The truth about Cyprus
By Rachel Salomon December 31, 2006
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In the article "What the world can learn from Cyprus," published on December 19, 2006 in the Israel Insider, Joel Bainerman did an extreme disservice to the Israeli people by only portraying one side of the Cyprus conflict. Israelis are intelligent people. They deserve to hear the whole truth, not one-sided partial truths. Therefore, I feel that it is my duty to share with Israelis the other side of the story.
The conflict in Cyprus did not begin in the 1950's with the British Colonial Office favoring Turks. The conflict in Cyprus began with an idea called Enosis, which is the unification of Cyprus with Greece. This idea was beginning to take root as early as 1879, when the British allowed Greeks to settle on the island in "patriotic communities." As early as 1895, Greek Cypriots were organizing their children to march through the Turkish Quarter of Nicosia, singing songs about the slaughter of their Turkish Muslim neighbors.
These kinds of songs are taught to Greek Cypriot children to this day and they have a profound negative effect upon Greek Cypriot youth of today, as demonstrated by a recent violent attack upon Turkish Cypriot students in the English School in South Nicosia. Thus, the root of Cyprus's problems are not colonial favoritism of Turks nor a Turkish "invasion" in 1974, as Bainerman would have Israelis believe, but rather a lack of tolerance by Greek Cypriots for the very existence of Turkish Cypriots living on the island and a disdain for granting them any kind of fundamental human rights.
From the very beginning, the Greeks were opposed to the idea of coexistence. The British provided Cyprus with a constitution that was not only agreed upon by both parties, but also provided for the existence of a Republic where each community would have equal rights and a say over their own population. The President would be Greek Cypriot; the Vice President would be Turkish Cypriot. Agreement must exist for decisions to be made. The Turkish Cypriots did not have total sovereignty over part of the island under the constitution, as Bainerman would have the Israeli people falsely think.
Bainerman goes on and on about Greek Cypriot suffering as a result of the coup that overthrew Makarios and from Turkey's intervention, but he fails to mention that whatever suffering the Greek Cypriots went through pails in comparison to what Turkish Cypriots went through. It totally neglects to show that prior to the 1974 intervention the Greek Cypriots were orchestrating genocidal policies against Turkish Cypriots over a period of eleven years.103 Turkish Cypriot villages were completely destroyed and hundreds of Turkish Cypriots massacred and buried in mass graves by the Greek Cypriots.
Under the Akritas Plan, the Greek Cypriots sought to annihilate the entire Turkish Cypriot population on Cyprus. Greek Cypriots started this campaign of annihilation of the Turkish Cypriot people on December 20, 1963. This atrocious night is known as Bloody Christmas. Bloody Christmas is to Turkish Cypriots what Kristallnacht is to the Jewish people.
On Bloody Christmas, over 600 innocent Turkish Cypriot men, women, and children were ruthlessly slaughtered in one night. Journalists Rene MacColl and Daniel McGeachie described Bloody Christmas and the events that followed it as "too frightful to be described" and referred to the suffering of the Turkish Cypriots as "horrors so extreme that the people seemed stunned beyond tears." The Washington Post reported on February 17, 1964, that the "Greek Cypriot fanatics appear bent on a policy of genocide."
As a result of such grave human rights abuses, the Turkish Cypriots were forced to withdraw into small enclaves, where their fundamental human rights were severely restricted and they lived out their lives as refugees within their own country. They did not have access to most of life's basic necessities, had no political representation, and were exposed to constant violence and harassment orchestrated by the Greek Cypriot leadership.
The goal of the Greek Cypriot leadership under Makarios was to force all Turkish Cypriots off of the island. However, the pace at which Makarios was going to rid Cyprus of Turkish Cypriots was not fast enough for some. This led to the Greek Cypriot National Guard overthrowing Makarios in a coup d'יtat on July 15, 1974. From this point on, things would go from bad to worse. Under the leadership of Nicos Sampson, the speed of the genocide would get accelerated. By the end of the month, the Wash Star was reporting that "bodies littered the streets and that there were mass burials."
In the early 1970's, the Greek Cypriot leadership produced the Iphestos Files, which outlines the elaborate details on how the Greek Cypriots planned to annihilate the Turkish Cypriots and put the Akritas Plan into concrete premeditated action, step by step. The Akritas Plan had an uncanny resemblance to Mein Kampf for Turkish Cypriots, while the Iphestos Files were like the blueprints for the Nazi Final Solution that the Greek Cypriots would almost succeed in implementing against the Turkish Cypriots. It is a historic fact that the only thing that prevented the full implementation of the Iphestos Plan was the arrival of Turkish peace-keeping troops on the island.
Instead of relying on Brian O'Malley and Ian Craig for information, Bainerman should have read "The Genocide Files" by Harry Scott Gibbons or read "The Cyprus Question" by Michael Stephen, who wrote for the British Northern Cyprus Parliamentary Group. These two authors give a far more accurate account of what happened than O'Malley and Craig, both of whom were accused by Daniel Pipes of giving journalists a bad name in the Middle East Quarterly in March 2000.
