Cyprus-Forum.com

[michalis5354]

The Cyprus problem is a difficult and trivial issue. It requires stamina, energy and a will to remain focused to the goal, if one believes in re-unification

Carolos and Camila Parker ( excuse my mispelling) in UK managed to get married after all the obstacles they had to pass through Did n't they? , this gives a good message to Cyprus.

[Viewpoint]

They didnt have our history and they love each other

[magikthrill]

They didnt have our history and they love each other

well if your unable to lvoe someone of a different ethnicity thats your problem VP. luckily not everyone thinks like your racist self.

[MicAtCyp]

I read many articles of Sevgul in the past.They usually refer to the human pain of both TCs and GCs. This article caused me the usual depression. I came to the conclusion that people who killed other people like that are sons of Satan himself.
In this mood of depression I kept reading the responses of our friends in here.This response struck me the most

I voted YES to the Annan plan for my sins, but one year on and I am now a lot wiser not becasue of the plan which according to our GCs friends was a form of partiton but reality has hit home that we cannot and should not unite with these people, they are not genuine and would impose a threat on our well being and freedom in our own country reducing us to a minorty status.

Genuine in what VP? In my opinion in this forum we are as genuine as it can be.If you want to hear the lies of the politicians hear the lies of the politicians. If you think you became wiser by joining this forum, I am very glad for it.
In my opinion however you did not get wiser.The proof is that you entered the forum with exactly the same views ....By the way I think you voted yes to Anan Plan because it was actually granting you not only partition but a lot of other benefits over and above.

[Andrik]

What if i tell u that there is a respectable percentage of Greeks leaving in Cyprus that actually prefer partitioning the island and would never in their wildest dreams imagine being next door neighbors with Turks??

Why does anyone respect those people's views and feelings??

[uzan]

What if i tell u that there is a respectable percentage of Greeks leaving in Cyprus that actually prefer partitioning the island and would never in their wildest dreams imagine being next door neighbors with Turks??

Why does anyone respect those people's views and feelings??

you are write they should respect both side wiews and feelings and not play the game like nothing happend.

[Viewpoint]

MicAtCyp

Genuine in what VP?

As in wanting a solution, as in wanting to share equally, as in truely wanting to live with TCs, all that GCs want is land, wealth and power.

[pantelis]

Sevgul always speaks like a true Cypriot. All crimes should be investigated and ALL perpetrators should be brought to justice.

Insan you said,

Today, we all know that the aim of Makarios wasn't amending the constitution in order to make it fairer and more democratic. His aim was preparing the ground for Enosis and degrading TCs into a minority status. We all know that the aim of coupists was elliminate all obstacles in front of Enosis and annex Cyprus to Greece.

Can you explain why the ”coupists” wanted Makarios out of the way? Did they?

[pantelis]

This another one......by Sevgul

So how about the `settlers`?

`Settling population` to the land they took has always been the policy
of the `conquistadors`: whether it was Latin America or Ireland the
policy did not change. And it did not change much in Cyprus either.
Turkey, after 1974 started settling its own population on the island

They came from everywhere: from remote eastern Anatolia to the Black
Sea area, from big towns like Istanbul, Adana, Izmir to far away places
even from Bulgaria

THEY ARE NOT ONE GROUP

But when we say `settlers` we assume that they are one group of people.
Let me tell you that they are not! Theres lots of diversity among what
we call the `settlers`. Some of them are here since 1974, settling and
having kids, getting married with Turkish Cypriots, most of them trying
to adapt to the Cypriot culture.

AKOVA AND BAFRA

Even though some `settlers` have integrated with Cypriots and changed
their way of life to suit the islanders culture like throwing away the
headscarves of women, some have insistently lived in the `ghettos`
created for them. In the village of Akova (Ipsos) in 1974, the
`settlers` found Turkish Cypriot womens way of dress `insulting` for
their culture and decided to move to Bafra (Vogolida) Some remained in
Akova and live together without conflict with Cypriots. But when you
look at the election results, while `settlers` in Akova village have
given a considerable number of votes for the opposition parties
defending peace and membership to EU, in the village of Bafra
(Vogolida), the `settlers` have declined to do soThe majority of the
`settlers` in the Karpaz area are still under the `control` of the
regime

SHOES FROM THE COMMANDER!

