Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

I always thought that it was universally accepted that some Turkish Cypriots are in fact Greek Orthodox converts, hasn't it been scientifically demonstrated that many in both communities share the same genes, how could they ever be called settlers?

Jerry, are you accusing me of not being a TC?

Could be, you could even be a descendant of Julius Caesar. I knew a TC from Lourinjina (?) who spoke Greek so well that a GC friend of mine could not tell what he was. To me the saddest thing about this whole business is that many GCs and TCs share the same blood.

Even sadder fact is that a distant cousin converted back christianity and joined Eoka.

Your cousin must be commended for fighting for RoC independence.

He is truly a hero, and you should be proud!

One of my brothers went looking for him few years back, and he refused to meet him.

Surely you meant to say condemned.

Certainly not.

He should be commended for his bravery and sacrifice to his country...

[Oracle]

I always thought that it was universally accepted that some Turkish Cypriots are in fact Greek Orthodox converts, hasn't it been scientifically demonstrated that many in both communities share the same genes, how could they ever be called settlers?

Jerry, are you accusing me of not being a TC?

Could be, you could even be a descendant of Julius Caesar. I knew a TC from Lourinjina (?) who spoke Greek so well that a GC friend of mine could not tell what he was. To me the saddest thing about this whole business is that many GCs and TCs share the same blood.

That is how a racist would think. Human Rights do not distinguish according to "bloodlines". The crime is against the Human NOT his blood-type! It is only the Turks who have racially, ethnically cleansed by thinking along those lines and such "excuses" should not be allowed to be perpetuated any longer...

What a twisted logic! A racist is someone like you who makes derogatory remarks about a person simply because of his/her race.

Not twisted, but direct! If you think sharing a "bloodline" allows greater privileges (by being "saddest" when overlooked) than any actual respect of a person purely for unquestionable human rights; then you have to address your views. As for mine, I hate only the Turks for their behaviour in violating human rights and racially ethnically cleansing half of Cyprus ... If you think that is racist then it is further proof you are twisted!

Oh, you are far too clever for me. Tell me, do you hate all Turks, some Turks or do you in fact mean Turkish Goverments and what they have done to Cyprus?

Do you understand only at the superficial level?

[denizaksulu]

Deniz, I never said that TCs are not Cypriots. What I am saying is that Turkey in the 21st century can not use the methods that Ottomans used in the middle ages to expand their empire.

But I will also agree with Oracle that TCs don't seem to be interested to be Cypriots. They seem to prefer to be something separate.

Until the 1950s most TCs spoke Greek. Some TCs even had Greek as their main language. Don't you think that it is perfectly natural for a minority to speak the language of the majority? You are a TC but you live in a place where English is the most used language, so you learned English. Is there something wrong with that? Do you think that the Greek or Kurdish minorities who live in Turkey don't know how to speak Turkish? Of course they do!

Unfortunately the TC leadership and Turkey did everything possible for stopping TCs from integrating with the rest of the Cypriot people, and they used force to reverse the process of integration by prohibiting from TCs to speak Greek.

Given time, this would have happened but for the events of the '60's. The prevalent Nationalist movements of both sides ruined that chance. Banning of the teaching of Greek in our secondary schools in 1958 ( I think) was a criminal act. Why did the British Authorities allow this? Now we know.!!

[denizaksulu]

I always thought that it was universally accepted that some Turkish Cypriots are in fact Greek Orthodox converts, hasn't it been scientifically demonstrated that many in both communities share the same genes, how could they ever be called settlers?

Jerry, are you accusing me of not being a TC?

Could be, you could even be a descendant of Julius Caesar. I knew a TC from Lourinjina (?) who spoke Greek so well that a GC friend of mine could not tell what he was. To me the saddest thing about this whole business is that many GCs and TCs share the same blood.

Even sadder fact is that a distant cousin converted back christianity and joined Eoka.

Your cousin must be commended for fighting for RoC independence.

He is truly a hero, and you should be proud!

One of my brothers went looking for him few years back, and he refused to meet him.

Surely you meant to say condemned.

