Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

Insan, if we reduce things to one simple question:
"Does Turkish Cypriot culture today more closely resemble that of mainland Turkey than it did 50 years ago?"
and decide that the answer is "yes", then we must conclude that cultural assimilation has taken place.
The question of whether or not this is a good thing involves a value judgment, and is a different issue.

What abt concluding that cultural restoration has taken place towards restoring the TC culture to a closer point to it's origins? For overwhelming majority of TCs this was what taken place.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that bearing Arabic style surnames was not a part of TC culture but something we adopted and inherited under heavy Arabic cultural influence before we settled down in Cyprus.

[insan]

[...]
On the other hand, can u tell me who will gain what by culturally assimilating TCs?

An interesting question, my dearest Insan, but you surely cannnot deny that there has been a long-term policy in place to achieve precisely this goal. Let us look at some of the things that have happened in the Turkish Cypriot community since the late 1950's, when the Turkish deep state first took an interest in this community.

- People were forced to speak only Turkish, even though many who defined themselves as 'Muslim' could only in fact speak the Cypriot vernacular form of Greek, and most TCs were fluent speakers of both languages.

- Merchants were forced to remove signs in languages other than Turkish, i.e. generally those in Greek.

- People were forbidden to have commercial or social relations with Greek Cypriots.

- Village names were Turkified.

- People were given Turkish style surnames in place of patronymics.

The evidence is staring you in the face that Turkey has for decades striven to culturally assimilate the TCs. I would suggest that the reason was/is to drive a wedge between the two communities, to cement partition, make re-unification more difficult and to pave the way for possible annexation.

The things u listed above were all happened under the then circumstances of late 50s. Those years were the times when TMT wanted to organize TCs to resist against Enosis. In order to do this, TMT should activate the national feelings of TCs. Otherwise, a national struggle against Enosis and rights of TCs couldn't be organized. Maybe some high ranked TMT executives treated some TCs harshly and wrongly in some isolated cases but just because some wrong doings had took place, we can't blame whole TMT because of the wrong doings of some high ranked TMT executives; just like we don't blame all GCs because of the wrong doings of some political groups of GCs.

Turkish governments together our ruling class(politicians, teachers, artists, intellectuals), one way or other urged us to recover our national idendity that suffered from cultural erosion during the British rule. If what Turkish government together with TC ruling class had done was something serving to cement the partition then Greek governments together with GC ruling class were their biggest cooperators because they started to activate the Hellenic national feelings of GCs abt a century before the arrival of Turkish nationalism in Cyprus.

Tim, as long as u don't take into account then the circumstances and what was stimulating the actions of organizations and people; u will keep getting it all wrong. Ur view point is very superficial just like how GC propaganda makers view the events and abuse them to create impressions in favour of their national interests; as it is clearly seen in B25's posts.

Maybe Greeks should have never revolted seeking their freedom then? Because what is true for Cyprus is also true for every other Greek island and territory.

The fact is that in the 1950s we revolted against the British and we didn't touch you. If our revolution was successful then Cyprus instead of being under the British empire it would be part of the Greek Republic. Nothing would change for you if you respected the democratic wish of the Cypriot people.

So don't blame us for the conflict when in fact it is you who started it by attacking us. We had every right for freedom and every right to democratically determine the destiny of our island. You had no right for ethnic cleansing and stealing our lands. So don't try to equate our 100% legitimate demands, with your crimes.

The fact is that the British and Turkish Imperialists, who had oppressed Cypriots for centuries, didn't want to allow Cyprus to be free, so they used your minority as their pawns in order to apply their usual divide and rule practices and keep troops and control over our island.

What democractic rules u talk abt reh Piratis while who led the EOKA struggle was a well known fascist and the people of Greece were screaming democracy under the fascist Greek dictatorship.

[Piratis]

EOKA would not be necessary if you and the British had accepted that the Cypriot people could decide the destiny of their own island in a democratic and peaceful way. This is something the Cypriot people have been asking since 1821 and it was always refused to us by the foreign oppressors.

[halil]

Insan, if we reduce things to one simple question:
"Does Turkish Cypriot culture today more closely resemble that of mainland Turkey than it did 50 years ago?"
and decide that the answer is "yes", then we must conclude that cultural assimilation has taken place.
The question of whether or not this is a good thing involves a value judgment, and is a different issue.

OK Tim u show us where in the world other cultures does not get affected from other cultures ?

