Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

I am dishonest because I did not quote the text? What are you talking about? And, where did I claim that the vast majority of mainland settlers should remain after solution? Can you prove this?

However, as most of the times you have missed the point I was trying to make. What the forum members think of me is of no interest to me. You can have all credit if it makes you feel happy, but do yourself a favour and contemplate on the fact that the UN is calling for a compromise solution (along with the EU and other international institutions) when all resolutions talk about the integrity of Cyprus, the removal of all settlers, the withdrawal of the Turkish army and the return of all refugees.

[insan]

Overwhelming majority of GCs/TCs and Greeks/Turks don't have intellectual maturity and nobility to build all kinds of mature, sincere relations between each other that would eventually lead us to a fully reconciled environment to fearlessly and genuinely get united around common interests primarily in our region and secondarily in other regions of the world.

Well it's about time they bloody-well started developing some "intellectual maturity and nobility" - especially on your side of the divide! Otherwise the people there will remain prisoners forever.

Brits, EU and USA also have some common interests on Cyprus.

As for the interests of Russia and China on Cyprus which bear a great significance on solution of the Cyprus problem; u first need to read my 2 posts in "politics and elections" sections. Then we can talk abt it.

All these nations may have interests in Cyprus. I appreciate that. But it isn't just donkeys that inhabit this island, insan, its human beings.

And they have interests too, OK? And their best interests, their human rights, are much more important to me, sorry. And they should be to you.

Let's be intellectually mature and noble enough to put the Cypriot people's interests first and then we'll look at what we can do for our neighbours, our friends, our co-religionists, the rest of the region and the rest of the world, OK?

I'm all for human rights of Cypriots and my primary concern is the interests of Cypriots. I wish all their problems would be solved in most feasible way with minimum pain and sufferings.

[The Cypriot]

I'm all for human rights of Cypriots and my primary concern is the interests of Cypriots. I wish all their problems would be solved in most feasible way with minimum pain and sufferings.

Bravo, insan. Mashallah!

[Kifeas]

I am dishonest because I did not quote the text? What are you talking about? And, where did I claim that the vast majority of mainland settlers should remain after solution? Can you prove this?

However, as most of the times you have missed the point I was trying to make. What the forum members think of me is of no interest to me. You can have all credit if it makes you feel happy, but do yourself a favour and contemplate on the fact that the UN is calling for a compromise solution (along with the EU and other international institutions) when all resolutions talk about the integrity of Cyprus, the removal of all settlers, the withdrawal of the Turkish army and the return of all refugees.

You continue to "fail" quoting my posts, whereas in fact I only said "it would have been more honest on your behalf," and not that you are dishonest. Never mind!

You ask me to indicate where you claimed that the vast majority of mainland settlers should remain after a solution. Well, you have accepted the Annan plan, which you continue to regard as a "blessing," in which nearly all of the current registered settler voters would have stayed and would have acquired Cypriot Citizenship. I suppose you realize what it means to have almost half of the "TC" voters originating and maintaining alliances with their motherland Turkey, in a power-sharing formula with rotating presidency, and you have gotten a taste of this danger in last Sunday's "elections" in the occupied area. Unless of course you accept a grey wolf nationalist such as Eroglu, or even a settler from Turkey, to become your president one day, something which I can assure you the vast majority of GCs will not tolerate in thought -set aside for an hour. You also accepted the Annan plan which allowed for Turkey's invasion guarantees over your country, and you still believe it was a blessing for a foreign country such as Turkey to have the right to rape you at will, in your own home, in perpetuity.

Well, if the above make you a realist, and me an idealist, I suppose the words have lost their meaning!

[Oracle]

"What steps should we take to make them see sense ".
Who ? the journalst, the British public, who he clearly states know little about this, or maybe the families of the lost ?
A little respect on both sides would surely do the trick, or is there still a deep rooted hatred lingering ?

