Simon I agree with you on the topic of warfare, unfortunately its a topic that noone would want to think about for obvious reasons...We have been illegally occuppied for too long. I have said before if insurection began right after the invasion of 74 the problem would have been solved by now, Clerides threatened such action in 74 but Britain assured him that they would place pressure on turkey for withdrawal..Its a difficult decision but i think its inevitable with the current situation, We cannot avoid the tough decisions because it always pops up in front of us..we have to understand this..Greece and Turkey have been fighting a sort of cold war over the Aegean for many decades now. The last thing Turkey would want right now is a hot war with theGreeks..The Kurdish problem is getting worse and the PKK is becoming more suphisticated with their weaponry within Turkey and outside of it...Another reason Turkey would not want to fight in Cyprus is that a war would bring out the truth bright and clear to the world and Turkey's image destroyed even more, then it is now and have virtually no shot of acceptance in the western world. yeah these peons yelp endlessly about turkish military prowess nevertheless the truth is is that Turkey is extremely vulnerable right now and in the foreseeable future..The reason the USA and the western alliance protect the Turks so vehemently is that any attack on Turkey brings it this much closer to destruction. You cannot tell me otherwise, 15 million people of Kurdish descent who abhor living under Turkish rules and laws would not take the chance to fight and gain their independence. And turkey knows this very well and so does the West.
Simon wrote:I believe that Turkish nationalist pride will place Cyprus well above a Favoured Nation status that Turkey may or may not receive. I can't see this gaining us many concessions from Turkey.
In any event, we must still be prepared for the alternative, should the need arise.