BirKibrisli wrote:Hasan HASTURER is a columnist with the daily trnc newspaper,KIBRIS...
From what I hear he is a very respected journalist...I came across one of his columns recently which I found interesting...I am not in agreement with everything he says neccessarily,but those who are curious about what is going on in more "liberal" TC minds at this crucial time should keep on reading...
Hasturer argues that Christofias is handicapped in the current negotiations because of a historically inherited "chronic" preconception regarding the TCs...He suggests that for hundreds of years now the GCs have considered the TCs to be inferior to themselves culturally,economically,socially and politically...
I quote selectively:
"...The GCs,who have been in Cyprus for far longer than us,have always been more motivated in influencing the fate and the future of Cyprus... This was especially evident during the British rule...Their demand was for Enosis before independence...The emerging TC leadership was never able to put forward a credible alternative....After the Lausanne agreement Cyprus became a foreign country for Turkey...Under the circumstances the TC policy became one of hanging onto the British skirts...This was far from being a principled stand...
Economically too we were unable to make our mark...we never learned to stand on our own two feet...Even during the Ottoman rule TCs had little to do with administration...Later on with Eoka, with the exception of Grivas,who was of Cypriot origins anyway,all the key positions were held by GCs...But the TMT was always run by colonels from the Turkish army...
Even in rural centres the commander was from Turkey...Over the years the TCs could never manage to become a distinct community,enough to demand political equality with the GCs...Hence the preconception that they were a lower class of people only fit to make "lokma" and "shamishi"... What do you think???Is this the real reason why the GCs are finding it very hard to accept the TCs as their political equals????
For Turkish speakers the link is:
http://www.kibrisgazetesi.com/index.php/cat/1/col/80/art/8377/PageName/Ana_sayfa
Bir, the last time I checked, it is the TCs that subscribe fervently (and they even have the kids in schools singing it, and paint it on posters, walls and mountains) to Ataturk's slogans that "one Turk equals the whole world," and "happy the one able to say he is a Turk!"
It is true that GCs have reservations to this notion of political equality, simply because the way the TCs seem to understand it is to work against the equality between each and every individual citizen (a more sacred right,) on the basis of their ethnic origin! The fact that one group is 4 times larger than the other, set aside the fact that the larger group has also a historical presence in Cyprus dating back since the beginnings of written history (or some 4,000 long,) while the other only about 400 years, is reason enough, alone and by itself, for the GCs to have reservations on this idea of political equality! If this shouldn’t have been of any concern, then why don't do the mainland Turks allow political equality of a similar nature to their Kurdish co-citizens, or the white Americans to their Afro-American co-citizens, etc? Why only the GCs to be the "unreasonable and racist odd ones out," and not every other single nation or country on this planet too, including the TC's mainland Turkish "brothers?"
... He is a Kurd, not TC!
Pheeew! .... Is it safe to assume Kifeas has left (without making a diagnosis)?
