shahmaran, what is unfortunate is that what is going on today is not much different in terms of freedom than what was going on during the Ottoman rule. In fact for 1/3rd of the island what is going on today is even worst than what was going on then. At least then we could live in our homeland, today you have ethnically cleansed us from 1/3rd of it.
If
today you were not occupying our land then indeed we could say that the time of Ottomans belongs to the distant past. Unfortunately it appears you have not changed at all since then. You still do not respect our rights and you are still trying to force your will against the democratic wishes of the Cypriot people.
Democracy is fine when you are electing your next president and similar trivial happenings, but when you are playing with ethnicity's and deciding for us about what country to be, then you might have some real issues.
Cyprus is not the only multi-ethnic country, and democracy is definitely not just for "trivial" things (and then brute force takes over according to you?)
The whites in South Africa went there about the same time that you came to Cyprus. And they also ruled the place against the will of the majority. At some point they had to either accept democracy, or leave. The same goes for you. You can be equal Cypriot citizen and you have 1 vote like the rest of us. But you have no right to impose undemocratically your will.
Do you believe that the Kurds should get their own state?
After all as much as they have been living with the Turks for centuries, many of them do want their own state because they do not think that they are being treated fairly regarding their ethnicity?
Are you willing to compare it with what is going on with us or are you going to "side" with Turkey on this one and agree that they do not deserve their own state because they are a minority?
The Kurds are like Cypriots. The only difference is that we gained some independence at some point and they didn't (yet).
The Kurds not only are the native majority of the Kurdistan territory (like we are the majority of Cyprus) but they have also existed on those lands for 1000s of years, long before the Turks went there.
So don't compare yourselves with the Kurds who are people who own a specific territory.
TCs are a minority that do not own a separate specific territory, like the minorities of the English, French, Turkish, Dutch Spanish etc colonialists that exist in their former colonies. Like the Turks of Bulgaria, or the Whites of South Africa.
So if the Kurds want independence on
their territory, where they are the great majority, and where they existed long before the Turks arrived, then they have every right for it. But you can not ethnically cleanse the great majority of the population and have your own state on land that belongs by 82% to Greek Cypriots.