It was also incorrect of Bainerman to state that 650,000 Greek Cypriots were displaced as a direct result of the Turkish intervention, when in reality there are only 650,000 people in all of South Cyprus. Not all Greek Cypriots were displaced during this time period and it is not like many Turkish Cypriots weren't displaced as well. According to a report from the United States Senate, 20,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to move from Northern to Southern Cyprus, while 34,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced to move from Southern Cyprus to Northern Cyprus. Although it is true that there were 194,400 Greek Cypriot refugees in Southern Cyprus, this was the result of the Greek coup d'יtat and not the Turkish intervention.
As ancestors of people who survived the Holocaust, the Israeli people should stand by the Turkish Cypriots, not the Greek Cypriots. Like the Israeli people, Turkish Cypriots have been struggling to live in peace but instead have been forced by their adversaries to rely on the armed forces. Like the Israeli people, Turkish Cypriots understand suffering and pain. Indeed, it is true that Israeli people share a lot of similarities with the Turkish Cypriots. However, this bond really does not extend to the Greek Cypriots, who like the Palestinians, have been known for sponsoring terrorist organizations, violating peace agreement after peace agreement, teaching their children how to hate, and deceiving the world with their fanciful historical myths.
The truth about Cyprus
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The truth about Cyprus
by MR-from-NG » Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:40 am
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by MR-from-NG » Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:49 am
The Cyprus Stalemate: What Next?
Europe Report N°171
8 March 2006
This report is also available in Greek and Turkish.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The last round of Cyprus’s drawn-out peace process ended in April 2004 when the Greek Cypriot community, which had long advocated reunification of the divided island on a bicommunal and bizonal basis, overwhelmingly rejected the UN-sponsored “Annan Plan”, which provided for just that. At the same time on the northern side of the Green Line, the Turkish Cypriot community, in a major reversal of its traditional preference for secession, backed reunification. The failure of the referendum did not stop a still-divided Cyprus being admitted to membership of the EU a week later. Notwithstanding clear continuing support for the Annan Plan, or some variation of it, among all other members of the EU and the wider international community, the present situation remains stalemated.
Given that no negotiated settlement is presently in sight, the only way forward appears to be a series of unilateral efforts by the relevant domestic and international actors, aimed at sustaining the pro-solution momentum in the north, inducing political change in the south, and advancing inter-communal reconciliation. External players should, to the extent of their capacity, seek to exert pressure upon the political elites of both communities for immediate recommencement of negotiations and do everything possible meanwhile to reduce the isolation of the north.
The best-case outcome, manifestly in the interests of both sides and their regional neighbours, would be for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to make further efforts to reunify Cyprus within the broad framework laid down in the Annan Plan. With its detailed and comprehensive provisions, its tightly forged compromise arrangements and its distillation of three decades of negotiations, some new variation of that Plan, built around the concept of a bizonal and bicommunal federation as originally agreed by Archbishop Makarios and Rauf Denktash in the 1970s, is the only proposal that seems ultimately capable of common acceptance.
The most substantial blockage of such an agreement is now the policy and attitude of the Greek Cypriot leadership and in particular of President Tassos Papadopoulos. They should realise that if they persist in their refusal to engage with the United Nations and with Cyprus’s other international partners, the island will slip by default toward permanent partition and the independence of the north, whether formally recognised or not. The idea that Turkish Cypriots will instead accept minority status in a centralised Greek Cypriot state is a pipe dream.
Confidence building measures cannot, in the present environment, realistically be negotiated. But they can still be undertaken unilaterally. Political leaders are always reluctant to make concessions not immediately reciprocated, but these can sometimes be very much in the longer term national interest. The argument of this report is that the best hope of changing the dynamics of the Cyprus conflict, and creating an environment in which a UN-brokered solution can once again be contemplated and the best interests of all parties advanced, is for the following measures, and approaches, to be taken by the key players:
The EU, UN and U.S. have important roles in creating an atmosphere where progress may be possible. In 2004, the UN Secretary-General, the EU Council of Ministers and the U.S. Secretary of State all called for ending the north’s isolation; their words should now be followed by deeds. The EU, for all the difficulty of acting in the face of Cypriot vetoes, has a particular obligation to sustain by every available means the economic development and European integration of northern Cyprus as it pledged to do in April 2004. The Commission, Council, Parliament and other member states should implement the new funding instrument for northern Cyprus, and press for the establishment of a branch of the Commission’s delegation in the north to oversee its delivery and the inclusion of northern Cyprus in the EU’s customs union with Turkey. The U.S. similarly should upgrade its existing office in the north. Lifting the isolation of the north is key to promoting a long-term and sustainable solution based on equality.
Greek Cypriots need to refocus on the core issues, recognise that a centralised state is a recipe for endless further domestic and regional instability, accept that the roots of the Cyprus conflict lie as much in 1963 as 1974, acknowledge that it is not only they who have been uprooted from their homes and mourn their missing, and look again at the advantages of giving practical effect to the bizonality and bicommunality principles they agreed to three decades ago. Given the uncompromising position taken by the present government, the critical role here in generating debate must be played by the Greek Cypriot opposition, moderates on all political sides and civil society leaders.
