Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

Selective memories continue to tear Cyprus apart

By Michele Kambas and Gokhan Tezgor

NICOSIA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A Cypriot proverb says you will hear the truth from a madman and a child.

While the first may hold true, the hoped-for reunification of the island in a new U.N. peace plan will have to battle through layers of propaganda which has mercilessly targeted the island's children for decades.

Greek Cypriot children as young as eight are herded into schoolyards and told to shout "Turks out of Cyprus" and "This land is Ours" to mark November 15, 1983, the day Turkish Cypriots celebrate the independence of their breakaway state.

Turkish Cypriot schoolchildren on the other side of the rusty border fence vow to stay put.

While Cypriot politicians this week pore over the nitty-gritty of the complex U.N. proposal for reconciliation, the island's children will still be focused on the textbooks which often foster precisely the opposite.

SELECTIVE MEMORIES

"The interpretation of history on both sides is absolutely atrocious," says a source close to the Cyprus peace process. "Reconciliation must start through the education system."

But first, the two sides must reach some sort of consensus on at least the historical events which tore Cyprus apart. At the moment, both communities are in denial.

Turkish Cypriot children study a book called "The History of the Turkish Cypriot Struggle." The cover shows a picture of the beach where Turkish troops landed in July 1974 for what is called by Turks a "peace operation" and Greek Cypriots an "invasion."

"From what I have read in the book, what the Greek Cypriots have done is barbaric and they are described as bloodthirsty while what the Turks have done is covered only briefly," said a Turkish Cypriot history teacher who declined to be identified.

"The torture and attacks by Greeks are described in detail while the Turks are described as angels."

Greek Cypriots are taught that July 20 is the darkest day in their history and marked the start of the Cyprus problem. The Turkish Cypriots are taught that was the day it ended.

The inside sleeve of a Greek Cypriot textbook -- "I Won't Forget and I will Struggle" -- uses pictures to relay its message of their community's suffering.

An elderly Greek Cypriot woman weeps over a grave, a toddler holds a picture of his missing parents.

"We were taught that before 1974 Greeks and Turks were friends," says Mari, a 12-year-old Greek Cypriot.

IN DENIAL

She can recite the number of Greek Cypriot refugees and missing, but was not taught at school that there were also Turkish Cypriot refugees before 1974 who were pushed -- or retreated -- into enclaves after a constitutional crisis in 1963 which prompted dispatch of a UN peacekeeping force a year later.

That period is known as "Bloody Christmas" by Turkish Cypriots. A must in their curriculum is a visit to the Museum of Barbarism, replete with blood-splattered walls where militant Greek Cypriots killed two women and three children in December 1963.

Greek Cypriot books gloss over that period while one textbook in the Turkish Cypriot curriculum makes no reference to the other sides' refugees.

The dividing line which physically splits Cyprus is also a mental one.

"The dead zone has divided everything, history, memories, experiences and views on Cyprus," says Yiannis Papadakis, a Greek Cypriot assistant professor of social anthropology at the University of Cyprus.

"A dead zone means there is no common ground, anyone who ventures into a possibility of empathy or understanding to the other side can automatically be considered a traitor."

He answers without hesitation on what the antidote is: "They should both become more self-critical."




You decide what have both parties been trying to do... Reunification or an attempt to put fire and gunpowder together. And they hope it will be viable and stable...
First poison the innocents minds then pretend that we are brothers and sisters; Cyprus must be unified. Why don't they try to unify the hearts, brains and souls of Cypriots at first? It will be those criminals end who are in power for more than 40 years... that's why.

[michalis5354]

Obviously the misinformation , the manipulation of the events , the distortion of the real truth is another CRIME

[Oneness]

NICOSIA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A Cypriot proverb says you will hear the truth from a madman and a child.

Does that make you a "madman" or a "traitor", insan!? But I would prefer to be a "traitor" by this old fashioned mentality than a "hero" because it is this mentality which opened the doors to conflict in the first place and which will prevent reconciliation indefinitely. In fact, it is this mentality.......... In some ways the Cypriots are an advanced race, such as in education and trade and family life, but in other ways we need to become more modern and open minded. We have a lot of catching up to do.

In my opinion, a traitor in contemporary Cyprus is someone who will reject reconciliation at all costs. Many of them will hide behind justified political arguments and demands which makes them difficult to identify.

"A dead zone means there is no common ground, anyone who ventures into a possibility of empathy or understanding to the other side can automatically be considered a traitor."

This opinion shows just how entrenched is the Cypriot perspective which extolls this view. How can a Cypriot be a traitor for having sympathy with a Cypriot?!? If it was not true in the 1920's before the problems arose, why should it be true now? In a modern, progressive world, sympathy, trust, honesty and cooperation are values which should not be distinguished along ethnic lines.

He answers without hesitation on what the antidote is: "They should both become more self-critical."

People should ask themselves do they value peace and prosperity for their families and their country or do they prefer glorified racism (enosis, taksim) and war? Enosis and taksim may not have set out to be negatively racist but that was the natural consequence when one side started to believe that their ethnicity was superior to another. People should ask themselves what environment their current perspective is fostering.

[insan]

I totally agree with your pointing outs oneness... but can you tell me why those who have been granted in power by "advance" Cypriots for more than 30 years not agree?

While the first may hold true, the hoped-for reunification of the island in a new U.N. peace plan will have to battle through layers of propaganda which has mercilessly targeted the island's children for decades.

They had been called by UN for several times to find a solution for Cyprus problem. They went negotiations and cheated with each other. Moreover they continued to poison, sow the seeds of hatred and seperation into their children brains with their self-interstedly(even evil-mindedly) written history books. Ain't it incoherent and weird.

Those "advanced" Cypriots can't realize it? Or they manner manneredly?





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