but i am approaching it from every angle I can think of... With the hope that one of the approaches will work for you.

I have never said we have to surrender to anyone unconditionally. Those stories are made by up those who want to misrepresent and discredit my arguments. My starting point is the 1960 constitution.I believe it is the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem by initially returning to the Republic which is as much ours and the GCs...Then together as measures to build trust and understanding succeed,we can make the necessary changes to make our constitution more democratic. My ultimate aim would be to remove of ethnic based considerations,and live as civilised,peace-loving people in a modern,democratic republic based on strong human rights and equal opportunity principles,and rule of law...I firmly believe that once we start dismantling ethnic based provisions (in other words once we stop highlighting our differences),the root cause of our mistrust and disagreement would simply vanish in time...And with positive measures to highlight our similarities as Cypriots,the establishment of social cohesion and harmony will not be left to accidental
occurences...To cut a long story short,yes,I do believe in Osmosis for the long term peace and harmon y in our homeland...But the Osmosis I want is for both communities,and the other minorities,to come together as Cypriots,respect each others ethnic differences,celebrate these as richness in our culture,and live as one people,one nation,putting our country's interests above all else...Is this a realistic dream...I believe it is...In the sense that any other alternatives would only be postponing the inevitable...another bloody clush of our communities,and even more pain and suffering...I hope you are starting to see where I am coming from...

Well said Birkibrisli, however, and I'm not trying to make a political point, the problem is that there have been too many physical changes on the island that cannot be easily reversed so returning to 1960 constitution is almost impossible.
I have always held the belief that TCs should be actively encouraged to return to the south to demonstrate that the two communities can live together - even to the extent of rebuilding some of their villages. The problem with that is it would only take one serious intercommunal incident to undo the goodwill created by such a move.
To endorse the current partition but make it fairer could be another option but the north of the island would then be in effect part of Turkey and some Turkish Cypriots may then, under the EU umbrella, wish to move south to the RoC - a move which would be resented by the Greek Cypriots.
The future? God help us

[Kikapu]

"True Cypriots"? HA HA HA! Yeah right More like 'Wannabe Cypriots' or 'Greekish Cypriots' if you're lucky!!!!

Us (TRUE) Turkish Cypriots already know that we can get along with GCs providing we kiss their asses as much as you two do!

I say this because you two believe everything you hear from GCs and dismiss anything you hear from us. You NEVER question the GCs or their policies (probably because you've adopted them yourselves)...but those bloody bishops getting involved in politics, the Greek flags, Tpapas involvement with EOKA along with MAAAANY other things are all overlooked and brushed under the carpet, but when it comes to us you even have the audacity to argue with us over our own surnames...it's pathetic!!!!

If we still had Denktash as president we'd be hearing "a currupt society run by a terrorist" everyday...and we would not hear the last of it (AND YOU KNOW IT!), it would be your number 1 weapon but since it's the GCs with an ex-terrorist president you're quick to turn a blind eye and drop to your knees time and time again. We've already said so many times theres a lot of things that need to be resolved before we can live together....if the RoC isn't perfect (which it isn't) then why are you (Kikapudopoulous and BK) hounding for us to move there? Why don't you ever question the RoCs policies and instead opt to excuse it by telling us something lame along the lines of "but the TCs are my people so they're the ones I can speak out to"....all the while claiming to be """""objective"""""

Isn't it funny how you go on about the 70 million Turks when (at most) ONLY 100 thousand of them have ended up in Cyprus???? 100 thousand Turks are way too much for you but you want to FORCE US with your manipulation (and without a solution if it were upto you) into moving in with 700 thousand people who according to you are "just the right size" for us to live with! And who can forget Kikapu trying to tell us some months ago that we can live with the GCs because they went and bought him baklava in the early hours of the morning.

And to make matters worse I'm seen as a bad person for not agreeing with these two....well sorry but they're not genuine in my opinion....if they were more honest and admitted they were pro-Greek then it wouldn't be so bad, but they have the cheeeeeek to claim they're "objective". They are NOT objective and it's when I read their post that I oppose unification...simply put, they're everything we don't want to be as Turkish Cypriots and if anything they're setting a BAD EXAMPLE to TCs regarding a united Cyprus.

Again,please don't get me wrong and this is really important in this post, it's NOT their unification dream I am against but I NEVER want to be in a position where I HAVE TO agree with GCs in absolutely EVERYTHING, with no questions asked, in order to live safely or comfortably in Cyprus. This is exactly what we don't want and it's exactly what these two do continuously on the forum and they still expect us to "see the light".

The GCs refugees MOST DEFINATELY without a shadow of a doubt DESERVE to return back to their ancestral homes...it's their right and I can only imagine what it would be like not be able to live in the area of Cyprus which means a lot to me...I'm all for the refugees plight!