Greece, similarly, must review its historic approach. The attitude of successive governments that “Cyprus decides, Greece follows” is anachronistic and unhelpful: Greece needs to move on from its politics of silence, once more clarify to the international community its stance towards the Annan Plan as the basis for recommencing negotiations and finding a solution, and be prepared to take a lead within the EU to refocus efforts on discharging the Union’s obligations to its Turkish Cypriot citizens.
Turkish Cypriots should through their government address the outstanding property cases, harmonise laws and practices in line with the EU’s acquis communautaire, extend de facto the EU-Turkey Customs Union to the north and encourage Turkey to reduce its military presence as well as the number of Turkish settlers from the mainland who have migrated to the northern part of the island in the past three decades. The Turkish Cypriot side should show more understanding of Greek Cypriot demands with regard to the issues of missing persons and the restoration of damaged cultural monuments, in order to demonstrate that it is intent on resolving past disputes and willing to ease the costs of reunification and the pain of those who have suffered from the events of 1974.
Turkey should unilaterally undertake a number of confidence building measures to confirm its commitment to a settlement. It should proceed with its existing EU commitments, including full implementation of the Customs Union with all 25 member states. The partial withdrawal of some of the 35,000 troops stationed in the northern part of the island would be an important step in easing the fears of the Greek Cypriots, without threatening Turkey’s security interests. And it should commit to the drafting of a plan for repatriation of a number of settlers once a census has been held.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To EU Institutions and Member States:
1. Accept that ending the isolation of northern Cyprus is a strategic imperative for the European Union, pending the unification of the island.
2. Continue to work on, and press Cyprus to accept:
(a) committing the Union to proceed on the trade regulation under a specified timeframe and implementing the aid regulation for northern Cyprus, with provision for acquis harmonisation, reform of the civil service, refurbishment of Famagusta port and financing of a census;
(b) establishing a subordinate branch of the Commission’s delegation in the north to coordinate the delivery of funds and acquis harmonisation;
(c) ensuring that Turkish Cypriots are fairly represented within EU institutions; and
(d) revising the current proposals for direct trade to include the incorporation of northern Cyprus into the EU customs union with Turkey, the amendment of the Green Line regulation and the joint management of Famagusta port by the Turkish Cypriots and the Commission.
3. For individual member states, establish bilateral links where appropriate with the authorities and civil society in northern Cyprus.
4. In the case of the UK, maintain the commitment under the Annan plan to give up substantial parts of the British sovereign base territory on Cyprus to a post-settlement state.
To the United States:
5. Upgrade the consular office in northern Cyprus to a branch of the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia.
6. Increase contacts at all levels with officials and civil society in northern Cyprus.
To the UN:
7. Adopt the conclusions of the May 2004 Secretary-General’s Report on Cyprus as a Security Council resolution to strengthen the UN’s calls to end the isolation of northern Cyprus.
8. Be ready to engage actively in the preparation of further negotiations, should the Greek Cypriots indicate their concerns with the Annan Plan in a form which offers some hope for a negotiated settlement.
9. Proceed with the creation of a UNDP Trust Fund for Northern Cyprus.
To Greek Cypriots:
10. In the case of the government, at the very least re-engage with the UN-sponsored settlement process by submitting a prioritised list of concerns with the Annan Plan to the Secretary-General (as he has requested).
11. In the case of the opposition, moderates on all political sides, and civil society leaders :
(a) initiate a new debate over the future of the island, and the advantages of implementing the bizonality and bicommunality principles, supporting in that context a review of the Greek Cypriot historical narrative of the conflict, particularly through the education system and the media;
(b) support a positive approach to the economic development of northern Cyprus, measures to reduce its isolation and visa-free access for those Turkish settlers who would have gained citizenship under the Annan Plan; and
(c) work to reformulate the Greek Cypriot debate on EU-Turkey relations, emphasising the security gains that would derive from Turkey’s EU accession.
To Greece:
12. Proactively support pro-settlement voices among Greek Cypriot politicians and civil society and actively support reopening the negotiations based on the Annan Plan.
13. Suspend the Joint Defence Space doctrine, cease joint military activities with the Greek Cypriots and stop participating in the operations and staffing of the Cypriot National Guard.
To Turkish Cypriots:
14. Ensure that the Turkish Cypriot property commission’s procedures are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and reinstate Greek Cypriot property in a refurbished Varosha under Turkish Cypriot administration.
15. Proceed immediately on EU acquis harmonisation in areas like trade and public sector reform and embark in other areas on preparatory work to raise public awareness and to determine the necessary transition periods.
16. Adopt the Common External Tariff.
17. Pursue confidence building measures, such as an (EU-monitored) census in the north, strengthening the rights of the Orthodox communities in the Karpas peninsula (including designating part of the peninsula as a demilitarised national park), opening more border crossings, actively supporting international demining efforts, and taking an initiative for the preservation of cultural monuments.
18. Continue to engage with the Committee on Missing Persons to resolve the 2,500 cases of Greek and Turkish Cypriots still not accounted for as a result of the events of the 1960s and the military operation of 1974.