A visit from a commander to distribute shoes to kids, a visit by the
ambassador or the `civil defense organization` would be enough to
`convince` them to vote this way or that There are many stories about
how the military, together with the official beurocrats of the embassy
have visited `settler villages` in the past, calling the `muhtar` to
swear on the flag and the Quran that not even one vote would come out
of that village for the opposition parties, otherwise the whole village
would be sent back to Turkey!

When they have a problem in a village in this area if they cant solve
it with local authorities, they go straight to the Turkish Embassy for
help. So the ties and structures are there even though this started
changing since in the last elections, a considerable number of
`settlers` for the first time voted for parties defending a solution in
Cyprus. They too are `hostages` and some of them want a solution
because they are tired of `uncertainty`

MISERY OF THE ILLEGAL LABOUR

There is also a huge number of illegal labour: according to trade
unionists their number may be around 30-40 thousand. They come to work with very low wages, with no social security, living and working in
construction sites or whatever job is available. A lot of work
accidents happen and some of them die in such accidents. Their lives
are miserable Even if the employer takes a work permit for them to stay
and work, a law bans them from getting trade unionized or organized in
any form of organization.

`THE FLUCTUATING POPULATION`

There are also other groups which I would call a `fluctuating
population` - 10 come and 20 go and then 30 come and stay for a few
months and then 25 go, maybe to come back again. No one knows how many they are. No one knows the actual population of Turkish Cypriots or the
settlers. All information about such things is a `state secret`!!! But
when you walk in the streets, go to supermarkets, open your TV to
listen to news or when you are stopped by the police for a traffic
control, you see it: the numbers are tangible and visible. TV news
presenters, those who work in the services sector, cleaners, gardeners,
workers are from Turkey. More than half of the police force are made up
of `settlers`. Estimates are that there are at the moment around 80
thousand Turkish Cypriots living on the island and maybe around 100
thousand settlers but these are all imaginary as I said noone knows the
exact number

If we look at the first group of people who were settled in Cyprus we
see that they are also against the illegal labour coming from Turkey.
Many of these workers working illegally have taken their jobs away and
couple of times they have demonstrated in the streets against the
illegal labour

`HOSTAGES` OF THE REGIME

I interviewed the settlers back in 2002, going round the villages from
Ipsos (Akova) to remote Karpaz area, from Kyrenia to FamagustaThis was
the first series of interviews that ever appeared in the Turkish
Cypriot press and it was called `The faces we see but the voices we
dont hear` They appeared in Yeniduzen newspaper on the 22-27 April
2002.

It had taken me more than one and a half months just to arrange these
interviews. In each village I was going to do an interview, I had to
find someone to introduce me to the `settlers` so they would be
comfortable to talking to me: it wasnt easy Just like Turkish Cypriots,
they too were `hostages` of the regime in the north whoever spoke or
expressed a different opinion other than the `official line` would be
punished. The punishment differed: from being threatened to not being
able to take credit from the banks, from not being given a job to being
sent back to Turkey

`I HAVE NOWHERE TO RETURN TO`

At the beginning of 2002 while doing interviews with university
students I had come across Yasin, whose story had affected me. He was
studying law at the university. His parents came from Turkey but he was
born in Cyprus. He told me, `They tell me I have to go back to Turkey
but I cant I went there and did not feel that it was my country. I was
born here, I grew up here, I study here, this is my country When they
say `Go back`, I have no place to go back because I have no other
country to go back to`

It was sad because this generation of settler children were crushed
between the two cultures: Turkish Cypriots were telling them `You are
not a Cypriot, you are not one of us` and their parents were telling
them `Beware! You are turning into a Cypriot! You are forgetting your
own culture!` They could not please anyone! And they had no place to go

STORY OF OKTAY YAMAN

One of the most interesting interviews I did was the one with Oktay
Yaman. He was a progressive person while in Turkey he was engaged to a
Turkish Cypriot girl before 1974 and got married with her in 1975. He
started working in a chicken farm and when he tried to get the workers
there to get unionized he was sacked. Since he was from Izmir he said
it was easy for him to adapt to his new surroundings the Aegean culture
is not so different from Cypriot culture he went on to say, but there
were similarities as well as cultural differences. He settled in Akatu
village Here first Turkish Cypriots from the village of Tatlisu in the
south had been settled. But Tatlisu is close to Larnaca in the south
and people from that village were not used to working in the fields but
rather in factories. They left the village (now renamed Tatlisu) to go
to settle in Bellapais immediately the `settlers` in the village sent
news to their villagers in Turkey that there were empty houses to
settle in. Oktay Yaman remembers that whole villages came by themselves
to settle in Akatu by their own organization!

