Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

Personally, the present flag of Cyprus is quite cute and I am for its preservation as it is.
For those flag-fetishists, I would suggest the E.U flag to be hoisted next to CY's in the official places.
And nothing else...
For either dyed-in-the wool greek or turkish flag aficinados, they can have their flags at home, if they wish.
I hope to think and I think to hope as well, that time will help erasing the remnants of the past in re-unified Cyprus.

And time will erase the strings to any aprons.

As the child grows, it matures and lets go of the apron strings and moves forward with it's life.

We must build a nation, totally free, and make ourselves strong by ridding all our divisions and uniting as one people.

[miltiades]

Personally, the present flag of Cyprus is quite cute and I am for its preservation as it is.
For those flag-fetishists, I would suggest the E.U flag to be hoisted next to CY's in the official places.
And nothing else...
For either dyed-in-the wool greek or turkish flag aficinados, they can have their flags at home, if they wish.
I hope to think and I think to hope as well, that time will help erasing the remnants of the past in re-unified Cyprus.

And time will erase the strings to any aprons.

As the child grows, it matures and lets go of the apron strings and moves forward with it's life.

We must build a nation, totally free, and make ourselves strong by ridding all our divisions and uniting as one people.

Precisely what I have always stood for.
One united island one people , the Cypriot people.

[CopperLine]

And as if echoing these sentiments, the BBC has a story on Famagusta today -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7596392.stm - which ends with ....

"Beneath an umbrella in the square next to St Nicholas', Mr Karoullas shares a weekly cup of coffee with primary school headmaster Yindirim Hasoglu.

If the peace talks succeed, the coffee could become a daily ritual.

"There is always goodwill between the ordinary people of Cyprus," says Mr Hasoglu.

"But I can't say the same about the politicians to be honest with you."

[Tim Drayton]

Talking of the BBC, that reminds me that Lord Hannay was interviewed yesterday on BBC Radio 4's Today news programme, and he made what I felt was a significant comment. Nobody else has picked up on it, so let me just quote it.
He spoke of the need for a territorial adjustment because (quoting as best I can from memory) "the Turks are currently sitting on more territory than they deserve."

[Magnus]

There's nothing wrong with the current flag of Cyprus, it doesn't need changing.

There's nothing wrong with the national anthem either but if you want to change it just because it's the same as the Greek one then fair enough.

You can have two sets of lyrics or none at all, but I absolutely refuse to sing anything in Turkish. It sounds like Klingon to me.

[utu]

I have to admit i dont like the RoC flag purely from a design perspective, the olive branches are ok but having a map of your country on your flag screams lack of creativity, i cant think of any other nation that has a map of the country on their flag, perhaps only Libya has a less creative flag. Perhaps a new flag can be developed and a new national anthem IF these talks get any results.

Kosovo has a map of its territory on its flag. Anyway, a flag that can be both simplistic in design as well as convey an appropriate political message is not the easiest thing to design. The Flag of 1960 looked to be a compromise on the latter. In any case, IMHO a new flag and anthem would be an ideal way to express a new beginning for a united Cyprus.

[utu]

There's nothing wrong with the national anthem either but if you want to change it just because it's the same as the Greek one then fair enough.

I think that a new anthem - both music and lyrics - would be needed. The Greek National Anthem is quite a nice tune (though with 168 verses, it's a little long), but even with different lyrics, the music is going to identified by the Turkish Cypriot population with Greece, and by extention, the Enosis philosophy. If Cyprus is to show itself as an independent country in the proper sense of the word, then the anthem must not show any elements of attachment to any other country, hence the need for an original tune.

[Kifeas]

Talking of the BBC, that reminds me that Lord Hannay was interviewed yesterday on BBC Radio 4's Today news programme, and he made what I felt was a significant comment. Nobody else has picked up on it, so let me just quote it.
He spoke of the need for a territorial adjustment because (quoting as best I can from memory) "the Turks are currently sitting on more territory than they deserve."

Tim, that must be the biggest discovery of the century; considering that Turkey now occupies almost 36% of Cyprus, while the TC community used to number only about 18.4% (some say it is even less now) of the total Cypriot population, and were the legal owners of only 17% of the total PRIVATE properties (or 12.3% of the total area of Cyprus.)

[eracles]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 595506.stm

this is the interview referred to above.

[eracles]

Exact words of Hannay:
"The turks are sitting on far too big a proportion of the island"