19. Cease any construction work on property owned by Greek Cypriots.
20. Begin planning the creation of mixed population villages in cases where people are willing to move.
To Turkey:
21. Implement the Customs Union with all twenty-five member states of the EU as committed.
22. Begin a limited withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north of the island.
23. Commit to repatriating a number of settlers back to Turkey.
Brussels/Nicosia, 8 March 2006
Europe Report N°171
8 March 2006
This report is also available in Greek and Turkish.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The last round of Cyprus’s drawn-out peace process ended in April 2004 when the Greek Cypriot community, which had long advocated reunification of the divided island on a bicommunal and bizonal basis, overwhelmingly rejected the UN-sponsored “Annan Plan”, which provided for just that. At the same time on the northern side of the Green Line, the Turkish Cypriot community, in a major reversal of its traditional preference for secession, backed reunification. The failure of the referendum did not stop a still-divided Cyprus being admitted to membership of the EU a week later. Notwithstanding clear continuing support for the Annan Plan, or some variation of it, among all other members of the EU and the wider international community, the present situation remains stalemated.
Given that no negotiated settlement is presently in sight, the only way forward appears to be a series of unilateral efforts by the relevant domestic and international actors, aimed at sustaining the pro-solution momentum in the north, inducing political change in the south, and advancing inter-communal reconciliation. External players should, to the extent of their capacity, seek to exert pressure upon the political elites of both communities for immediate recommencement of negotiations and do everything possible meanwhile to reduce the isolation of the north.
The best-case outcome, manifestly in the interests of both sides and their regional neighbours, would be for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to make further efforts to reunify Cyprus within the broad framework laid down in the Annan Plan. With its detailed and comprehensive provisions, its tightly forged compromise arrangements and its distillation of three decades of negotiations, some new variation of that Plan, built around the concept of a bizonal and bicommunal federation as originally agreed by Archbishop Makarios and Rauf Denktash in the 1970s, is the only proposal that seems ultimately capable of common acceptance.
The most substantial blockage of such an agreement is now the policy and attitude of the Greek Cypriot leadership and in particular of President Tassos Papadopoulos. They should realise that if they persist in their refusal to engage with the United Nations and with Cyprus’s other international partners, the island will slip by default toward permanent partition and the independence of the north, whether formally recognised or not. The idea that Turkish Cypriots will instead accept minority status in a centralised Greek Cypriot state is a pipe dream.
Confidence building measures cannot, in the present environment, realistically be negotiated. But they can still be undertaken unilaterally. Political leaders are always reluctant to make concessions not immediately reciprocated, but these can sometimes be very much in the longer term national interest. The argument of this report is that the best hope of changing the dynamics of the Cyprus conflict, and creating an environment in which a UN-brokered solution can once again be contemplated and the best interests of all parties advanced, is for the following measures, and approaches, to be taken by the key players:
The EU, UN and U.S. have important roles in creating an atmosphere where progress may be possible. In 2004, the UN Secretary-General, the EU Council of Ministers and the U.S. Secretary of State all called for ending the north’s isolation; their words should now be followed by deeds. The EU, for all the difficulty of acting in the face of Cypriot vetoes, has a particular obligation to sustain by every available means the economic development and European integration of northern Cyprus as it pledged to do in April 2004. The Commission, Council, Parliament and other member states should implement the new funding instrument for northern Cyprus, and press for the establishment of a branch of the Commission’s delegation in the north to oversee its delivery and the inclusion of northern Cyprus in the EU’s customs union with Turkey. The U.S. similarly should upgrade its existing office in the north. Lifting the isolation of the north is key to promoting a long-term and sustainable solution based on equality.
Greek Cypriots need to refocus on the core issues, recognise that a centralised state is a recipe for endless further domestic and regional instability, accept that the roots of the Cyprus conflict lie as much in 1963 as 1974, acknowledge that it is not only they who have been uprooted from their homes and mourn their missing, and look again at the advantages of giving practical effect to the bizonality and bicommunality principles they agreed to three decades ago. Given the uncompromising position taken by the present government, the critical role here in generating debate must be played by the Greek Cypriot opposition, moderates on all political sides and civil society leaders.
Greece, similarly, must review its historic approach. The attitude of successive governments that “Cyprus decides, Greece follows” is anachronistic and unhelpful: Greece needs to move on from its politics of silence, once more clarify to the international community its stance towards the Annan Plan as the basis for recommencing negotiations and finding a solution, and be prepared to take a lead within the EU to refocus efforts on discharging the Union’s obligations to its Turkish Cypriot citizens.
Turkish Cypriots should through their government address the outstanding property cases, harmonise laws and practices in line with the EU’s acquis communautaire, extend de facto the EU-Turkey Customs Union to the north and encourage Turkey to reduce its military presence as well as the number of Turkish settlers from the mainland who have migrated to the northern part of the island in the past three decades. The Turkish Cypriot side should show more understanding of Greek Cypriot demands with regard to the issues of missing persons and the restoration of damaged cultural monuments, in order to demonstrate that it is intent on resolving past disputes and willing to ease the costs of reunification and the pain of those who have suffered from the events of 1974.
