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[insan]

Have a good evening, my friend. My apologies if I have been rude or sarcastic during the course of this intense discussion today.

Alexandros,

People like us must never need those certain type of personally insulting definitions that cause to damage and end the fragile personal relationships among us. We may not accept your version of history or partly accept, partly object; you should come stronger arguments and proofs to make us believe that what you are asserting is true and ours is wrong and vice versa. But if instead of that you label us "brain-washed"; it is also easy for us to label you "brain-washed". where could this lead us through? Individual seperation then the communal seperation.

You too, have a good evening my friend.

[Piratis]

he UK is not their homeland. After a generation or two they may (or may not) come to consider the UK both their country and their homeland.

So apart from how they feel, what else changes? In a generation or two or 5 or 10 you stop calling them minority and you call them something else? If after all these years they do not integrate totally with the rest, then they will still be an ethnic minority, isn't it? In Turkey for example there is a Greek minority, even if Greeks have been inhabiting that area for a much longer time than Turks.

The minority is exactly the same with the majority, with the only difference that the majority is a group with more people than the minority. I don't see anything offensive with calling TCs a minority. Personally in Cyprus I do not belong in an "ethnic" minority, but I am a minority in many other ways, is that bad?

Now I know that you will jump on me with what I will say, but I believe that the belief you have regarding the meaning of minority is created by those that were always planing for partition and wanted to eliminate any possibility of GCs and TCs living as one again.
TCs not a minority requires TCs not belonging to the same group with GCs which means TCs should stay separate (therefore having their own separate majority/minority). Couple that with separation of land, and what you have is partition. Wasn't the dream of Denctash to have 2 separate countries that will be good neighbors?

As I said many times before, for me "minority" is just a word which has the exact same meaning as "numerically less". By saying that TCs are a minority I mean nothing more and nothing less than the simple fact that they are less in the one group called Cypriots. (if you reject that such group exists, then you simply reject unification and you follow the "good neighbors" model of Denctash)

We have less TCs so TCs are a minority.
We have less Muslims, so muslims are a minority
We have less atheists, so atheists are a minority (I belong in this minority)
GCs that voted "yes" are a minority.
A tiny minority of very rich people in Brazil own the great majority of wealth.

The above are just some examples of what the word minority means, for me at least. Maybe you associate the word in some other way, but when I say this word this is how I mean it. I hope I am clear and we will not have any more misunderstanding about this one.

[insan]

We have less TCs so TCs are a minority.
We have less Muslims, so muslims are a minority
We have less atheists, so atheists are a minority (I belong in this minority)
GCs that voted "yes" are a minority.
A tiny minority of very rich people in Brazil own the great majority of wealth.

Piratis,

What percentage of GCs you think you are representing?

Do you think that what you think about TCs also reflects Tassos and majority of GCs mentality or your kind of people constitute a small minority in GC community?

[Alexandros Lordos]

Erol,

OK, I've read the interview, it is very interesting ...

I think what Tassos was saying is: "TCs started the violence, they refused police protection, but after this spate of violence the years up to 1974 were without killings".

I'll be honest and admit that I know very little about the detailed history of the period, so I will not comment on the truth, or lack of, of each of the above statements. I know Tassos, however, and he is not beyond lying when he feels he needs to make a point. I am aware there was some violence in 1967, so clearly Tassos lied about this, I don't know however how much other violence there was in the in-between years.

As to the "political equality" issue, Tassos brings up a very particular concern: That in each Federal service, there will be a GC chairman and a TC vice chairman, and they both have to concur for each decision. Tassos thinks this is unworkable in practice. (AKEL has later come to suggest an amendment, whereby TCs would have a quota as chairmen of departments rather than being vice-chairmen to each.) So, no fundamental philosophical objections to the rights of TC to have political equality is expressed here, just a specific and practical concern.

The translation of this article seems really bad, however (I think it is a double translation from english to arabic and back to english), so I would be careful about drawing too many conclusions from it.

[Alexandros Lordos]

brain-washed

Yes, poor choice of words ...

I'll wash my mouth with soap, that's what I'll do !

[Piratis]

Do you think that what you think about TCs also reflects Tassos and majority of GCs mentality or your kind of people constitute a small minority in GC community?

And who are "my kind of people" according to you?

What I think about TCs is that they are Cypriots just like me that should have the same rights and responsibilities, and with rights as a community to protect their unique identity. I think that TCs have been mistreated in the past and that some outsiders took advantage of this fact to serve their own interests in Cyprus. For 30 years they have been taught that are separate "peoples" that have to be separated from GCs, and today they consider such thing as their right. Today, most of them are unfortunately unable to see that winning on the loss of GCs would only bring them short term gains, and they are inflexible into making compromises that could pave the way for a truly united Cyprus in some years from now.

This is what I think about TCs, and because what I think is very specific I doubt many would have the exact same thoughts like me.

Is this a satisfactory answer for "people like you" insan?

[Viewpoint]

The translation of this article seems really bad, however (I think it is a double translation from english to arabic and back to english), so I would be careful about drawing too many conclusions from it.

Excuses excuses, didnt expect this from you

[Piratis]

Excuses excuses, didnt expect this from you

Viewpoint, I don't think you can say that others give excuses, when you excuse the whole invasion by calling it a "peace operation"!!

[Alexandros Lordos]

The translation of this article seems really bad, however (I think it is a double translation from english to arabic and back to english), so I would be careful about drawing too many conclusions from it.

Excuses excuses, didnt expect this from you

It's not an excuse, the translation is bad. If you can show me an accurate version of the article, I would be happy to comment as objectively as I can.

For instance, at some point Tassos is saying something about federation and majority rule. The translation is so poor, I cannot understand what his point was. Here is the precise quote, make your own analysis:

The federation concept is good, more than the confederation, and in our case, the Turkish Cypriots were to have 50 percent of share (in governance) and there would be two heads in every department. Two-state federation means half -half power. You said democracy gives the majority the right to rule, but it is not workable here. The minority has all the rights, even as the Turkish Cypriots are 18 per cent of the population. On the contrary, the majority doesn’t have the same power.

Is he arguing in favor of Federation, or in favor of majority rule? I can't understand what is being said here.

In fact this particular interview caused a furore in the south when it was published, because the translation in Greek released by the government was miles apart from the double-translation in English that made its way to the media from the Khaleej Times.

[insan]

It's not an excuse, the translation is bad. If you can show me an accurate version of the article, I would be happy to comment as objectively as I can.

For instance, at some point Tassos is saying something about federation and majority rule. The translation is so poor, I cannot understand what his point was. Here is the precise quote, make your own analysis:

Alexandros,

This article was also published on some GC dailies in its original form. Did Tassos made any statements and denied what's written there? No.

It is clear that interview was made in english by that journalist. Ain't it obvious?