`YOU MUST REMAIN AT LEAST 5 YEARS`

At other places I spoke to like Karpaz, it was clear that Ankara had
organized them to come They were offered land, wages, animals provided
that those who come to settle would remain at least five years in the
north, otherwise they would lose everything they had been given Imagine
the Black Sea area back in 1974, how remote it was but even in that
area, civil servants had gone to coffee shops to announce that those
who wanted to be settled in Cyprus could do so with the above
conditions.

`MESSENGER FROM THE EMBASSY!`

Oktay Yaman told me of how Eroglus party always tried to divide the
`settlers` as `those from Konya area`, `those from the Adana area` etc.
and they would `negotiate` with the `leader` of that group for votes in
elections. Oktay Yaman was in the opposition and became the mayor of
Tatlisu in 1986. He spoke of the interventions of the regime in
elections in 1990 and how he refused to listen to these In 1990 he
remembers some `messengers` coming to him and saying `The Turkish
Ambassador sends his regards and asks you to vote for Denktash!` He
explained to them why he could not He got threatened He remembers the
type of threats he got while he was consistently working for peace and
democracy on the island: one day a car passed and tried to crush his
feet. He says that after 1990s the regime got more organized to have
more `control` over the `settlers`

SOLUTION WITH A HUMAN FACE!

Life is not static People grow, change, move from one idea to the next,
they observe, they see EU on the horizon So do the `settlers` They were
brought to the island in contradiction to the Geneva Convention with
the aim of changing the demographic structure of the island. No one is
contesting that. They have been used against the expression of the will
of the Turkish Cypriots throughout the 30 years they have been here.
But they also started changing and a considerable number of them
wanting peace and a solution on this island. `Settlers` are also human
beings with problems, difficulties, families, kids Perhaps we can learn
to `treat` them in a human way rather than talking of them as though
talking of a bag of potatoes to be shipped back! There could be many
creative solutions to the `settler` issue like what Lithuania did with
their `Russian settlers` while joining EU Whatever solution we find it
should have a human face where both Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots
and what we call the `settlers` can feel comfortable with

(*) Article written by Sevgul Uludag and published in ALITHIA newspaper
on 21.3.2004

[pantelis]

Struggle for survival with human dignity...(*)

The Greek Cypriot woman at the head of the women studies department of
a prestigious college turns around and says to her friends:

`I wonder why Sevgul is still alive? Why didnt they kill her still?`

For her, if you speak in the north, you must be killed Its automatic
in her mind There are many `myths` about the north in the south and
vice versa She does not know that there are thousands of other ways of
`punishment` for expressing your ideas openly in the north. She is a
beautiful woman doing research but fails to understand what sort of
conditions prevail in the northern part of the island. Not because she
is a bad person but simply because she lacks experience of living and
struggling and trying to survive with human dignity in this part of
the world

She has a comfortable life: she has never been persecuted, her phones
never tapped, her letters never opened. She has never been followed by
intelligence officers and when she goes abroad, no one broke into her
room, searching her luggage and leaving a card torn into two to show
her `they have been there`

Shes never received death threats, `last warnings` from the Grey
Wolves, never been the target of big manipulation campaigns in the
newspapers of the regime

She hasnt had her photo printed on the front pages of extremist papers
calling on the Grey Wolves to `finish with her` She was never thrown
out of her job, not because she did something wrong but because she
expressed her ideas

All of this because she happens to live in the southern, not the
northern part of the island

She sits in her nice, comfortable office, doing research, arranging
conferences but cannot go beyond the walls in her mind to try to see
whats been happening in the same country

Many Greek Cypriots I speak to think that Turkish Cypriots want to
join EU because they want to get rich! If you dont have the experience
of living under an autocratic regime, you fail to see the wish of the
masses in the north: democracy, freedom, a life with human dignity
Peace and a futureAnd of course prosperity Going into EU for Turkish
Cypriots does not mean just `economics` - it has deeper
reasonsForemost I think, it is to be able to have a future on the
island since now, there is only `uncertainty` about what will happen
tomorrow Will the checkpoints close? Will you emigrate? Will your
children come back? Or stay abroad forever? Will there be new
conflicts? Or not? Will your house be bombed? Or not? Nothing is
`certain` in this part of the island since the regime likes you to
live on the edge, never being certain of your future According to the
phsychiatrist Mehmet Chakici whom I have interviewed, `This can be the
worst for human beings: living under uncertainty is the most stressful
way of life and in fact Turkish Cypriots have one of the highest rates
of heart failure and cancer in the world`

When thousands of people were demonstrating in the streets last year
with EU flags, they were saying: `This country is ours, we must rule
it ourselves!` People were fed up with the interventions from Ankara,
they were fed up with an intransigent Denktash, they were fed up with
living under `uncertainty` for the future. The youth were emigrating
to other countries, not wanting to come back to the island since they
saw no future here. Mothers were in the street, grandmothers, old men,
students, kids with placards that they wrote at home and brought it to
the demonstrations.