After Andriko was set free at Independence I think he went to London. Have you tried there? You can go to the village and ask Sophia. She is married to his cousin too, He is alive and doing well. Sophia is my cousin also. According to them they converted to christianity so they could marry into this large GO family.

[YFred]

I always thought that it was universally accepted that some Turkish Cypriots are in fact Greek Orthodox converts, hasn't it been scientifically demonstrated that many in both communities share the same genes, how could they ever be called settlers?

Jerry, are you accusing me of not being a TC?

Could be, you could even be a descendant of Julius Caesar. I knew a TC from Lourinjina (?) who spoke Greek so well that a GC friend of mine could not tell what he was. To me the saddest thing about this whole business is that many GCs and TCs share the same blood.

Even sadder fact is that a distant cousin converted back christianity and joined Eoka.

Your cousin must be commended for fighting for RoC independence.

He is truly a hero, and you should be proud!

One of my brothers went looking for him few years back, and he refused to meet him.

Surely you meant to say condemned.

After Andriko was set free at Independence I think he went to London. Have you tried there? You can go to the village and ask Sophia. She is married to his cousin too, He is alive and doing well. Sophia is my cousin also. According to them they converted to christianity so they could marry into this large GO family.

Which one was the policeman in the Larnaca area in the early 70s? That's the one I think my brother tried to contact and got a bit of a cold shoulder.

[denizaksulu]

I always thought that it was universally accepted that some Turkish Cypriots are in fact Greek Orthodox converts, hasn't it been scientifically demonstrated that many in both communities share the same genes, how could they ever be called settlers?

Jerry, are you accusing me of not being a TC?

Could be, you could even be a descendant of Julius Caesar. I knew a TC from Lourinjina (?) who spoke Greek so well that a GC friend of mine could not tell what he was. To me the saddest thing about this whole business is that many GCs and TCs share the same blood.

Even sadder fact is that a distant cousin converted back christianity and joined Eoka.

Your cousin must be commended for fighting for RoC independence.

He is truly a hero, and you should be proud!

One of my brothers went looking for him few years back, and he refused to meet him.

Surely you meant to say condemned.

After Andriko was set free at Independence I think he went to London. Have you tried there? You can go to the village and ask Sophia. She is married to his cousin too, He is alive and doing well. Sophia is my cousin also. According to them they converted to christianity so they could marry into this large GO family.

Which one was the policeman in the Larnaca area in the early 70s? That's the one I think my brother tried to contact and got a bit of a cold shoulder.

Sorry, I have not heard of them since their release. I had other things on my mind. I should have asked Sophia. Next time I will. They would be in their 70's by now. I remember them like it was yesterday. I say them, because there was Kyriakos as well. They worked their own marangoz workshop together, joined Eoka together got arrested together after their deeds.

[insan]

Deniz, I never said that TCs are not Cypriots. What I am saying is that Turkey in the 21st century can not use the methods that Ottomans used in the middle ages to expand their empire.

But I will also agree with Oracle that TCs don't seem to be interested to be Cypriots. They seem to prefer to be something separate.

Until the 1950s most TCs spoke Greek. Some TCs even had Greek as their main language. Don't you think that it is perfectly natural for a minority to speak the language of the majority? You are a TC but you live in a place where English is the most used language, so you learned English. Is there something wrong with that? Do you think that the Greek or Kurdish minorities who live in Turkey don't know how to speak Turkish? Of course they do!

Unfortunately the TC leadership and Turkey did everything possible for stopping TCs from integrating with the rest of the Cypriot people, and they used force to reverse the process of integration by prohibiting from TCs to speak Greek.

Given time, this would have happened but for the events of the '60's. The prevalent Nationalist movements of both sides ruined that chance. Banning of the teaching of Greek in our secondary schools in 1958 ( I think) was a criminal act. Why did the British Authorities allow this? Now we know.!!

Deniz, when u evaluate issues u need to take into account the then circumstances... There weren't very good relations with GCs primarily at political level and significantly at social level from 40's and onwards... What was the situation in GC schools regarding teaching the Turkish language? Were they still teaching the Turkish language or they never taught it? 2 wrongs does not make 1 wrong but under such circumstances of late 50's retaliation could be considered logical...

