Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

How old are you Magnus?

[Magnus]

How old are you Magnus?

I'll say early 30s. You can go ahead and disregard my comments and posts now because I'm not old enough to play big boys' games.

[zan]

How old are you Magnus?

I'll say early 30s. You can go ahead and disregard my comments and posts now because I'm not old enough to play big boys' games.

I can always teach you mate so don't be in a hurry to leave...

In my day, the GCs and the TCs stuck together in the main but there were always the Cafe type that gambled and enjoyed fighting. I am afraid that you cannot take what goes on in those council estates and relate it to the rest of the world. I work in them every day and have done for the past 32 years so I know them very well indeed. Although I suffered some abuse as I grew up it was not as bad as you have described.

[humanist]

I am a Cypriot firstly secondly and thirdly

[Big Al]

I believe that our island stands a far better chance of having peace , stability and justice if its people embraced their Cypriotness which after all is the predominant common ground factor that exists amongst the people of Cyprus.
I though the introduction of this poll will give us some food for thought as I believe that the majority of Greek Cypriots are first and foremost Cypriots. Does this apply to the Turkish Cypriots too ? Let us find out.

Sorry Miltiades but you know my views on this, no such thing as "cypriot" you are either Turkic or Hellenic living in Cyprus...no common language, culture or religion means being a "cypriot" is impossible.

[CBBB]

Big Al,

I blame the British for the lack of commonality.

When they sorted out the education system here around 1910, they decided that each community should be taught in their own language, whereas I believe that if they had all lessons in English plus additional lessons in each of the communities languages, the situation would be different now

Obviously there would have been, then and now, a lot of opposition to that sort of measure, but IMHO it would have made a difference.

[roseandchan]

cbbb i can see what you are saying, but please don't keep blaming the british for everything. i also think that it may not just be a question of turkish cypriot or greek cypriot. now in our village we also have 2 families who you would class as english cypriot. one has spent 40 odd years in the uk and classes himself as english cypriot. then the other people were all born in the uk, but have now returned. last year i met some austrailian cypriots here on holiday.

[zan]

I am a Cypriot firstly secondly and thirdly

You support the "RoC", therefore you are nothing of the sort.

[zan]

Big Al,

I blame the British for the lack of commonality.

When they sorted out the education system here around 1910, they decided that each community should be taught in their own language, whereas I believe that if they had all lessons in English plus additional lessons in each of the communities languages, the situation would be different now

Obviously there would have been, then and now, a lot of opposition to that sort of measure, but IMHO it would have made a difference.

I am not trying to be rude but all the people here are ARGUING in english!!!

[miltiades]

Magnus for God sake man no one is suggesting that we drop the Greek language , any more than any one is suggesting that the Yanks drop the English language along with the Australians and Kiwis.
I find rather odd when you say that you have been PERSECUTED !! for having a Greek name , persecuted by whom mate , because I have a Greek name and my children have Greek names but have never felt persecuted , do elaborate a little more please.
I think that those who can not stand up as Cypriots first suffer from an inferiority complex and feel that only by the inclusion of Greek in their persona do they alleviate this complex.
Here is one Cypriot who is proud of his ancestry who incidentally were all Cypriots not Kalamarades !!

I am truly glad that neither you nor your children have suffered some of the things I have. I wont go into too much detail but I will give you a few highlights.

I grew up on a council estate in a nasty part of London. The 'English' kids basically hated anything and anyone that sounded 'foreign' to them, having been taught to despise anyone different by their football thug fathers. The fathers had no problem with shouting abuse at 'foreigners' even us children, and obviously their kids picked up on it.

The kids used to roam the streets in gangs, looking for foreigners to beat up, and I mean proper violence, not just kids having a little scrap. There was hardly a week went by without someone getting stabbed or beaten up so bad they ended up in hospital, not to mention all the muggings etc.
I've been threatened with knives and bottles and had to fight bullies off more times than you've said 'plonker'. One time they tried to throw me and an Asian friend of mine off a second storey balcony.

I've had bricks thrown at me or through the window, even had someone try to set fire to the flat. That wasn't much fun.

I've had gangs of Turkish kids try to beat me up on three occasions because 'he's Greek'. They were waiting outside the Greek School I used to go to and waiting for someone walking home on their own instead of picked up by parents. I was the lucky victim.

I've been on the same marches as you and had the great British public shout insults and mockery. I've been told to 'get out of our country' (and assorted variations of the phrase) more times than I can recall.

These days it's not so bad because I don't live in places like that anymore and don't come into contact with those type of people. The worst I have to put up with are the snide comments about having 'a foreign name' and 'why don't you translate it into the English version'. No big deal.

I'd say that's a fair level of persecution. I know it's a part of inner city life for many people, and some of my non-English friends have had far worse. Neither do I blame all Brits for my experiences at the hands of the uneducated underclass, but I think you can see why I'm not giving up on who I am.

I love Cyprus because every time I go there I am made to feel like I belong. I get treated the same in Greece and whenever I meet Greeks. If I can be threatened for being Greek and made to feel welcome for being Greek, then why should I deny being Greek?

I came to the UK at the age of 15 , now 62 , NEVER once have I or the two children that I and my wife brought to the world had any problems what so ever with their VERY Greek name. Likewise my older brother whao brought 5 children to this world again naturally with a VERY Greek name , my younger brother who also had 2 children all again with a Greek surname , mt late sister too with just the one girl never reported anything of the sort.
Sorry mate , I'm not being rude but council estates are notorious for the type of people that live in them .You could be a blue eyed American with the name of Smith the bullies would still pick on you , so dont go around saying that Greek Cypriots in the UK were persecuted because they had foreign names !! Its just plain nonsense.
I have been living here for nearly 47 years I think that is enough time to form an opinion dont you.My surname is MILTIADES SAVVIDES , that's foreign enough surely.
As for this comment of yours : """""I've been on the same marches as you and had the great British public shout insults and mockery. I've been told to 'get out of our country' (and assorted variations of the phrase) more times than I can recall. """
I have attended about 26 or 27 times the March . A few isolated incidents yes , even yesterday a group of young English kids asked as we were entering Trafalgar Square if we were English , I replied Yes mate we are English Cypriots !!
The March is well known by the British Police as one that is totally peaceful , to the best of my knowledge nobody ever got arrested over 34 years.