Not hatred purdey, but profound disappointment. Just when I think the Brits have made great strides forward in acknowledging their abuse of power over the Colonial years, they go and do something like this. Huge disappointment too that they have been so easily manipulated by the Turks who offer them our occupied territories for such a "Memorial". Who are the Turks playing off at the moment? Making the Brits look uncaring and insensitive by allowing them to build on stolen lands, first "homes" and now "memorials". Disappointment at the Brits' disrespect not only for us in our occupation-weakened state, but for allowing their dead to be paraded and pawned in this way.

[The Cypriot]

"What steps should we take to make them see sense ".
Who ? the journalst, the British public, who he clearly states know little about this, or maybe the families of the lost ?
A little respect on both sides would surely do the trick, or is there still a deep rooted hatred lingering ?

Not hatred purdey, but profound disappointment. Just when I think the Brits have made great strides forward in acknowledging their abuse of power over the Colonial years, they go and do something like this. Huge disappointment too that they have been so easily manipulated by the Turks who offer them our occupied territories for such a "Memorial". Who are the Turks playing off at the moment? Making the Brits look uncaring and insensitive by allowing them to build on stolen lands, first "homes" and now "memorials". Disappointment at the Brits' disrespect not only for us in our occupation-weakened state, but for allowing their dead to be paraded and pawned in this way.

British dignity is in extremely short supply in matters relating to the Cyprus tragedy, O. I am a 'Brit' by birth. Thankfully I feel Cypriot, nothing less; otherwise I'd be extremely about my country's nefarious role on the island.

If I were a Brit without the inverted commas I'd be extremely careful about how I commented on stuff like this for fear of having my head chewed off and spat out by a dignified Cypriot making sport of me.

[BOF]

Given the requirement of public accessibility, the old British cemetery in Kyrenia is a fitting site for a fixed memorial. Established in 1878 when the British first arrived on the island, it is the last resting place of the only VC buried on the island, Sgt Samuel McGaw of the Black Watch (pictured), whose grave lies beside four other members of his regiment who also died in that first year of 1878.

Among the others are those of two British major-generals who served on the island in the years thereafter — Sir Courtenay Manifold (d. 1957) and Sir Charlton Spinks (d. 1959) — as well as that of a wartime governor and commander-in-chief of the island, Sir William Battershill (1959). These were all distinguished servants of the Crown who died in the same years as those remembered on the memorial.

There are other graves with strong military connections, among them a DSO and another with both the MC and the Croix de Guerre. Taken together, the graves in the old British cemetery give added dignity to the memorial, a final chapter in a long story.
A remembrance of the dead
The memorial is in remembrance of the dead, not the now distant conflict which ended 50 years ago. It makes no political point, nor should it. Servicemen do not play politics, they simply serve their country whether that be in Cyprus, Iraq, Afghanistan or any of the many other conflicts remembered through memorials such as this. We remember and honour those who died in our name, for that is the compact — the military covenant — between the nation and the Armed Forces. If some nowadays appear to have forgotten that, we have not.

Although the British cemetery in Kyrenia is in the Turkish-Cypriot North, and in a state not recognised as such by the world at large, it remains for all practical purposes British ground as it has been since the British arrived on the island in 1878. It is not in the 'political North' for there was no such entity when these British servicemen died, nor when Britain granted a united Cyprus its independence in 1960. It is a cemetery which had the Union flag on its gates then, and still has today. The memorial has no place in the events which divided the island in 1974 or in the politics of the island today.

However, after the reunification to which both sides of the island are committed, it may be that the memorial will be resited in the British military cemetery at Wayne's Keep, where the dead are buried and where it would naturally have been sited if that cemetery enjoyed public access. But that is for the future. Until then, those who died before Britain departed the island, are remembered beside the graves of those who died when the British first arrived. The beginning and the end in the same place? That is history, not politics.

