garbitsch wrote:So it is ethical to shoot a Turkish soldier waiting in the border, but not a civilian who had crossed the border and climb to the flag pole to take down the Turkish flag.
Garbitch, since 1974, I personally remember at least 6 or 7 cases in which a GC soldier was shot and killed at the "boarder" and perhaps 1 or 2 such cases of a Turkish soldier being killed, presumably by a GC. During my service in kaimakli /Omorfita area, between 1984-86, I personally experienced two such incidences, one of which involved a GC soldier from my platoon team. Apparently this guy had started a friendly chatting relationship with a TC soldier from the other side. The distance of each opposite sentry post was only 4-5 meters. They went further into exchanging cigarettes and alcohol. Apparently, the TC soldier was caught by his officer and was ordered to trap the GC into a new exchange meeting in the buffer zone. The officer was waiting -hiding behind some barrels- and once the GC entered the buffer zone with a bottle of brandy, he shot him dead. We later found out what happened by some other TC soldiers, after some time had passed. Perhaps they felt the need to explain what happened so that we did not retaliate towards them in a similar fashion, should they ever found themselves unconsciously exposed in the open. I do not know what happened to the TC soldier but I presume he must have received some severe punishment from his officers.
Later on, all the TC soldiers were replaced from the green line in Nicosia area with mainland Turkish soldiers. I do not know what relationship this had to do with the fact that TC and GC soldiers were often chatting with each other, especially during the late night shifts. What I remember is that keeping a sentry duty in the night had become a much more difficult task because you could stand for 3 hours in a ghost town area, without exchanging a word. Mainland Turkish soldiers were particularly afraid and they wouldn’t stop for a second staring at us from the holes of their sentry. They were also much more scared of their officers, comparing with the TC who were much more relaxed. Another thing I remember is one song, like a poem, that the Turkish /TC soldiers used to shout loudly during the night, especially during a shift change or when an officer would come near them. It goes like this “asitti milletine …taounset sherevine…Kibris….Turk …..” If anyone from this forum knows it, I would like to know how it goes and what it means.
Never the less, I honestly think that this discussion ended up "diluting the mosquito and swallowing the camel." What people need to understand is that when there are so many weapons in Cyprus and as long as the present situation continues, there will always be insistences of killings. Furthermore, someone’s life is by far more precious than the protection of an ethnic symbol, especially when another human life is not endangered. Greeks and Turks alike, have a particular obsession with their ethnic symbol, something that I find not to be a very healthy attitude.
What are you babbling on about now 