The Greek Cypriot government on the other hand (and in my opinion) DOES NOT deserve to control the whole island and I forever refuse to fight for this cause. With GCs you either have to agree with everything or nothing at all. This is my stance and if people can't accept it then thats too bad...This is exactly the kind of choice I would like to have in a united Cyprus without being forced to "do it the Greek way" (no pun intended.....if ya know what I mean!?!?!? )

If they REALLY want to prove we can get along with the GCs then I would like to see them be as harsh on the GCs as they are with us...give it a few months like this and THEN come tell us everything would be fine. AS IF they would ever have the courage to do that though....

Impressive post my friend. In fact, I can't help but love you for it, just as if I was your Big Brother.!!

Let me repeat why I pick on the Partitionist Garagöz which you mistakenly take it as an attack on the TC's. I do not attack TC's but only the circumstances that the Partitionist has created for themselves. They do not want to re-unite, because of greed and the GC land that they hold and sell. You are one of the innocent ones that gets offended by my posts, because you do not want to believe, that the Partitionist can possibly have an hidden agenda, that will make your life and mine a disaster in the future. I only speak of all the wrongs that the Partitionist do. I'm not here to pat the TC's on the back on what they do right. I'll leave that task to Halil and others just as I leave Bananiot to pick on the GC's that he sees are against normalising relationships on the island between the two communities. Do I pick on you as to why you don't complain about Bananiot picking on his people.?? Do you think he is doing the Partitionist work by speaking out on GC's policies towards the TC's.? The answer is NO, so just know that I'm speaking out for the Good TC's who have been "muzzled" by the Partitionist in the "TRNC".

Please take a few minutes and read what my proposals are for all Cypriots, and see if I'm really against the TC's, as you have wrongly accused me of. lease read this:

http://www.cyprus-forum.com/cyprus12055.html



By the way, that Baklava cost me £3.50 CYP, so there's no way I want the GC's to have complete control over the TC's. If the Baklave was free, than your argument may hold some water, assuming I can be bought off that cheaply.[/quote]

[Nikitas]

Bir makes sense, as always.

No matter what the division and the foreign interference, the two communities always built bridges, even during the worst days of the intercommunal strife of the 60s. Now we see those bridges in the form of thousands of people who come south every day to work.

Moving into a fair society, where there is equality of status, and more important equality of opportunity (importand for all individuals not just TCs), is now easier because of the EU and its overriding provisions that take precedence over the Cyprus constitution. And also the remedies available, in European courts, which would not permit any of the past bullshit.

There will be small minorities in each community who will not relinquish their clinging to their ethnic background. Maybe for those diehards we could set aside small areas of ethnic purity, on in the north and one in the south, and in time these would become theme parks of the past.

As for the language thing, which I see as a possible obstacle, every Cypriot could be taught to understand, not speak, the other's language. There is a precedent for this, when engineers building the Concord plane back int he 60s were taught to understand French and English respectively. The plane is more complex than any project we are likely to face in daily life in Cyprus, and it got built and it works so we can conclude the engineers understood each other fairly well.

In a European society of the 21st century respect for the individual, and his uniquequness, is paramount and that should be the starting point for a Cyprus solution. Naturally the Turkish Cypriot community needs some minimum guarantees as a community, but not in the limiting form of the past. To give an example, the provision in the Constitution is that the president of the republic must be Greek Cypriot. Why not just Cypriot? And let the matter be decided by the voters themselves and the social situation prevailing at the time. It is conceivable that at some future point Cypriots would decide that the best person for the job is not a Greek Cypriot- and I think that this kind of situation is what Bir is talking about and one most of us Cypriots would like to see in the future. Where we judge the quality of the individual and not his nationality. Something we do in our daily routines now no matter where we live.

[humanist]

Birk

Sorry to cause you all this anguish,Garagoz...
If you want to know where I am coming from,please listen to me for a few minutes. And without prejudice...I will tell you as simply as I can put it...You don't have to agree with my analysis,of course...But you will see where I am coming from.

I believe that the main problem,the germ if you like, which has caused the Cyprus tragedy,is unthinking nationalism...Because we were made to think that we were Turks and Greeks first and Cypriots only as an accident of geography,that we started killing each other. If we could point the middle finger at those egging us on (Britain,Greece,Turkey,America,USSR etc) during the 40s and 50s and told them to piss off and leave us alone to live as Cypriots,we wouldn't be here today. I also believe that take the language and religion out of the equation,and Cypriots are a unique nation,one people ,one community.Our traditions,our mentality,our sense of humour,our food,our folklore,our world view etc are distinct from our respective mainland cousins...Even our gene pool is scientifically proven to be distinct. That means we are biologically mopre like each other than the mainlanders!

