turkkan wrote:Insan,The Cyprus born children of settlers don't form friend groups with other Cyprus born children of settlers. There's no such groupings in social, cultural and political areas either. Settler formed political parties have never got %3-%5 of the votes of some settlers.
Thank you, I know and agree with the above. So in a way we can conclude that our culture since 74 has moved towards theres and theres towards ours. A very natural phenomenon considering the number of settlers we have here. Now the question here is, is there anything wrong with this? I personally, think there isnt it, just as there isnt anything wrong with learning at school traditional turkish folk dances. Yet some leftist groups continously harrass the goverment with complaints about this. The other day Yiannaris on television was stating how his 'turkish cypriot' friends were comlaining that they were being 'forced' to learn turkish folk dances at school. Are we not allowed to learn our traditions and be taught our heritage? Just because we have our own specific ones it does not in any way mean we cant learn those of turkeys also or be accused of doing so. Do you beleive that you would have any trouble or difficulty living in turkey socially? Now again let me ask you would you have any trouble living in the south? THese questions all beg answers as the assertment that in cyprus there is 'one community and two different religions' is absolute nonsense. We are two distinct communities.
Now lets move to my second question, what are our main similiarities with the greek cypriots? Insan perhaps you could give your thoughts on that.
First of all, learning folk dances is not compulsory in schools. How could the students be forced to learn Turkish folk dances? I like traditional folk dances of all countries. And I believe that those who have interest in folk dances of their own country also have great interest for the folk dances of other countries and learnin the others don't bother them.
I have been living in Istanbul for 18 years. In my younger years, I was very happy in Istanbul but now I'm 36 and missed my countrie's silent life. Socially I have perfect harmony with my Turkish, Greek and Armenian friends and neighbours here in Istanbul.
The only problem that will affect my social life in south would be the lingual difficulties; I'm sure. I exerted great effort to find a suitable job myself in South and live there despite I have lingual difficulties at a great extent. However I failed to find a suitable job. I also failed to build close relationships with the Greek Cypriots I met and wished I had have close relationships.
There are many similarities between two communities but the lingual difficulties almost make it impossible them to come closer and built genuine relationships. The similarities of two communities are much weaker than the differences between the two communities. The differences reveal itself, particularly in politics and interests of these different political groups.
For instance, the North Koreans and South Koreans have much more in common than South Cypriots and North Cypriots but due to divergence of political opinion; they are still divided despite Korea's population is one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous in the world.