It is very normal for our culture to get effected from others .... this affection took from British ,Greeks , Turkish and rest of the world . only in closed communities u can find that their culture are not change ?

This affection can be seen very clear on GC community as well . They lost their own GC dialect too . Elderly TC's could not understand PIK TV programmes in these days . They says they speaks Yunanca that's why they can not understand the news as well ..... why ....Who change their culture or assimilate them .

Very simple we are all changing by world .

we are trying to protect our culture by folks but how it will help for us .

no one wears what their roots used to wear . No one cooks the way their roots used to cook . For them it is only good try .... Days are changing very rapidly .... where man was the leader of the house but now its gone by the wind .......we are talking about men and women equal rights ..... we are not talking anymore that girls must stay at home ....

we all wanted to speak more polite , we all wanted to dressed well .... we all wanted to have better life's .... while we are achieving all these things we are giving away more things from our culture and habits too . Time will come they will all remembered only with folk shows.

[Piratis]

Insan, if we reduce things to one simple question:
"Does Turkish Cypriot culture today more closely resemble that of mainland Turkey than it did 50 years ago?"
and decide that the answer is "yes", then we must conclude that cultural assimilation has taken place.
The question of whether or not this is a good thing involves a value judgment, and is a different issue.

What abt concluding that cultural restoration has taken place towards restoring the TC culture to a closer point to it's origins? For overwhelming majority of TCs this was what taken place.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that bearing Arabic style surnames was not a part of TC culture but something we adopted and inherited under heavy Arabic cultural influence before we settled down in Cyprus.

If you wanted to scrub what was distinctive in the TC culture and return to your origins of being just Turks, then why not to also return physically to your origins and spare Cyprus of the problems you created?

[Oracle]

Insan, if we reduce things to one simple question:
"Does Turkish Cypriot culture today more closely resemble that of mainland Turkey than it did 50 years ago?"
and decide that the answer is "yes", then we must conclude that cultural assimilation has taken place.
The question of whether or not this is a good thing involves a value judgment, and is a different issue.

What abt concluding that cultural restoration has taken place towards restoring the TC culture to a closer point to it's origins? For overwhelming majority of TCs this was what taken place.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that bearing Arabic style surnames was not a part of TC culture but something we adopted and inherited under heavy Arabic cultural influence before we settled down in Cyprus.

If you wanted to scrub what was distinctive in the TC culture and return to your origins of being just Turks, then why not to also return physically to your origins and spare Cyprus of the problems you created?

Sounds logical to me ...

[Piratis]

OK Tim u show us where in the world other cultures does not get affected from other cultures ?

One thing is the natural process that happens everywhere, and another is banning TCs to speak Greek, or ban the TC dialect from TV.

[runaway]

OK Tim u show us where in the world other cultures does not get affected from other cultures ?

or ban the TC dialect from TV.

as if you cared about TC dialect.

[insan]

OK Tim u show us where in the world other cultures does not get affected from other cultures ?

One thing is the natural process that happens everywhere, and another is banning TCs to speak Greek, or ban the TC dialect from TV.

What abt systematic re-hellenization of GCs after the Greek independence war? U again r mixing ur nuts with our pirillis. During the spread of nationalism movement almost all ethnic groups on this planet earth did this or that to get rid of previously imposed and/or alienated elements in their ethnic group... Moreover u r still trying to distort the truth regarding the so-called banning TCs to speak Greek and recommendation to TC mass media avoid corrupting TC dialect.

[halil]

OK Tim u show us where in the world other cultures does not get affected from other cultures ?

One thing is the natural process that happens everywhere, and another is banning TCs to speak Greek, or ban the TC dialect from TV.

What abt systematic re-hellenization of GCs after the Greek independence war? U again r mixing ur nuts with our pirillis. During the spread of nationalism movement almost all ethnic groups on this planet earth did this or that to get rid of previously imposed and/or alienated elements in their ethnic group... Moreover u r still trying to distort the truth regarding the so-called banning TCs to speak Greek and recommendation to TC mass media avoid corrupting TC dialect.

Insan he is very funny .... why he doesn't tell us that they don't used Cypriot Greek dialect while they give news from PIK or other TV channels ...
how funny for a person that he can not stand with our TC excistance in this island and he worries about our TC dialect .

Their the one who are banned the one of the official language of Cyprus which one of them was Turkish and it was for us . Now if u don't speak greek u can not work at goverment or apply for any job .