I want to expand a little on a couple of issues raised by Apostolos and Hermes in comments they left in these two Hellenic Antidote posts.
First, Hermes draws attention to this article (in Greek) on encouragement being given by the UK Labour MP Andrew Dismore to the creation of a bogus Cypriot national identity that would deliberately seek to marginalise if not eliminate Cyprus' and Cypriots' Greekness. Dismore is vice-chairman of the so-called Friends of Cyprus group, which consists mostly of UK parliamentarians but also counts journalists and academics as its members, and whose positions on the Turkish occupation are generally regarded as sympathetic to the Greek side.
In relation to Dismore and his support for a Cypriot national identity, it’s worth making the following points:
1. The Friends of Cyprus flatters to deceive, i.e. it pretends it is a caucus representing Greek Cypriot interests to the UK government, but its real role is the opposite: to convince Greek Cypriots of UK positions.
The nature of those involved with the Friends of Cyprus is revealed if we consider the career of Stephen Twigg, formerly Labour MP for Enfield, a marginal constituency in North London with a large Greek Cypriot population. As an MP, Twigg was an outspoken supporter
of Cyprus; but when he lost his seat in 2005 he became director of the Foreign Policy Centre, a Blairite think tank, whose most high-profile intervention so far has been its ‘Turkey belongs in Europe’ campaign, which strongly advocates Turkey’s membership of the EU. Indeed, when the FPC launched its Turkey in Europe pamphlet last year, Twigg did the rounds of TV news studios and so on strongly promoting Turkey and its EU bid. From supporter of Cyprus to cheerleader for Turkey. So much for the Friends of Cyprus.
2. Since landing on Cyprus in 1878, the British strategy has been to dehellenise the island in order to control it better. The English wanted to create another Malta and a population that looked towards London, not Athens.
read the rest here:
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/