[The Cypriot]

Given the requirement of public accessibility, the old British cemetery in Kyrenia is a fitting site for a fixed memorial. Established in 1878 when the British first arrived on the island, it is the last resting place of the only VC buried on the island, Sgt Samuel McGaw of the Black Watch (pictured), whose grave lies beside four other members of his regiment who also died in that first year of 1878.

Among the others are those of two British major-generals who served on the island in the years thereafter — Sir Courtenay Manifold (d. 1957) and Sir Charlton Spinks (d. 1959) — as well as that of a wartime governor and commander-in-chief of the island, Sir William Battershill (1959). These were all distinguished servants of the Crown who died in the same years as those remembered on the memorial.

There are other graves with strong military connections, among them a DSO and another with both the MC and the Croix de Guerre. Taken together, the graves in the old British cemetery give added dignity to the memorial, a final chapter in a long story.
A remembrance of the dead
The memorial is in remembrance of the dead, not the now distant conflict which ended 50 years ago. It makes no political point, nor should it. Servicemen do not play politics, they simply serve their country whether that be in Cyprus, Iraq, Afghanistan or any of the many other conflicts remembered through memorials such as this. We remember and honour those who died in our name, for that is the compact — the military covenant — between the nation and the Armed Forces. If some nowadays appear to have forgotten that, we have not.

Although the British cemetery in Kyrenia is in the Turkish-Cypriot North, and in a state not recognised as such by the world at large, it remains for all practical purposes British ground as it has been since the British arrived on the island in 1878. It is not in the 'political North' for there was no such entity when these British servicemen died, nor when Britain granted a united Cyprus its independence in 1960. It is a cemetery which had the Union flag on its gates then, and still has today. The memorial has no place in the events which divided the island in 1974 or in the politics of the island today.

However, after the reunification to which both sides of the island are committed, it may be that the memorial will be resited in the British military cemetery at Wayne's Keep, where the dead are buried and where it would naturally have been sited if that cemetery enjoyed public access. But that is for the future. Until then, those who died before Britain departed the island, are remembered beside the graves of those who died when the British first arrived. The beginning and the end in the same place? That is history, not politics.

Thanks for your wonderfully dignified post, BOF. My respects to you.

[Bananiot]

Kifeas, I accepted the Annan Plan as the best option under the circumstances. Of course it would have been much better had Papadopoulos negotiated a little bit but this is another story. What the plan catered for and what Christofias accepted is that 50 K settlers will stay after solution. Thus, about 35 000 will cast their vote in elections there after. I consider this to be realistic but if you think that it is possible to repatriate every single settler (even those born here), please tell us how, since you consider yourself to be a realist.

The above is mere detail really. My main argument was that despite getting numerous favourable resolutions, in practice we are asked to make a compromise by the same institutions that have called for Turkey to withdraw her troops and for all the refugees to return to their homes. Furthermore, the rsolutions also speak about a solution that is accepted to both communities. What does this tell you Kifeas? What will we do when the north is inhabited by one million people and we are still asked to negotiate with the other side in order to find a compromise solution? You do understand what compromise is, Kifeas?

In 1978 we came close to solving the issue and at the time there were only 5 000 settlers but the main argument then, by those that rejected the Anglo-american-canadian plan, was the number of settlers that would stay. It is nice to use the patriotic jargon (especially when it does not cost anything) but those who objected to Makarios's long-term struggle policy, were quickly branded traitors and were sidelined or forced to go along with him.

Now, things are very difficult of course and frustration causes people to become very weird. Take yourself for example. Only a year ago you told us that the only solution is partition which we should negotiate and get the best we can. Some coastline, some land and a partition along the 80% to 20% would have made you very happy, you said. Just as a matter of interest, are you still thinking like this, especially after the rise of Eroglu?

[Get Real!]

Thanks for your wonderfully dignified post, BOF. My respects to you.

http://www.britishcyprusmemorial.org/in ... hoarethey/