Cyprus-Forum.com

[metecyp]

Or to put it another way, what single positive legacy has EOKA left Cyprus and the Cypriot people, that Cyprus could not and would not have gained anyway without the 'brave noble EOKA fighters' (killers and murders)? I can think of none myself - but maybe I have missed something?

This is a great question....I can't think of an answer either, maybe other members can enlighten us.

[Main_Source]

Like I keep saying, its easy for you to say EOKA were all murderers and simply for ENOSIS...but there is no point explaining otherwise because you refuse to take in any differing points of view that conflict with your beliefs on this subject.

At the end of the day, EOKA is not the only freedom fighting group (or terrorist group if it makes you feel more comfertable beliving that) to come out of a community under foreign rule. Also, the GC of EOKA were not the only peoples to long for repatriation with a motherland, when under foreign rule.

If it makes you sleep better at night that EOKA were the bad guys and the Turkish army were the good guys who came to save the TC, then so be it....but like i've said before, it was no secret that Turkey coverted Cyprus, even back in the Ataturk days...so ENOSIS was also a way of insurance that Cyprus would not go under Turkish rule again. We as a people had been under foreign rule for centuries, I dont see the problem in the ideology of ENOSIS...I just have a problem in the way it was tried to be carried out.

Anyway like i've said, the primary role of EOKA was freedom from the British...but if you want to be a slave to the Denktash / Turkish government propaganda machine, go ahead.
But go ahead, If it makes things simpler for you to believe all EOKA were murderes, then carry on believing so.

[Main_Source]

and the legacy EOKA left was that we know people like Grigoris Afxentiou gave his life while trying to achieve a freedom for our people for the first time in over 500 years.

[metecyp]

Anyway like i've said, the primary role of EOKA was freedom from the British...but if you want to be a slave to the Denktash / Turkish government propaganda machine, go ahead.

The primary role of EOKA was removal of the British in order to annex Cyprus to Greece. Why are you trying to distort something so obvious? Again we're being accused of being brain-washed just because we don't agree with you.

[Piratis]

Maybe the people of Crete will soon revolt againgst the Greek colonialism

[Bananiot]

Bad example Piratis. Crete is the reason we shouldn't have embarked in a struggle to achieve enosis because we knew beforehand that this srtuggle would throw the TC community into the arms of Turkey.

[erolz]

Like I keep saying, its easy for you to say EOKA were all murderers and simply for ENOSIS...but there is no point explaining otherwise because you refuse to take in any differing points of view that conflict with your beliefs on this subject.

I did not say all people who were members of EOKA were murderes. I said EOKA was a terrorist organisation that used murder as a political tool - which it was and did. The argument that you can not judge an organisation but only indivduals is not one I buy. As an organisation EOKA was as I described above - brutal, facist in nature and a terrorist organisation. Just to be clear from dictionary.com

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

At the end of the day, EOKA is not the only freedom fighting group (or terrorist group if it makes you feel more comfertable beliving that) to come out of a community under foreign rule. Also, the GC of EOKA were not the only peoples to long for repatriation with a motherland, when under foreign rule.

No not the only terrorist group that fought for their freedom and liberation from external ocupation, though I can not think of any examples of people who fought for 'freedom to be ruled by someone else'. Perhaps you can give some examples?
It should also be rembered that countries managed to gain their indpendance without the use of violence and murder as a means - India as one example.

If it makes you sleep better at night that EOKA were the bad guys and the Turkish army were the good guys who came to save the TC, then so be it....but like i've said before, it was no secret that Turkey coverted Cyprus, even back in the Ataturk days...so ENOSIS was also a way of insurance that Cyprus would not go under Turkish rule again.

I did not say EOKA were the bad guys and Turkish army the good guys. What I am saying is the facts, as I understand and interpret them. EOKA was a terrorist organisation. It's goal was Enosis. It used (systematicaly as an organisation) violence and murder as a means to achieve its goals.

Anyway like i've said, the primary role of EOKA was freedom from the British...but if you want to be a slave to the Denktash / Turkish government propaganda machine, go ahead.

No the primary goal of EOKA was ENOSIS, if you believe what the EOKA leaders and founders wrote and said, that is - rather than your own revisionist propaganda.

But go ahead, If it makes things simpler for you to believe all EOKA were murderes, then carry on believing so.

Dealt with above. I never said these things.

and the legacy EOKA left was that we know people like Grigoris Afxentiou gave his life while trying to achieve a freedom for our people for the first time in over 500 years.

It is one thing to give your life to a cause it is entirely another thing to take anothers life for a cause. I honour those who give their lives to a cause and condem those that take life for a cause. EOKA as an organisation planned and executed the later not the former.

[Piratis]

Bad example Piratis. Crete is the reason we shouldn't have embarked in a struggle to achieve enosis because we knew beforehand that this srtuggle would throw the TC community into the arms of Turkey.

Nop, Crete is a very good real example. If TCs consider partition or a disguised partition as the only thing they can accept, why we should exclude the Crete example at the right time? After all, human rights and laws do not matter, isn't this what all you "realists" are preaching?

Aren't there many TCs that claim that the de facto partition supposedly brought peace and people are not killed now etc? Well, there is peace in Crete also.

I said it before: The best way is to forget about harming each other and live united as equal citizens of a truly united Cyprus. This way we don't have A and B, winners and losers, but we just have Cypriots that will all be better off.

However if TCs insist on splitting Cypriot citizens into two categories and they want to come out of this situation as the winners, then we have no other choice than to respond (because surendering is not an option for the majority, we are not all Bananiots).

As far as EOKA goes, the cause was a noble one. The British had no place in Cyprus. They could avoid even the slightest conflict by simply leaving from our country.

The enosis cause was no less OK than an independence cause. Both (independence or enosis) were our rights and should have been accepted by the colonialists long time before 1955 and an armed struggle would not be needed.

The Declaration states that "the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the United Nations Charter, and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and cooperation, and that steps should be taken to transfer, unconditionally, all powers to the Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories* so that they might enjoy complete freedom and independence".


Also in 1960, the Assembly approved resolution 1541 (XV), defining free association with an independent State, integration into an independent State, or independence as the three legitimate options of full self-government.

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/decolonizat ... ration.htm

*There you can see Cyprus. Do you see anything like "TRNC" or "Turkish Cyprus" or any other imaginary creation?

Anyways, all this was just to stress that there is nothing wrong with the idea of enosis, and there is nothing wrong from enosis under good conditions.

However I could accept the argument that Turks at that time suffered in some parts of Greece and TCs didn't want to become part of Greece, and therefore under those conditions of that time demanding enosis was wrong.

So yes, we shouldn't have demanded enosis at that time, and we shouldn't have started the EOKA struggle.

However we had the right for an armed struggle against the colonialists, and we had the right to unite Cyprus with Greece at a later stage when the human rights of TCs would not be at risk.

[magikthrill]

well said pirati.

of course even if time had gone by human rights wouldnt make a difference seeing apparently they dont play a major difference today.

[brother]

Why would you have the right to unite with greece piratis?

Do you see yourself as a mainland greek or cypriot?