Turkey should unilaterally undertake a number of confidence building measures to confirm its commitment to a settlement. It should proceed with its existing EU commitments, including full implementation of the Customs Union with all 25 member states. The partial withdrawal of some of the 35,000 troops stationed in the northern part of the island would be an important step in easing the fears of the Greek Cypriots, without threatening Turkey’s security interests. And it should commit to the drafting of a plan for repatriation of a number of settlers once a census has been held.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To EU Institutions and Member States:
1. Accept that ending the isolation of northern Cyprus is a strategic imperative for the European Union, pending the unification of the island.
2. Continue to work on, and press Cyprus to accept:
(a) committing the Union to proceed on the trade regulation under a specified timeframe and implementing the aid regulation for northern Cyprus, with provision for acquis harmonisation, reform of the civil service, refurbishment of Famagusta port and financing of a census;
(b) establishing a subordinate branch of the Commission’s delegation in the north to coordinate the delivery of funds and acquis harmonisation;
(c) ensuring that Turkish Cypriots are fairly represented within EU institutions; and
(d) revising the current proposals for direct trade to include the incorporation of northern Cyprus into the EU customs union with Turkey, the amendment of the Green Line regulation and the joint management of Famagusta port by the Turkish Cypriots and the Commission.
3. For individual member states, establish bilateral links where appropriate with the authorities and civil society in northern Cyprus.
4. In the case of the UK, maintain the commitment under the Annan plan to give up substantial parts of the British sovereign base territory on Cyprus to a post-settlement state.
To the United States:
5. Upgrade the consular office in northern Cyprus to a branch of the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia.
6. Increase contacts at all levels with officials and civil society in northern Cyprus.
To the UN:
7. Adopt the conclusions of the May 2004 Secretary-General’s Report on Cyprus as a Security Council resolution to strengthen the UN’s calls to end the isolation of northern Cyprus.
8. Be ready to engage actively in the preparation of further negotiations, should the Greek Cypriots indicate their concerns with the Annan Plan in a form which offers some hope for a negotiated settlement.
9. Proceed with the creation of a UNDP Trust Fund for Northern Cyprus.
To Greek Cypriots:
10. In the case of the government, at the very least re-engage with the UN-sponsored settlement process by submitting a prioritised list of concerns with the Annan Plan to the Secretary-General (as he has requested).
11. In the case of the opposition, moderates on all political sides, and civil society leaders :
(a) initiate a new debate over the future of the island, and the advantages of implementing the bizonality and bicommunality principles, supporting in that context a review of the Greek Cypriot historical narrative of the conflict, particularly through the education system and the media;
(b) support a positive approach to the economic development of northern Cyprus, measures to reduce its isolation and visa-free access for those Turkish settlers who would have gained citizenship under the Annan Plan; and
(c) work to reformulate the Greek Cypriot debate on EU-Turkey relations, emphasising the security gains that would derive from Turkey’s EU accession.
To Greece:
12. Proactively support pro-settlement voices among Greek Cypriot politicians and civil society and actively support reopening the negotiations based on the Annan Plan.
13. Suspend the Joint Defence Space doctrine, cease joint military activities with the Greek Cypriots and stop participating in the operations and staffing of the Cypriot National Guard.
To Turkish Cypriots:
14. Ensure that the Turkish Cypriot property commission’s procedures are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and reinstate Greek Cypriot property in a refurbished Varosha under Turkish Cypriot administration.
15. Proceed immediately on EU acquis harmonisation in areas like trade and public sector reform and embark in other areas on preparatory work to raise public awareness and to determine the necessary transition periods.
16. Adopt the Common External Tariff.
17. Pursue confidence building measures, such as an (EU-monitored) census in the north, strengthening the rights of the Orthodox communities in the Karpas peninsula (including designating part of the peninsula as a demilitarised national park), opening more border crossings, actively supporting international demining efforts, and taking an initiative for the preservation of cultural monuments.
18. Continue to engage with the Committee on Missing Persons to resolve the 2,500 cases of Greek and Turkish Cypriots still not accounted for as a result of the events of the 1960s and the military operation of 1974.
19. Cease any construction work on property owned by Greek Cypriots.
20. Begin planning the creation of mixed population villages in cases where people are willing to move.
To Turkey:
21. Implement the Customs Union with all twenty-five member states of the EU as committed.
22. Begin a limited withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north of the island.
23. Commit to repatriating a number of settlers back to Turkey.
Brussels/Nicosia, 8 March 2006
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by DT. » Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:01 am
According to a report from the United States Senate, 20,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to move from Northern to Southern Cyprus, while 34,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced to move from Southern Cyprus to Northern Cyprus. Although it is true that there were 194,400 Greek Cypriot refugees in Southern Cyprus, this was the result of the Greek coup d'יtat and not the Turkish intervention.
My name is now Shirley and I wear a size 10 dress.
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by Piratis » Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:52 am
Mr-low-IQ can only do two things: swear, and copy/paste Turkish propaganda.
