Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

Everyone knows that having a Cypriot army is a joke because it could never be used against Turkey etc.

You really should STOP posting and making a dork of yourself as even a single soldier is better than none... use common sense.

[cymart]

As several other members have already posted,the majority of people here today care about $$$$$ very few even think about the north,let alone worrying about when and if there will be a solution etc.I can assure you many of the teenagers and young people I teach here say this is the bitter truth and that their society is centred on gaining material wealth and nothing else!Unless they have either one or both parents who originated from places in the north before 1974,very few even know about it and even fewer have been over there!They also tell me that what they are taught about the modern history of Cyprus is very limited and very rhetorical and nationalistic and gives them no true insight into the lives of the Turkish Cypriots etc.
This is an inevitable result of the passage of time and even more so a result of the attitude of the political leadership towards the situation here etc.Many of them already accept partition as inevitable or a better option than having Turkish Cypriots in their side of the island again etc.
As for your allegations of 'fighting for a just solution etc', can anyone please explain to me how you are doing this and even more,what are the results because it is obvious that nothing has been achieved after more than 33 years.The military option has obviously been ruled out,thank God for all the reasons I have outlined previously and more but the only fighting I see here in other ways is about how to get more and more wealth and power......And that is ultimately a futile struggle because the cake is never big enough for everyone to have their fair share!

[cymart]

No more wasted lives and no more grieving familes-surely that's better?

[Piratis]

cymart, what you said about the army is besides the point. The point here is that we gave 26 months of our lives to serve this country, and we still go 3-4 times a year to various exercises. We do this for our country, unless you are going to tell me that we gained lots of $$$$ by being in the army during 2+ of the best years of our lives.

Then of course there are those others that would find a million of excuses to avoid doing anything for their country. Fortunately they are a minority.

Sure, we are all human and we all care about our well being, to have fun and everything else. This doesn't mean we care only about ourselves and not about our country, does it?

Most Cypriots care about their country and they are willing to make sacrifices for it. Yes, after 33 years of occupation where no justice is served many people are disappointed and angry, and their hope for a just solution has been changed to hate and nationalism. This is natural for a country under occupation. What did you expect exactly? Love for the invadors? (and lets face it, the majority of TCs have always supported the occupation)

About the future: It is clear that an agreed just solution can not be found. Turkey and TCs will accept nothing short of partition where they will gain a disproportionately large part of land and power.
So no, there will not be a solution any time soon. This doesn't mean we have to sign away our lands to the Turks. Our ancestors have been under the Ottomans for 3+ centuries under far worst conditions and they didn't just choose the easy way out of becoming Muslims and forgetting what they really are.
Maybe we lost 37% of the land, but don't ask us to loose our decency. The balance of power keeps changing and it is certain that it will not always favor the Turks. Once the balance of power will shift the Turks will not afford to enforce this illegality on Cyprus EU soil. All we have to do until then is one thing: Not to sign away our land and our rights.
This might take 10 or 20 or 30 years. Our ancestors have waited for far more. The people of mainland Greece and the other Greek islands have waited for 4 centuries until they were liberated. Freedom doesn't come easy.

The question is: Do YOU care about Cyprus? If you start the excuses of the kind "but nobody cares, the teenagers, blah blah blah" the answer is NO you don't. But be sure that there are many, the majority, that do care even if you can not see it in the surface because they are simply tired of demanding their rights when nobody listens.

[cymart]

Much as I can understand your sentiments,time is not on your side and waiting for the balance of power to shift etc. is a naive illusion,unfortunately!My fathers family lost land etc. after world war two when what was Germany was ceded to Poland after Stalin occupied Eastern Europe-previously they had lost it when the jews were annihilated and those who were lucky enough managed to escape abroad in time!Nowadays,nobody who had ancestors in what was Germany has tried to demand compensation or tried to kick out the present day inhabitants from what is now accepted internationally as Polish territory and don't forget that both Poland and Germany are now in the E.U. so expecting the E.U. to solve this problem in Cyprus is also wishful thinking-Britain has a dispute with Spain about Gibraltar for several centuries which causes occasional tension, but the E.U. cannot do anything as it considers it to be a problem between two member states that they have no intention of becoming involved in,even though it is far less serious than yours!Let's be honest as well,Turkey has as much hope of joining the E.U. as we do of going back to Varosha this afternoon so using that lever is also doomed to failure.Much as it seems hard to swallow,Cyprus is not the only country on this planet to suffer injustice and war etc and there are on-going situations where people are living continually under far worst circumstances than anybody here,I'm sure you can find plenty yourself if you just look at the world news etc.Under the circumstances,surely the best option is to compromise and try to do a deal with the Turkish Cypriots before it is too late and they have been ousted by the settlers from Turkey with whom you share nothing in common as Cypriots.You have effectively had partition since 1974 and now it is becoming accepted Taiwan style internationally,slowly but surely-time is running out fast and a good start would be to start getting to know the Turkish Cypriots as people by visiting them,talking to them and discovering how much more you in fact have in common, rather than playing-up about what you don't agree on.This way you will convince them of your sincerity and that you don't need armies to guarantee your security etc etc.
Unfortunately your present leadership has not convinced the world about your sincerity in finding a solution,so why not give someone else a chance, especially when you have two other candidates who are younger and apparently far more pragmatic and realistic in their approach?Or maybe ask Markos Kyprianou if he will give up his lucrative job in Brussels and have a try-he is widely respected internationally and I'm sure he could do a far better job in advancing your cause than the bunch of failures who you have in power at present!
If I belonged to either the Greek or Turkish Cypriot communities,I would be involved in the bi-communal activities which still take place successfully,despite all the negative propaganda from politicians on both sides and concentrate on how to build a better future,rather than dwelling on a past history which does not reflect the best side of the Cypriot peoples otherwise genuinely hospitable nature.
You have other people, more than you realise who share my sentiments-read articles by Makarios Droushiotis and Yiangos Mikellides for example and Sevgul Uludag in Politis and above all, don't ignore the warning signs because there are very dark clouds looming on the horizon,not only here but in the Middle East region and inevitably the whole world will ultimately be affected.
From your postings I realise you are an intelligent person and I believe you are also well-intentioned so all I ask you to do is to please open your eyes and try to see things from another viewpoint.
Someone else wrote yesterday that I am 'scum' and this saddened me because I have friends at all levels of Cypriot society from a former government minister to simple villagers and on both sides of the 'green-line' and I don't think they find me to be so objectionable as he does.
I'll be glad,as always to read your comments!

