Piratis wrote: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.
Boys it my fault this army thing began ...and so therefore i would like to adress the subject and give my view to you guys
first of all i respect Get real and every cypriot for giving up 26 months or whatever days of your lives to the national guard and then getting a career but lets look at the national guard more closely and addresses it duty
also before we begin ...those of the forum who know will back me on this
my qualifications
i am ex british miltary ,i have been to IRAQ ,KOSOVO AND WORK IN PRIVATE ESCORT WORK FOR DIPLOMATS
MY EMPLOYERS ARE PILIGRIMS GLOBAL ,U.N and the orthodox church (i escorted and protected serbs in kosovo in 99/01 on three occasions
my current duties ,i am studying and working in CLOSE QUARTER /LOCAL COMBATIVES and basically that means i study and train with the best military combat instructors in the world ,developing new programs and taking a internet nerd and turning into a combat soldier with a brain (non US PROGRAMS I GUESS)
SO LETS ADDRESS THE NATIONAL GUARD
Its duty is to provide security to the Greek cypriot people ,train troops for warfare ,provide them with adequate training ,information on warfare ,emergency responces ,purchase necassary equipement within its budget ,provide guards along the green lines and across sea areas to guard vunerable areas from sea assault and protect and advise civilians in emergencies ...
train the soldier ,make him fit ,make work in a team ,learn to communicate and act according to isntruction ,learn his weapons ,and in war ,make sure he is condition for the realties ...
in return ,clothe ,bed ,protect and nuture men into combat ready civillians ,who respect their nation and recognise sacriface for their families freedom whilst recieving soem monies (barely enought for their water consumption)
Histroy
the national guard was set up after 74 ...it was not a continaution of the cyprus army before then . why ? the new army was set up under instructions by the ROC AND GREECE .the problem here is ....it was not recognised by NATO,UN etc ..why ...
well the ARMY was disbanded pre 74 ....this army was mainly Greek cyps ...financed and supplied by GREECE AND CYPRUS GREEKS ...some people betrayed cyprus with their friends from greeks (please see junta) and MTM
NATO recognises us as having only a militia ...so ....no weapons can be sold to us by NATO nations except Greece ,no AMERICAN ,NO BRITISH NO GERMAN ...SPECIFICALLY U.S (U.S supplies 75% OF THE WEAPONS TO OUR NEIGHBOUR TURKEY )
Now Turkey though supplies to TRNC with weapons from its army ..because the army there is Turkish and run by Turkish generals...
they demand discipline and the soldiers cannot get parents to call in and get them out of duty ...the soldier is train to respect his seniors ,guard his base constantly and learn to admire his nation and people .. this is certainly the case of a good 80% of troops (i have studied and watch the troops train on kyrenia mountain .)compare that to the butter boys on the south side.
Now as we are none NATO , this also means ..our army does not have proper training programs ..only those greece can give us .. ...so we learn from Greece AND THE QUALITY AND DISCIPLINE IS ERODED
officers train there came back and well here comes the problem
they try to teach 18 year kids how to march,.hold a gun .....run ,train like a soldier...whilst the same kid is talking on his mobile phone ,etc
the cypriot army ,..
has no discipline ...Greece has and it is enforeced ,CYPRUS has no disciplinen.if you shout or force discipline .the soldier /waste of oxygen gets on the phone to daddy or relative to complain ..why is this ....butter soft nation ....
now the other problem we have is
that during those 26 months etc ...what is taught ....? nothing ...mechaised units get some 4 weeks training on a tank ...but when do they do manuverves ?
infrantry some field training but mainly guard duty ? from who ...Turkish cypriots already work in the south and some built the bases ...so are we guarding against spies ,local gangs ,UFOS ,NINJAS WHAT ...WE Already know this summer that most of the guards dont even fire their weapons at approching invaders ...so they are not following orders or basic training .
i did U.N test with the national guard last year ...how long could a mobile unit drive and surround a hill 1 kilo metre away SO HERES A comparion OF time (5 tanks and 2 light vechiles ,1 truck of troops and 1 cannon unit )
TO MOBILSE FROM INSTRUCTION TO DEPLOYMENT
Germany army -42 mins
UK - 20mins
france 40mins
Turkish army - 1 hour
Greek - 47 mins
GREEK CYPS - 2 hours 11 minutes - why ... none of soldiers could get organised in less than 25 mintues (equipment )
the tanks could not be driven according to training STANDARDS by senior officers (EVEN THOUGH MY ASSISTANT ASK FOR TRAINED STAFF)
1 of the land rovers ,was painted two days befoe and the doors were painted over and could not open !!
test 2
vechiles on the road ,one loses a tire ...how long to change tire aNd regroup
all nations 14minutes at worse (British 8 mins )
Greek cyp - 60minutes (officers made too many mistakes ) 2 attempt left the base without proper tire changing kit ) SOLDIERS ALSO DIDNT KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN ...GREAT ...
