phoenix wrote:Undaunted, here's the article on Turks.
Molecular Biology and EvolutionAbout This Journal Contact This Journal Subscriptions Current Issue Archive Search Oxford Journals Life Sciences Molecular Biology and Evolution Volume 13, Number 8 Pp. 1067-1077
This Article
Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 13, 1067-1077, Copyright © 1996 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Geographic variation in human mitochondrial DNA control region sequence: the population history of Turkey and its relationship to the European populations
D Comas, F Calafell, E Mateu, A Perez-Lezaun and J Bertranpetit
Laboratori d' Antropologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The hypervariable segment I of the control region of the mtDNA (positions 16024-16383) was amplified from hair roots by PCR and sequenced in 45 unrelated individuals from Anatolia (Asian Turkey). Forty different sequences were found, defined by 56 variable positions, of which only one involves a transversion. The neighbor-joining tree of Kimura's distance matrix for all sequences shows four main clusters. Cluster D was found to be the most statistically robust of the four, and all the sequences in it shared a mutation that is present only in European and West Asian populations. The variability in cluster D could have originated between 37,000 and 107,000 years ago. No branch is unexpectedly long, denoting the absence of sequences that diverged much before the others. The pairwise difference distribution is bell-shaped, in accordance with a population expansion occurring roughly 35,000 to 100,000 years ago. When compared to other Caucasoid populations through the pairwise difference distribution, there is a pattern from the Middle East (older expansion) to the various European populations, with Turkey in an intermediate position; when Turkish sequences are compared through a neighbor-joining tree on a genetic distance matrix of populations, this position is again evidenced. Although there is a very low level of genetic divergence among Caucasoid populations as shown by mtDNA control region sequences, a geographic pattern of genetic variation emerges, denoting a stepping-stone position of Turkey between the Middle East and Europe, which is in agreement with the hypothesis of a replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans, which could be related to the Upper Paleolithic cultural expansion.
Why the Republic of Cyprus is institutionally racist
By Alkan Chaglar
LAST week, I accompanied a friend who wanted to apply for Republic of Cyprus citizenship to the Cyprus High Commission in London. My friend, whose identity I have promised to keep confidential (let’s just call her Mrs X), is a Turkish national, born in Turkey, whose spouse is a Republic of Cyprus citizen. This was not Mrs X’s first trip to the visa section of the Cyprus High Commission, where citizenship forms are filled up, inspected and sent to Nicosia bureaucrats for a final rubber stamp of approval.
Around four years ago, she stood at the same counter and was informed that for her to be eligible for citizenship, which would make her life easy if she ever decides to emigrate to Cyprus with her husband, she would need to get married abroad, as marriage certificates from the breakaway ‘TRNC’ are unrecognised and classed as illegal.
Mrs X was led to believe that since she was not a Turkish settler she had a chance of success. By contrast, marriage between Republic of Cyprus citizens and Turkish settlers in north Cyprus are considered a “result of the invasion” and are not recognised by the government. Part of the government’s opposition is based on the assumption that it was the invasion that forced them to fall in love…
By some quirk of Cypriot political games, Mrs X was also informed that she had to reside with her husband for at least three years (not an unreasonable request), but as long as they did not live in northern Cyprus, where the entire family of her spouse live.
The couple were effectively told that they could live together anywhere in the world they wanted to, that could be the Polynesia, Canada or even Outer Mongolia but under no circumstances in the native country of her husband. Anywhere but a part of the country whose citizenship you seek to acquire, sounds logical right? The process, they were informed, could take a year as the Cyprus Council of Ministers works slowly but that citizenship would be hers after a year’s patience.
Consequently, the couple decided to marry and stay in the UK, since this is where they met; her Cypriot husband informed me that Canada was too nippy for them, while they did not fancy living on a Polynesian atoll, which was too far away and detached from the rest of civilisation, besides the nuclear fall-out might leave a bad taste in their coconut. Married in the UK with a UK marriage certificate, the couple who have always intended to return to Cyprus, have now waited four years before attempting to apply for Cyprus citizenship again.
Mrs X had researched what she had to bring with her before making her way to the High Commission using the Republic of Cyprus’ own government information portal. She obtained from the police a report of good character as required, and evidence of her residency in the UK for the past three years by way of bank statements and utility bills. She had even brought the £120 required to make the M.125 application as advised by the Cyprus government on their own official website.
However, upon arrival at the High Commission, Mrs X was asked to forget the portal and was asked if she had ever visited the “occupied areas”, to which she replied yes. Why would she not? After all, the family of her husband reside there and it is highly likely that her husband would return to this part of the island, where 99 per cent of all Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus reside. Did the government really expect her to stay behind while her husband went to see his family?
Without having any of her papers even looked at, she was informed that on account of this, her application would be immediately unsuccessful, so she needn’t bother. Recent legislation was also against her she was told, so she was told that her application would not even be considered. An absurd law, it is clearly designed to filter out Turkish applications for Cypriot citizenship. Had she been a Greek national would she be treated the same way I wonder?
Confused and visibly angered by such blatant discrimination on the part of the government, her Cypriot husband said: “It is her legal right – I don’t understand what is going on! How can this happen in an EU country? Why is she being treated like this?”
Fed up of playing the waiting game for what seems to be a losing battle, the couple plan to take the issue to the Cyprus government and the European Courts. “In Britain we have to wait four years before we can apply for citizenship, in New Zealand it is three years, but in Cyprus if you are Turkish you have to wait for all eternity,” he remarked.
“What are we expected to do if most Turkish Cypriots happen to live in the occupied territories?” her husband asks. “Should I not visit that part of the island even though that’s where my parents and my grand parents, and my school friends live – it is as if they [the government] are trying to suffocate and weaken us politically…” he adds.
The assertion is not implausible from a political point of view, since it does not take a political expert to note that a larger population means greater political power after a political settlement for that community. Nevertheless, it’s a very devious way to safely keep power in the Republic of Cyprus in the hands of the Greek Cypriot majority and it does rather stink of racism. Surely, the government must be aware that marriage between Turkish Cypriots, Turks and Kurds is common.
But on the other hand, the government of the Republic of Cyprus which claims to be all embracing towards Turkish Cypriots and pro-reunification must ensure that it does not push away Turkish Cypriots by grossly unfair citizenship policies that bare the hallmark of institutionalised racism. Petty political games over labelling as ‘illegal’ and banning anything that has even the faintest links with the north of Cyprus will achieve nothing but give momentum to Turkish extremists and pro-partitionists who seek every opportunity to convince Turkish Cypriots that Cypriot Mediterranean apartheid is a solution. The difficulties presented by this petty game will have the opposite effect of forcing Turkish Cypriot citizens of the Republic to abandon their rights in that state and embrace the illegality.
As a citizen of the Republic, it is scandalous that Cypriots of Turkish descent who place their trust and credibility in the Republic of Cyprus should be punished for falling in love with a Turkish national. Surely, the government must be aware that such signals are dangerous as they question the inclusiveness of the government of Cyprus.
To avoid appearing like a Greek Cypriot state, legislators in the Republic in fact need more Turkish Cypriots to queue up for citizenship, for without them the Republic would fall in the embarrassing position of being seen as a Greek Cypriot state and this will in turn lead to an upgrade of the north of Cyprus.
Politically, such practices of institutionalised racism may secretly serve a sort-term murky desire to keep the numbers of Turkish Cypriots down, lest they demand greater rights in their own country, but they do nothing but hamper efforts for reconciliation and reunification.
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Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
by zan » Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:26 am Good one... is Talat slowish?