Now. We have had this sad common history which has left us bitter and mistrustful. We have had one and only one opportunity to determine our own fate back in the 50s and we chose to throw it away with dreams of Enosis and Taksim...Here is the key to my thinking... By insisting on putting our ethnic origins above else we are serving the interests of other nations.

The only way we will find true peace and justice is to put our ethnic differnces aside and embrace each other as Cypriots...Because unlike those who say "if you want peace you must prepare for war",i believe that if you want peace you must prepare for peace...No excuses or fancy rhetoric...The best way to make sure you will never fight with your "enemies"ever again is to make them your friends.To love them and be loved in return. To make sure you will always have harmony,you need to remove the root cause or your discontent. The way to have good relationships with your neighbours is to interract with them fairly,friendly,and brotherly,not to put up walls between you and them,and both sides arming themselves to the teeth...I know I am repeating myself,but i am approaching it from every angle I can think of... With the hope that one of the approaches will work for you.

I have never said we have to surrender to anyone unconditionally. Those stories are made by up those who want to misrepresent and discredit my arguments. My starting point is the 1960 constitution.I believe it is the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem by initially returning to the Republic which is as much ours and the GCs...Then together as measures to build trust and understanding succeed,we can make the necessary changes to make our constitution more democratic. My ultimate aim would be to remove of ethnic based considerations,and live as civilised,peace-loving people in a modern,democratic republic based on strong human rights and equal opportunity principles,and rule of law...I firmly believe that once we start dismantling ethnic based provisions (in other words once we stop highlighting our differences),the root cause of our mistrust and disagreement would simply vanish in time...And with positive measures to highlight our similarities as Cypriots,the establishment of social cohesion and harmony will not be left to accidental
occurences...To cut a long story short,yes,I do believe in Osmosis for the long term peace and harmon y in our homeland...But the Osmosis I want is for both communities,and the other minorities,to come together as Cypriots,respect each others ethnic differences,celebrate these as richness in our culture,and live as one people,one nation,putting our country's interests above all else...Is this a realistic dream...I believe it is...In the sense that any other alternatives would only be postponing the inevitable...another bloody clush of our communities,and even more pain and suffering...I hope you are starting to see where I am coming from...

Birk briliant ost and a great inspiring notion put forth, I support your perspective and views on this issue.

[humanist]

young Garagoz, I would encourage you strongly to look deep within your heart my friend. your post to Birk and Kikapu has some beliefs that I for one find disappointing, but I can accept that you hold those beliefs and it is your entitlement. Thanks Andreas

[Viewpoint]

Bir makes sense, as always.

No matter what the division and the foreign interference, the two communities always built bridges, even during the worst days of the intercommunal strife of the 60s. Now we see those bridges in the form of thousands of people who come south every day to work.

Moving into a fair society, where there is equality of status, and more important equality of opportunity (importand for all individuals not just TCs), is now easier because of the EU and its overriding provisions that take precedence over the Cyprus constitution. And also the remedies available, in European courts, which would not permit any of the past bullshit.

There will be small minorities in each community who will not relinquish their clinging to their ethnic background. Maybe for those diehards we could set aside small areas of ethnic purity, on in the north and one in the south, and in time these would become theme parks of the past.

As for the language thing, which I see as a possible obstacle, every Cypriot could be taught to understand, not speak, the other's language. There is a precedent for this, when engineers building the Concord plane back int he 60s were taught to understand French and English respectively. The plane is more complex than any project we are likely to face in daily life in Cyprus, and it got built and it works so we can conclude the engineers understood each other fairly well.

In a European society of the 21st century respect for the individual, and his uniquequness, is paramount and that should be the starting point for a Cyprus solution. Naturally the Turkish Cypriot community needs some minimum guarantees as a community, but not in the limiting form of the past. To give an example, the provision in the Constitution is that the president of the republic must be Greek Cypriot. Why not just Cypriot? And let the matter be decided by the voters themselves and the social situation prevailing at the time. It is conceivable that at some future point Cypriots would decide that the best person for the job is not a Greek Cypriot- and I think that this kind of situation is what Bir is talking about and one most of us Cypriots would like to see in the future. Where we judge the quality of the individual and not his nationality. Something we do in our daily routines now no matter where we live.

Why do you not sound sincere and why do I not trust what you say, is it because you are comfortable knowing your are the 80% and I am 20% and that GCs (and TCs) are mainly racists to a degree that they would rather vote in a monkey than have a TC as president. Judging from this forum GCs have not matured one iota from the 1960 and still want to force their domination on us reducing us to minority status rather than the community partnership as per the 1960 agreements, knowing all this would you throw yourself at the mercy of GCs and an imbalance of 80% who if not openly but psychologically still seek revenge for the past losses?

[Eric dayi]

Sorry to cause you all this anguish,Garagoz...
If you want to know where I am coming from,please listen to me for a few minutes. And without prejudice...I will tell you as simply as I can put it...You don't have to agree with my analysis,of course...But you will see where I am coming from.

