There has never been a Cypriot nation and Cyprus has never been part of the Greek State. Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots have each lived in the island for more than 400 years, but we have no common language, no common religion, and no common culture.
Visitors to Northern Cyprus today, enjoying the welcome of their Turkish Cypriot hosts and the beauty and tranquillity of our land will find it hard to imagine the terrible suffering we endured only a few years ago, which made it necessary to have a Turkish Cypriot State in the North and a separate Greek Cypriot State in the south.
The British granted independence in 1960 on the basis of a partnership constitution agreed between the two peoples of Cyprus. However, within three years the Greek Cypriots threw the Turkish Cypriots out of all our official positions by force of arms, and ignored the Supreme Constitutional Court when it ruled in our favour. The Greek Cypriots then proceeded to murder hundreds of Turkish Cypriot men, women and children. They attempted genocide against us three times - in 1963, 1967, and 1974.