The above must be the best joke ever. The Greeks have been inhabiting the Greek island of Cyprus for as long as they inhabited any other Greek island, many 1000s of years. I wonder how low your IQ must be to believe that Greeks were brought in Cyprus by the British
However it is correct that the Cyprus problem didn't begin in the 50s. The Cyprus problem existed for as long as the Cypriots were ruled and oppressed by foreigners - Turks, British etc. And the enosis ideal, the right of the Cypriot people for liberation from their oppressors, didn't start in 1879, but earlier in 1821, when every Greek territory and island was revolting against their Turkish oppressors to be liberated and create (or later unite - enosis) a Greek state.
So what this person is telling us is that the Cyprus problem was not that foreigners occupied Cyprus and oppressed and exploited Cypriots, but that Cypriots revolted and wanted to be liberated from their foreign oppressors!!
Anyways, no need to waste more time with the unhistorical lies of that post.
Just in case the claim of "Europe Report" might confuse somebody to believe that the above was written by EU, I have to clarify that it was written by a private American Association called "International Crisis Group". This group doesn't care about Cyprus, but about the American interests. In this case what they care about is how to put Turkey in EU and that is why they are pro-Turkish and anti-Cypriot: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2980848&C=europe
The conflict in Cyprus did not begin in the 1950's with the British Colonial Office favoring Turks. The conflict in Cyprus began with an idea called Enosis, which is the unification of Cyprus with Greece. This idea was beginning to take root as early as 1879, when the British allowed Greeks to settle on the island in "patriotic communities."
The above must be the best joke ever. The Greeks have been inhabiting the Greek island of Cyprus for as long as they inhabited any other Greek island, many 1000s of years. I wonder how low your IQ must be to believe that Greeks were brought in Cyprus by the British
However it is correct that the Cyprus problem didn't begin in the 50s. The Cyprus problem existed for as long as the Cypriots were ruled and oppressed by foreigners - Turks, British etc. And the enosis ideal, the right of the Cypriot people for liberation from their oppressors, didn't start in 1879, but earlier in 1821, when every Greek territory and island was revolting against their Turkish oppressors to be liberated and create (or later unite - enosis) a Greek state.
During the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the Ottoman authorities feared that Greek Cypriots would rebel again. Archbishop Kyprianos, a powerful leader who worked to improve the education of Greek Cypriot children, was accused of plotting against the government. Kyprianos, his bishops, and hundreds of priests and important laymen were arrested and summarily hanged or decapitated on July 9, 1821.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cytoc.html
So what this person is telling us is that the Cyprus problem was not that foreigners occupied Cyprus and oppressed and exploited Cypriots, but that Cypriots revolted and wanted to be liberated from their foreign oppressors!!
Anyways, no need to waste more time with the unhistorical lies of that post.
The Cyprus Stalemate: What Next?
Europe Report N°171
8 March 2006
Just in case the claim of "Europe Report" might confuse somebody to believe that the above was written by EU, I have to clarify that it was written by a private American Association called "International Crisis Group". This group doesn't care about Cyprus, but about the American interests. In this case what they care about is how to put Turkey in EU and that is why they are pro-Turkish and anti-Cypriot: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2980848&C=europe
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Re: The truth about Cyprus
by RAFAELLA » Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:12 am
Rachel Salomon is an intern at the Representative Office of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", USA.
She is just another paid propagandist.
"The truth about Cyprus" is a lie
By Argyros George Argyrou
The article "The truth about Cyprus" by Rachel Salomon is a complete pack of unsubstantiated lies and Turkish hate-filled propaganda that the gullible Salomon who, as she has admitted, is working for the Turkish government, has fallen for hook, line and sinker.
In paragraph two Salomon falsely claims that the British allowed Greeks to settle in Cyprus in 1879. This is a lie since Cyprus has been a Greek island for over 3,500 since Mycenaean times and Greeks have always lived on the island continuously until the present day. Up until 1879 only 5% of the population of the island was Turkish speaking and the rest were Greeks. This Turkish speaking population was mainly the result of forced conversions of the island's Latin communities to Islam. From the time when they took control of the island in 1879, the British, in order to implement a policy of divide and conquer, imported thousands of mainland Turks to work for them and this brought the Turkish speaking population up to 18%. There was never a Turkish quarter of Nicosia for any Greeks to march through. What is now the Turkish quarter of Nicosia is what was originally the Armenian quarter until Turkish terrorists ethnically cleansed the Armenians and occupied their homes in the early 1960's.
Greek patriotic songs were not about slaughter but about freedom from brutal Turkish oppression. Christians in the Ottoman empire were treated as second class citizens and had to pay extortionate taxes including a Child Tax where their children -- boys and girls -- were taken as slaves to be converted to Islam and forced to serve out the rest of their lives in the Sultan's army or harem. In 1923 Turkey was forced to renounce all claim to Cyprus by the Lausanne Treaty and all Turks in Cyprus were supposed to have been repatriated to Turkey.
