Tim Drayton wrote:utu wrote:Tim,
When the north commemorated their UDI's 25th anniversary, there were a number of media reports stating that a number Turkish Cypiot visitors to the RoCy were harrased and threatened by Greek Cypriot students. While the UDI anniversary may have been a major factor in these incidents, nontheless, Turkish Cypriots who visit the roCy have - on various media - state that they been made to feel unwelcome.
Let's put things into a bit of context here. Yes, there were some ugly scenes at the crossing points on the day you mention. However, the crossings have now been open for five and a half years, and there have now been a total of about 15 million crossings made by Turkish and Greek Cypriots. An official EU report last year made the following comment about the green line crossing points:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... 529:EN:NOT
"No major incidents were reported as regards the daily crossing of people at the check points."
In other words, the crossing points have been open for over 2,000 days, and in that time there have been ugly incidents on one day. This, overall, is hardly a bad record.
As to the comments made "on various media", you have to realise that certain people have ideological axes to grind and present a deliberately distorted picture. The evidence of my own eyes is that Turkish Cypriots who visit the south of the island are not made to feel unwelcome. Just this morning I was at Limassol zoo. I saw a party of about 12 Turkish Cypriots ranging from toddlers to elderly people - probably members of the same extended family - strolling around the zoo. They looked perfectly happy and relaxed, as though they were having a great family day out. Tourism is very important for Limassol, and it caters to visitors from many countries. Apart from anything else, it would not make sense in purely business terms for Limassol to make any visitors feel unwelcome. Other posters on this forum such as Kikapu have provided similar anecdotal evidence to show that Turkish Cypriots do not suffer bad treatment when they visit the south. If you prefer to ignore such evidence, and choose to believe the message promoted by "various media" that Turkish Cypriots have been made to feel unwelcome in the south, this is your choice.
Thanks Tim, for the mention above.
I travelled over 14 days by car to all points of the RoC and tried to meet as many in the South as possible, and engaged in conversations with many GC's as possible. The initial first 2 days were a concern to me with because of all the horror stories that was told on the forum before I went to Cyprus after 43 years being absent from there, which turned out to be untrue. Those who may want to read it, here is the link.
http://www.cyprus-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=11420
One of the forum members whom I had some unpleasant conversations with on the forum in the past regarding my trip to Cyprus, BigOz, made a post few weeks ago stating that he was in the RoC recently with another person to get a RoC passport (not sure for himself or the other person) and that his whole experience was very pleasant and even felt very comfortable speaking in Turkish with the person he was with at a restaurant with GC all around them.