Ankaras policies of constantly sending `new citizens` had turned
Turkish Cypriots almost into a minority in their own country. Turkish
Cypriots could not be the head of the Turkish Cypriot army always a
general was appointed by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots could not be a
general in their own army! Head of the central bank was always
appointed by Ankara The Turkish Cypriot police force was not under the
command of the Turkish Cypriot civilian government, it was under the
command of the General Staff of Turkey. `Economic packages` were sent
to northern Nicosia to be implemented, whether suitable to Turkish
Cypriots or not, this did not matter.

Ankara intervened in different ways in the daily lives of Turkish
Cypriots: elections was one of them. Remember the time when Denktash
and Eroglu were competing against each other? There was to be only the
`first round` of the elections Both failed to get the majority of the
vote but there was never a `second round` of voting since Eroglu was
made to resign from candidacy. At a dinner with journalists, Eroglu
had said that 42 intelligence officers who came from Ankara were
following him There were rumors that he was put under surveillance he
had to stay at the Jasmine Court Hotel, not being able to go back to
his own house At that time, Ankara did not want any contestant against
Denktash and Eroglu had to pay the price Many Turkish Cypriots,
afterwards felt `defeated` - they were calling on live TV programmes
and saying `I want my vote back!`

When Akinci was critical of the military stationed in the north and
tried to bring police under civilian control, he also had to pay a
price. He had formed a coalition with Eroglus party and tried to put
forward ideas of democracy Ankara didnt like these ideasOne night
Eroglus residence was bombed and he dissolved the coalition with
Akinci.

Last elections thousands of `new citizenship` were distributed if you
are from Turkey, the procedure of becoming a citizen of the northern
part of our island is that you need to go through your own Embassy and
get a paper of `clearance` of some sort. While Erdogan and Gul were
making statements that there would be no intervention in elections,
`new citizenships` were being issued by the thousands It wasnt just
Eroglu and Serdar Denktashs coalition if these thousands of people did
not have `clearance` from their own embassy, they could not become
citizens Again Ankara carried the responsibility of changing the
demographic structure of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Many officials sent from Ankara to Cyprus were telling us that `We
were not Turk enough, not nationalistic enough, not religious enough!`
Instead of accepting that we were coming from different cultures even
though with strong historical ties, we were being told that we were
the `lesser people!`

We were being told what to do, how to live, how to act! Even our
summer holidays were considered `too long` by Ankara and a law was
passed and they have shortened the summer hours!

A few years ago, the Press Attache of the Turkish Embassy told me `Who
do these trade unionists think they are? They have such demands! How
can you have such demands?!` Again she failed to understand that
Cyprus was a different country, it was not part of Turkey and Turkish
Cypriots could have different demands and different struggles

These and similar things were on the minds of thousands of Turkish
Cypriots who were demonstrating in the streets last year and of course
the regime saw that unless they opened some checkpoints, soon these
thousands of people would be bringing them down with their own hands
So there came the partial opening of the checkpoints on the 23rd of
April last year This was the power of thousands of Turkish Cypriots
who demonstrated for peace, democracy and human dignity on this
islandThe opening was like a fresh breath of air thousands of people
from both sides started moving all around the island and myths created
over time started crumbling `Meeting the other` was no longer a
`taboo`

All of these are not about `Turkish Cypriots` or `Greek Cypriots` -
its about humanity Its about struggles for survival with human dignity
on this island

We need to see whats happening on both sides of our island if we want
to control our own fate, our own future We cant afford to make
generalizations and accusations the only thing we can do is try to
understand each other so that we can build a future together We cant
afford to jump to conclusions about each other we need to go beyond
the walls in our minds not to just see but also to feel the others

Sartre once said `To know does not mean that you feel it` We have to
have both: We need to know but also feelThis is a necessity if we want
to control our own destiny as Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots

(*) Published in ALITHIA newspaper on the 14th of March, 2004