The constitution that the British imposed on Cyprus in 1960 violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by giving the 18% Muslim minority unjustifiable privileges and through institutional discriminations against the Greek Cypriot Christian majority and treating them as second class citizens. The Muslim minority was effectively treated as if it made up 50% of the population and given de facto rule of Cyprus through an undemocratic blanket right of veto which they used to paralyze the government.
After President Makarios announced his decision to make 13 amendments to this unviable and undemocratic constitution to bring it in line with Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Muslim minority pulled out of the government and began a violent armed rebellion and campaign of terror with Turkish weapons and explosives secretly smuggled into Cyprus by Turkey with the help of members of the British army and the Americans, their NATO allies. They immediately began attacking police officers and police stations and taking people hostage in December of 1963.
Contrary to Rachel Salomon's lies in paragraph six, the Akritas Plan was not about annihilating the Turkish Cypriots but was about how to reform the racist constitution while preserving peace on the island, in a civilized manner, which was being threatened by the recent discovery that arms and explosives had been supplied by Turkey and Britain to Muslim extremists who were members of the TMT terrorist organization founded by Rauf Denktash in the 1950's which attacked both Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike in order to drive them apart.
This violence, which the United Nations Security Council attributed to illegal Turkish aggression in violation of Article 2 Paragraph 4 of the UN Charter, resulted in the death of 350 Turkish Muslim terrorists and 200 Greek policemen and civilians, not 600 innocent Turkish Cypriot men, women, and children as Salomon falsely claims.
In 1965 the UN Secretary General Galo Plaza noted in the Galo Plaza report on the violence that the Turks wished to ethnically cleanse the Greek Cypriot majority which made up 82% of the population and owned 90% of the land and property on the island from their homes in the north and turn it into a purely Turkish state. To this end they began withdrawing into Turkish-only enclaves under TMT intimidation and seized and fortified the Armenian quarter of Nicosia from which they burst out and captured the Nicosia-to-Kyriania main highway to use as a bridgehead for a Turkish invasion, which was prevented by intervention from US president Lyndon Johnson.
Paragraphs 8, 9 and 10 are complete and utter hate-filled lies. The objective of coup against Makarios in 1974 planned by the American CIA who Nicos Sampson was working for and its objective was to partition Cyprus between Greece and Turkey by giving the Turks a base in the north, something which Makarios would not allow.
Paragraphs 12 is another total fabrication. Over 200,000 Greek Cypriots who made up over 82% of the populations were brutally ethnically cleansed from their homes in the north through barbaric acts committed by invading Turkish forces as is shown by the first two reports of the European Commission of Human Rights, "Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976)" and "Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (19 May 1976 - 10 February 1983)".
Rachel Salomon's comments likening the Greek Cypriots to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampt and The Nazi Final Solution are truly disgusting and downright lies. Mustafa Kemal's genocide over 1.5 million Armenians, 2 million Greeks and 500,000 indigenous Assyrians in Asia-Minor was the inspiration of Hitler's decision to exterminate the Jews and this genocide has been continued
against the Greek Cypriots in Cyprus since, unlike Germany, Turkey has never recognized or been made to pay the price for its crimes against humanity.
She is just another paid propagandist.
"The truth about Cyprus" is a lie
By Argyros George Argyrou
The article "The truth about Cyprus" by Rachel Salomon is a complete pack of unsubstantiated lies and Turkish hate-filled propaganda that the gullible Salomon who, as she has admitted, is working for the Turkish government, has fallen for hook, line and sinker.
In paragraph two Salomon falsely claims that the British allowed Greeks to settle in Cyprus in 1879. This is a lie since Cyprus has been a Greek island for over 3,500 since Mycenaean times and Greeks have always lived on the island continuously until the present day. Up until 1879 only 5% of the population of the island was Turkish speaking and the rest were Greeks. This Turkish speaking population was mainly the result of forced conversions of the island's Latin communities to Islam. From the time when they took control of the island in 1879, the British, in order to implement a policy of divide and conquer, imported thousands of mainland Turks to work for them and this brought the Turkish speaking population up to 18%. There was never a Turkish quarter of Nicosia for any Greeks to march through. What is now the Turkish quarter of Nicosia is what was originally the Armenian quarter until Turkish terrorists ethnically cleansed the Armenians and occupied their homes in the early 1960's.
Greek patriotic songs were not about slaughter but about freedom from brutal Turkish oppression. Christians in the Ottoman empire were treated as second class citizens and had to pay extortionate taxes including a Child Tax where their children -- boys and girls -- were taken as slaves to be converted to Islam and forced to serve out the rest of their lives in the Sultan's army or harem. In 1923 Turkey was forced to renounce all claim to Cyprus by the Lausanne Treaty and all Turks in Cyprus were supposed to have been repatriated to Turkey.
The constitution that the British imposed on Cyprus in 1960 violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by giving the 18% Muslim minority unjustifiable privileges and through institutional discriminations against the Greek Cypriot Christian majority and treating them as second class citizens. The Muslim minority was effectively treated as if it made up 50% of the population and given de facto rule of Cyprus through an undemocratic blanket right of veto which they used to paralyze the government.