[shahmaran]

Ahh such lovely posts come like a breeze of fresh air within this forum, thank you cymart!

[Piratis]

Cymart, you are not a scum, you are just not Cypriot and you simply don't care about this island. Thats about it.

Your example with Germany and Poland is totally unrelated my friend. See here for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regained_Territories

What is certain is that in that case the Germans were the foreign invaders and the Polish the invaded ones. What is also certain is that the Germans singed away those lands.

This is why I always say that there is one and only thing we should do until the balance of power will change: Not to sign away our lands and rights to the foreign invaders.

The balance of power does change and I don't know what your kind is about (are you German or what?) but we Greeks have fought against all odds many times and many of them we won. Greece itself was under the Ottoman rule for 400 years, but they kept their "naive illusions" and guess what? In they end they were liberated.

So I say again: There will be no capitulation - NEVER.

[Get Real!]

Someone else wrote yesterday that I am 'scum' and this saddened me because I have friends at all levels of Cypriot society from a former government minister to simple villagers and on both sides of the 'green-line' and I don't think they find me to be so objectionable as he does.

You were SCUM before and you are SCUM now because you haven't even SERVED your country yet you have all this diaria to post against your country!

I'll remind you...

Ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country.

...now I ask you: What have you ever done for Cyprus?

[cymart]

I spent much of my spare time during late 1974 collecting donations in London for refugees and trying to get the British Government of the day to do something about the situation in Cyprus, knowing as well that my wifes uncle and his family were going to spend the winter in a tentI near Larnaca Airport.I also lobbied M.P.'S there and participated and lectures and discussions about Cyprus which were attended by such persons as the late Sir David Hunt and Lord Bethel,who also loved this island but who you no doubt consider were 'scum' just like me!
My friend, you have a problem and it is with yourself more than anyone else or you would not be compelled to make such malicious insinuations against somebody you know nothing more about than the opinions and comments he has democratically expressed,just like all of us are entitled to do on this site!I actually feel quite sorry for you because I sense that you are very bitter and unhappy about something which you would do far better getting of your conscience than allowing it to be come a demon which is already poisoning your thoughts etc.
If this still makes me 'scum' then I don't have a problem being called that by someone like you!

[cymart]

Commenting on what Archbishop Chrysostomos said about Nephytos of Morphous statements at the recent Morphou events, I thought this was quite interesting,especially as it not my personal opinion but those of someone else:
Chysostomos alleges we are better off now than if we had accepted the Annan Plan because he asserts that the republic of Cyprus would have been dissolved etc.The editor remarked that he wondered how the refugees whose land is being built on everyday feel about that,also the people from Morphou and Varosha and the 60 or so other villages who would have been able to return home under Greek-Cypriot control?What about the fact that we still have over 30.000 Turkish troops here who would have been gradually reduced to 6000 instead?What about the fact that the whole of Cyprus territory would have now been in the E.U. instead of just this side and the rights of property would have been at least legally guaranteed throughout the island?As for 'dissolving the republic' etc what kind of republic do we live in now?A banana state run by Tassos Papadopoulos and his legal office,along with his 'koumbarous and cronies?
I don't wish to comment on any of this but I will recall what Yiangos Mikellides has said many times and that is that the whole system and establishment here is rotten and has been so since the time of Makarios in the 1960's:Once they had finished squabbling among themselves for power and glory they started trouble with the Turkish Cypriots and we are now all paying for those mistakes!All I will add is that since any solution will be a federation that will replace the Presidential system we have at the moment and introduce a new form of government based on power sharing, does it not seem rather likely that those who hold power and influence now will try to hold onto it and do all they can to oppose such changes from being instigated....otherwise why is the President so determined to stay in power at his age and why does he so fanatically re-act when anyone dares to criticise anything he says or does?
I also quote another comment in Politis that during the last 4 years,the average person here in Cyprus now feels less secure, more cynical of all politicians and those who govern and less inclined to trust people than ever before and has become resigned to the fact that perhaps the present situation is the best solution and that any chage will be for the worse and so must be opposed!
The public attitude today is Putins Russia is similar about their leadership but far worse of course in many ways as they genuinely fear their authorities and anyone with power!
Finally,it what European country would half the council of Ministers feel it necessary to attend the inauguration of a shopping arcade as they did in Nicosia recently?Or was it because the owner is a close friend of the President and they were afraid not to show their faces?