Piratis wrote:Greek Cypriots are as Greek as any other Greek. The overwhelming majority of the people of this island, for over 3000 years, speak Greek, have a Greek culture, and have a Greek religion (first the Olympus Gods and then Greek Orthodox Christianity). There are not many places in the world with such a long history of the same ethnicity on them.
The only reason that Cyprus is not part of the Greek Republic today is that this has been denied to the Cypriot people. The Cypriot people since the Greek Revolution of 1821 tried to liberate their island from foreign control many times, but unfortunately we have not managed to do so like many other Greek islands and territories.
Compare Cyprus with any other Greek territory or island (e.g. Crete) and you will see that there is absolutely no other difference between Cypriots and Cretans, Rhodians or any other Greek. Whatever you will say for Cyprus will hold true for Crete, and the only exception will be that they became part of the free Greek Republic while this was denied to us by foreign rulers due to their own geopolitical interests.
BRAVO well said !!! First we are Greeks then Cypriot. Cypriot denotes what part of the Hellenic world heor she comes from. Would you say that a Greek born in Australia is Australian or would you say Greek of course. Our identity is important, that is why Greece survived the ottoman period and came out of it alive, we believed in our heritage not like the Slavs.
Again bravo to you !!