I believe that the main problem,the germ if you like, which has caused the Cyprus tragedy,is unthinking nationalism...Because we were made to think that we were Turks and Greeks first and Cypriots only as an accident of geography,that we started killing each other. If we could point the middle finger at those egging us on (Britain,Greece,Turkey,America,USSR etc) during the 40s and 50s and told them to piss off and leave us alone to live as Cypriots,we wouldn't be here today. I also believe that take the language and religion out of the equation,and Cypriots are a unique nation,one people ,one community.Our traditions,our mentality,our sense of humour,our food,our folklore,our world view etc are distinct from our respective mainland cousins...Even our gene pool is scientifically proven to be distinct. That means we are biologically mopre like each other than the mainlanders!

Now. We have had this sad common history which has left us bitter and mistrustful. We have had one and only one opportunity to determine our own fate back in the 50s and we chose to throw it away with dreams of Enosis and Taksim...Here is the key to my thinking... By insisting on putting our ethnic origins above else we are serving the interests of other nations.

The only way we will find true peace and justice is to put our ethnic differnces aside and embrace each other as Cypriots...Because unlike those who say "if you want peace you must prepare for war",i believe that if you want peace you must prepare for peace...No excuses or fancy rhetoric...The best way to make sure you will never fight with your "enemies"ever again is to make them your friends.To love them and be loved in return. To make sure you will always have harmony,you need to remove the root cause or your discontent. The way to have good relationships with your neighbours is to interract with them fairly,friendly,and brotherly,not to put up walls between you and them,and both sides arming themselves to the teeth...I know I am repeating myself,but i am approaching it from every angle I can think of... With the hope that one of the approaches will work for you.

I have never said we have to surrender to anyone unconditionally. Those stories are made by up those who want to misrepresent and discredit my arguments. My starting point is the 1960 constitution.I believe it is the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem by initially returning to the Republic which is as much ours and the GCs...Then together as measures to build trust and understanding succeed,we can make the necessary changes to make our constitution more democratic. My ultimate aim would be to remove of ethnic based considerations,and live as civilised,peace-loving people in a modern,democratic republic based on strong human rights and equal opportunity principles,and rule of law...I firmly believe that once we start dismantling ethnic based provisions (in other words once we stop highlighting our differences),the root cause of our mistrust and disagreement would simply vanish in time...And with positive measures to highlight our similarities as Cypriots,the establishment of social cohesion and harmony will not be left to accidental
occurences...To cut a long story short,yes,I do believe in Osmosis for the long term peace and harmon y in our homeland...But the Osmosis I want is for both communities,and the other minorities,to come together as Cypriots,respect each others ethnic differences,celebrate these as richness in our culture,and live as one people,one nation,putting our country's interests above all else...Is this a realistic dream...I believe it is...In the sense that any other alternatives would only be postponing the inevitable...another bloody clush of our communities,and even more pain and suffering...I hope you are starting to see where I am coming from...

I had tears running down my face reading this joke, nice one Bir, haven't laughed so much in a long time.

What you want Bir is for the "Cypriots" to live in a house full with unstable dynamite that could blow up at the slightest spark while you yourself refuse to return to Cyprus until your unification dream is tried and tested in case you are mistaken and it will result in a new war.

Unification is the worst option and will never work, it will only cause more atrocities, pain and tears. Especially because there are GCs as well as TCs who do not want to give up their Greekness or their Turkishness. I am not alone in this wish, there are literally thousands of us on both sides of the border.

You are playing with fire 8000 miles away in safety.

When I fill a form in here in the UK I put my ethnicity as Turkish Cypriot and it is accepted without a problem so if I am accepted as a Turkish Cypriot in (for me) a "foreign country", why should I be forced to deny my Turkish roots and become a "Cypriot" like you and your "compatriots"
who have only found their "Cypriotness" just after the Annan Plan?

What you write is just what the Greek Cypriots want to read and I for one do not believe a word of it and I am sure that I am not the only one.

[Nikitas]

Viewpoint,

It was a point of view that I expressed. If you detect insincerity point it out.

And for your info, I know many Turkish Cypriots that I would rather vote for than any of the current crop of politicians in the Cyprus political stage. I definitely would not vote for a monkey!

I have worked with Turkish Cypriots, socialised with them and some of my best friends are Turkish Cypriots. In the UK, free of the choke hold of nationalism, people form friendships and partnerships along personal criteria. This of course does not happen n Cyprus thanks to the enforced division and the exclusion enforced by foreigners. Although there too, when i was there last month, I saw many Turkish Cypriots working and moving around apparently fearlessly.

On a personal footing, Viewpoint, do you get along with ALL Turkish Cypriots? Can you say that you cannot get along with ANY Greek Cypriot?