[insan]

Deniz, I never said that TCs are not Cypriots. What I am saying is that Turkey in the 21st century can not use the methods that Ottomans used in the middle ages to expand their empire.

But I will also agree with Oracle that TCs don't seem to be interested to be Cypriots. They seem to prefer to be something separate.

Until the 1950s most TCs spoke Greek. Some TCs even had Greek as their main language. Don't you think that it is perfectly natural for a minority to speak the language of the majority? You are a TC but you live in a place where English is the most used language, so you learned English. Is there something wrong with that? Do you think that the Greek or Kurdish minorities who live in Turkey don't know how to speak Turkish? Of course they do!

Unfortunately the TC leadership and Turkey did everything possible for stopping TCs from integrating with the rest of the Cypriot people, and they used force to reverse the process of integration by prohibiting from TCs to speak Greek.

Given time, this would have happened but for the events of the '60's. The prevalent Nationalist movements of both sides ruined that chance. Banning of the teaching of Greek in our secondary schools in 1958 ( I think) was a criminal act. Why did the British Authorities allow this? Now we know.!!

There were also significant number of Turkish speaking GCs.. This was a unique situation for mixed villages . It has nothing to do with smaller ethnic group was being lingually assimilated by the language of larger ethnic group...

[Tim Drayton]

Deniz, I never said that TCs are not Cypriots. What I am saying is that Turkey in the 21st century can not use the methods that Ottomans used in the middle ages to expand their empire.

But I will also agree with Oracle that TCs don't seem to be interested to be Cypriots. They seem to prefer to be something separate.

Until the 1950s most TCs spoke Greek. Some TCs even had Greek as their main language. Don't you think that it is perfectly natural for a minority to speak the language of the majority? You are a TC but you live in a place where English is the most used language, so you learned English. Is there something wrong with that? Do you think that the Greek or Kurdish minorities who live in Turkey don't know how to speak Turkish? Of course they do!

Unfortunately the TC leadership and Turkey did everything possible for stopping TCs from integrating with the rest of the Cypriot people, and they used force to reverse the process of integration by prohibiting from TCs to speak Greek.

Given time, this would have happened but for the events of the '60's. The prevalent Nationalist movements of both sides ruined that chance. Banning of the teaching of Greek in our secondary schools in 1958 ( I think) was a criminal act. Why did the British Authorities allow this? Now we know.!!

I believe that there was a plan to introduce Greek as a compulsory subject on the curriculum at all high schools in the north of Cyprus this academic year. I believe that last year this subject was taught on a pilot basis at a handful of schools. Does anybody know if this has come to fruition, or have the UBP put a halt to this?

[insan]

Deniz, I never said that TCs are not Cypriots. What I am saying is that Turkey in the 21st century can not use the methods that Ottomans used in the middle ages to expand their empire.

But I will also agree with Oracle that TCs don't seem to be interested to be Cypriots. They seem to prefer to be something separate.

Until the 1950s most TCs spoke Greek. Some TCs even had Greek as their main language. Don't you think that it is perfectly natural for a minority to speak the language of the majority? You are a TC but you live in a place where English is the most used language, so you learned English. Is there something wrong with that? Do you think that the Greek or Kurdish minorities who live in Turkey don't know how to speak Turkish? Of course they do!

Unfortunately the TC leadership and Turkey did everything possible for stopping TCs from integrating with the rest of the Cypriot people, and they used force to reverse the process of integration by prohibiting from TCs to speak Greek.

Given time, this would have happened but for the events of the '60's. The prevalent Nationalist movements of both sides ruined that chance. Banning of the teaching of Greek in our secondary schools in 1958 ( I think) was a criminal act. Why did the British Authorities allow this? Now we know.!!

I believe that there was a plan to introduce Greek as a compulsory subject on the curriculum at all high schools in the north of Cyprus this academic year. I believe that last year this subject was taught on a pilot basis at a handful of schools. Does anybody know if this has come to fruition, or have the UBP put a halt to this?

several days ago Eroglu made a statement regarding this issue and said, "I support the idea of learning the language of our neighbour."