After President Makarios announced his decision to make 13 amendments to this unviable and undemocratic constitution to bring it in line with Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Muslim minority pulled out of the government and began a violent armed rebellion and campaign of terror with Turkish weapons and explosives secretly smuggled into Cyprus by Turkey with the help of members of the British army and the Americans, their NATO allies. They immediately began attacking police officers and police stations and taking people hostage in December of 1963.
Contrary to Rachel Salomon's lies in paragraph six, the Akritas Plan was not about annihilating the Turkish Cypriots but was about how to reform the racist constitution while preserving peace on the island, in a civilized manner, which was being threatened by the recent discovery that arms and explosives had been supplied by Turkey and Britain to Muslim extremists who were members of the TMT terrorist organization founded by Rauf Denktash in the 1950's which attacked both Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike in order to drive them apart.
This violence, which the United Nations Security Council attributed to illegal Turkish aggression in violation of Article 2 Paragraph 4 of the UN Charter, resulted in the death of 350 Turkish Muslim terrorists and 200 Greek policemen and civilians, not 600 innocent Turkish Cypriot men, women, and children as Salomon falsely claims.
In 1965 the UN Secretary General Galo Plaza noted in the Galo Plaza report on the violence that the Turks wished to ethnically cleanse the Greek Cypriot majority which made up 82% of the population and owned 90% of the land and property on the island from their homes in the north and turn it into a purely Turkish state. To this end they began withdrawing into Turkish-only enclaves under TMT intimidation and seized and fortified the Armenian quarter of Nicosia from which they burst out and captured the Nicosia-to-Kyriania main highway to use as a bridgehead for a Turkish invasion, which was prevented by intervention from US president Lyndon Johnson.
Paragraphs 8, 9 and 10 are complete and utter hate-filled lies. The objective of coup against Makarios in 1974 planned by the American CIA who Nicos Sampson was working for and its objective was to partition Cyprus between Greece and Turkey by giving the Turks a base in the north, something which Makarios would not allow.
Paragraphs 12 is another total fabrication. Over 200,000 Greek Cypriots who made up over 82% of the populations were brutally ethnically cleansed from their homes in the north through barbaric acts committed by invading Turkish forces as is shown by the first two reports of the European Commission of Human Rights, "Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976)" and "Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (19 May 1976 - 10 February 1983)".
Rachel Salomon's comments likening the Greek Cypriots to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampt and The Nazi Final Solution are truly disgusting and downright lies. Mustafa Kemal's genocide over 1.5 million Armenians, 2 million Greeks and 500,000 indigenous Assyrians in Asia-Minor was the inspiration of Hitler's decision to exterminate the Jews and this genocide has been continued
against the Greek Cypriots in Cyprus since, unlike Germany, Turkey has never recognized or been made to pay the price for its crimes against humanity.
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RAFAELLA - Contributor
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by Nikitas » Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:36 pm
"Turkish Cypriots should through their government address the outstanding property cases, harmonise laws and practices in line with the EU’s acquis communautaire, extend de facto the EU-Turkey Customs Union to the north and encourage Turkey to reduce its military presence as well as the number of Turkish settlers from the mainland who have migrated to the northern part of the island in the past three decades. The Turkish Cypriot side should show more understanding of Greek Cypriot demands with regard to the issues of missing persons and the restoration of damaged cultural monuments,"
And where is any of that happening in the north? Are you kidding me by posting this or what?
And where is any of that happening in the north? Are you kidding me by posting this or what?
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Re: The truth about Cyprus
by Get Real! » Sat Nov 10, 2007 5:15 pm
MR-from-NG wrote:The truth about Cyprus
By Rachel Salomon December 31, 2006
In the article "What the world can learn from Cyprus," published on December 19, 2006 in the Israel Insider, Joel Bainerman did an extreme disservice to the Israeli people by only portraying one side of the Cyprus conflict.
The cheap little uneducated whore is talking about this article...
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/10103.htm
but anyway she ends up getting trashed in here...
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/10184.htm
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Get Real! - Forum Addict
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by GreekForumer » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:10 pm
Piratis wrote:Just in case the claim of "Europe Report" might confuse somebody to believe that the above was written by EU, I have to clarify that it was written by a private American Association called "International Crisis Group". This group doesn't care about Cyprus, but about the American interests. In this case what they care about is how to put Turkey in EU and that is why they are pro-Turkish and anti-Cypriot: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2980848&C=europe
Gareth Evans is President & CEO of International Crisis Group.
Sri Lanka: How much was Gareth Evans paid and by whom?
Persons such as Gareth Evans should not prostitute themselves
http://www.lankamission.org/other%20pag ... 1-10GE.htm
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by zan » Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:25 am
DT. wrote:According to a report from the United States Senate, 20,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to move from Northern to Southern Cyprus, while 34,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced to move from Southern Cyprus to Northern Cyprus. Although it is true that there were 194,400 Greek Cypriot refugees in Southern Cyprus, this was the result of the Greek coup d'?tat and not the Turkish intervention.
My name is now Shirley and I wear a size 10 dress.
Now lets see......What came first.....Coup or Intervention...........What wouls say Shirley
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zan - Leading Contributor
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