Apparently Turkey has threatened to stop financial aid to the north unless Talat grants citizenship to another 50.000 mainland Turks!If he agrees,the Turkish Cypriots will become a minority and turn against him as it is well known that most of them don't want the settlers but if he refuses the economy in the north will be in worse straits than it is already.......
Relevant to this subject is last Sundays Politis article by Yiangos Mikellides in support of Costas Themistocleous,in which he says,amongs other things,that we could quite easily have worked out a way for G.C.'s T.C's and the 40 or 50.000 Turkish mainlanders who would have been allowed to stay here as part of a solution under the Annan Plan to all get along and co-operate.There are mainlanders married to Turkish Cypriots and children who have been born here,such as those in my father-in-laws family home in Karpasia who consider Cyprus as their home and on humanitarian grounds,neither the E.U, U.N. or anyone else would agree to them being forcibly deported from Cyprus.If there is no solution,Turkey can continue to swamp the north and there is nothing we can do about it......While we are on the subject of immigrants,this side of Cyprus is also overwhelmed with people from all over the world-have walk around the old city of Nicosia on the Greek side for example and you will find it hard to meet a local person, rather than someone from a third world country and probably Moslem as well!!Paphos where I live, now has more foreigners than Cypriots ,many of whom are employed in menial,lowly paid jobs which Cypriots refuse to do and make a very important contribution to the economy,regardless of what some xenophobic and nationalist groups try to propogate!In addition there are around 10.000 retired British people in Paphos who contribute a lot to the Cypriot economy and are legally here along with other E.U. citizens.With this in mind,the issue of 40 or 50.000 settlers in the north is not a such a big problem to resolve-the real danger is that they still keep on sending over new ones and the only way to stop this is to find a solution under which they will not be able to come over here freely any longer!
This is why people who attack myself and Bananiot for our supposedly treacherous ideas in compromising are so incomprehensible:do they really think that all the new houses and hotels which are being built on Greek-Cypriot land in the north will ever be returned to us??Take the Kaya Artemis for example, a $300 million investment in Bafra/Vokolidha.....And the Yeni Erenkoy/Yialousa international tourism complex and marina??
By just saying 'no,no ,no' to a solution we are actively contributing to the continuation of the current situation whch is deteriorating in favour of the other side day by day!This is nothing to do with politics and can be seen by anyone who drives across there for the day and has look around for themself!They can go on accusing,theorising,shouting etc etc. ad infinitum but the reality is there and set very much in stone.....
So let's cool down,drop the foul language and expletives which appreared again yesterday from a certain P....and think just how to get ourselves out of the mess we are obviously already very deeply in!