3. TEST THREE GROUND LAUNCHERS TO FIRE AT 4 TARGETS OVER A 5 KILO AREA
,TARGETS GIVEN OVER RADIO
ALL NATIONS APPROX TIME 40MINS ,ACCURACY 75% ..BRITAIN TOP
Greek cyp target .... 1 hour - accuracy - 40% ,problem ...soldiers recieved instruction there and then ...total time to completion 3 hours
only good results ...OEK came up 3rd best out of 25 nations in test (because them boys are disciplined and train hard ...proving that we can do it )
the list goes on ..but you can see a pattern emerging ...Greek cyps dont practise defending or combat readiness ...and infrantry units are a joke
NEXT subject NIKI FOROS - OR WASTE OF TIME AS SOME CALL IT
LARNCA AREA - UNITS 192,291,612,613 - TOTAL NUMBER OF MEN - 450
SPENT LAST WEEK IN FARM LAND CAMPING FOR 3 DAYS ...THATS IT
NO TRAINING ,NO SKILLS LEARNT ,NO COMBAT SKILLS JUST EATING,SLEEPING AND SHITTING IN THE WOODS (NO CHANGE FOR SOME ) WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS ? DID THE NATIONAL GUARD HAVE A PLAN ... I ASKED THEM ...NO WE DIDNT ...
SO FOR THE MEDIA THEY TOLD THE SOLDIERS /MEN THERE TO LIE
SHOULD THE MEDIA COME AND THEY WOULD BE GIVEN TIME OUT
basic training for tank units complied with standard requirements for basics (in other words ..tanks units did the combat training requirements NATO units do in their first two weeks ..nothing more ...
NOWI know the LOK AND OEK GUYS TRAIN ...BUT What are we training for ...manuverves in woods ....sorry pal ...every war over the past few years (50 ) has mainly been fought in the city ..indeed ...Turkish troops train to parachuting programs in cities (land,screen and capture drills )because they will .if we ever fought ..fight in the citys/towns ..so why are soldiers taught camoflague in woods only etc ...
why dont we train in the towns like we in other nato countries ..heck we can use the same program the TA use in the SBA
you see what i am saying is ....the national guard uncluding the death of the young guy this week are ruining and wasting lives with inadequate training and a lack of organised programs
Dont listen to the bullshit on TV on rik on sunday ...i train soldiers and civilians ...i am more than happy to teach any cypriot my skills and knowledge ...dont ask the government for 350million a year to feed yourselves adn waste the lives of these men
Isreals are the same as us ...there army is higly trained from officer to general they work togeather ,the soldier is taught from day one ,why he is there but they are also trained to be MEN ...they learn about anything sensible from DIETS - TO TRAINING FOR HEALTH ... FROM HAND TO HAND COMBAT TO PATROLS ...THEY DONT JUST DO GUARD WORK ...they learn LIFE SKILLS .they become citizens ...
this cost nothing ...all the national guard needs to do is stop and think
develop programs , or go professional and get us all in for 6 months hard training and enough of this brain numbing 26 months of boredom
finally some of you may think i am being harsh ...but a young man died this week from exhaustion ..it was caused by fatigue ..by mismanagement of human resources and again by employing young kids to do respsonble jobs ...
the national guard said we will no use officers instead to drive trucks ...is that going to bring my friend back ....
no ...it is time the national guard ...changed or gave up the job
i would happily take over and train all cypriots and give them something sensible in order to learn how to defend their land from enemies foreign and domestic ...not this waste of time and energy ...real training ...
FINAL PARTING SHOT ...OEK are our special forces ,trained for all problems ...should teorrist hold a plane of hostages ...they would be the asked to tackle the issue with state specialist police (MUDD)...programs taught to us over the past years have cost cyprus $8million ..
so why did the minister of defence ask ...recently that should cyprus have a issue ...whether britain would supply SAS ...COST ..$ 4 million for support ...why because they dont want to make the OEK pros and pay them a real wage and treat them like men ...
WHEN ITS ALL SAID ...I SAY THIS ...I QUALIFY AS THE MOST SENIOR RANKED COMBATIVES INSTRUCTOR IN 2009...I CANT WAIT TO TAKE OVER ...CANT WAIT TO HAVE TRAINING SESSIONS WITH THEM MEDAL WEARING GREEK CYPRIOTS ...
I LOVE THEM ALL AND RESPECT THEM ...BUT BOY ...ARE THINGS GOING TO CHANGE