Cyprus-Forum.com

[Ioannis Kollias]

Good day to everybody. Since I am new in this forum and everybody is using the Terms GC and TC am I correct to suppose that GC= Greek Cypriot and TC= Turkish Cypriot? If that is correct then whenever we apply these terms how do we define Greek Cypriot and how do we define Turkish Cypriot? Which and how many attributes or factors are defining Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot respectively? Please excuse my ignorance (at school nobody gave me a definition) Thank you.

[erolz]

Good day to everybody. Since I am new in this forum and everybody is using the Terms GC and TC am I correct to suppose that GC= Greek Cypriot and TC= Turkish Cypriot? If that is correct then whenever we apply these terms how do we define Greek Cypriot and how do we define Turkish Cypriot? Which and how many attributes or factors are defining Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot respectively? Please excuse my ignorance (at school nobody gave me a definition) Thank you.

Hi and welcome to the forums. Yes GC and TC are shorthand for Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot.

As to how these are defined my personal view is that if you think of yourself as a TC you are a TC, if you think of yourself as a GC your a GC and if you think of yourself as a Cypriot you are a Cypriot.

[Alexandros Lordos]

Good day to everybody. Since I am new in this forum and everybody is using the Terms GC and TC am I correct to suppose that GC= Greek Cypriot and TC= Turkish Cypriot? If that is correct then whenever we apply these terms how do we define Greek Cypriot and how do we define Turkish Cypriot? Which and how many attributes or factors are defining Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot respectively? Please excuse my ignorance (at school nobody gave me a definition) Thank you.

Welcome to the forums Ioanni,

GC and TC indded stand for Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot. Obviously these terms refer to one's ethnic origin and mother tongue. What else these terms might mean, culturally, politically etc. is precisely what we are trying to work out in these forums through our discussions.

[gabaston]

ioannis

welcome dude

yup yore right about gc and tc- no hard fast rules about the rest. ive used TA for turkish army and got slagged off for referring to the prezzie as paps-
but feel free to use your own - im sure we'll get the jist

however if truth be told sometimes some gc comes out with a joke that us tcs just dont get.

[Ioannis Kollias]

Thank you all for your welcome. Can it be then that the subjective opinion of a person is a good enough reason for that person to belong to an ethnic group? Will a nation issue pasports on that asumption? Aren't there some scientifically researched prerequisites for someone to belong to a specific race, nationality or ethnic group? Otherwise my feeling is that there might be alterior motives behind ones personal opinion on wether or not belongs to this or the other ethnocity. Also please help me in clarifying the "purity" factor. I do not believe that at the present time there is a pure Turk or Greek, unless our primary decisive factor is the religion. But in this case why are we called Greeks and Turks and not Christians or Muslims?

[cannedmoose]

Hi Ioanni, welcome to the forum. In answer to your last question, can I suggest you read the following book by Rebecca Bryant 'Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus' as it answers exactly the question you raised. Alternatively, if you can get hold of a copy (it's not that easy), the edited volume by Vangelis Calotychos 'Cyprus and Its People: Nation, Identity and Experience in an Unimaginable Community, 1955-1997' also provides an excellent response.

[Ioannis Kollias]

Thank you very much for the suggested reading list. I will read the books mentioned and come back.

[erolz]

Thank you all for your welcome. Can it be then that the subjective opinion of a person is a good enough reason for that person to belong to an ethnic group? Will a nation issue pasports on that asumption? Aren't there some scientifically researched prerequisites for someone to belong to a specific race, nationality or ethnic group? Otherwise my feeling is that there might be alterior motives behind ones personal opinion on wether or not belongs to this or the other ethnocity. Also please help me in clarifying the "purity" factor. I do not believe that at the present time there is a pure Turk or Greek, unless our primary decisive factor is the religion. But in this case why are we called Greeks and Turks and not Christians or Muslims?

As I understand it there are differences between race, ethnicity and nationality. Race is genetics and as you point out geneticaly Cypriots are more similar to each other than they are to either of the 'motherlands'.

Ethnicity is based on cultural factors and not genetics. So geneticaly you could be an eskimo, but if you came to cyprus at the age of 3 months grew up in one of the Cypriot cultures, spoke one of the cypriot languages and consider yourself a GC or TC by consequence then you are a GC or TC

Nationality is a matter of politics with each nation setting the criteria for citizenship which you either meet or do not meet.

At least thats how I understand it.

[Ioannis Kollias]

In deciding about the term Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot which is the predominant factor that distinguishes one from the other? Is it "religion", schooling, history? and is the official version of history real or is the dream of the reconstruction of the Eastern Roman Empire? If we are willing to solve the problem we must face reality. What was the nationality of let us take for example of the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire Constantine the Great and his mother Empress Helen. Were the Hellenes slaves to the Romans or not?

[erolz]

In deciding about the term Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot which is the predominant factor that distinguishes one from the other? Is it "religion", schooling, history? and is the official version of history real or is the dream of the reconstruction of the Eastern Roman Empire? If we are willing to solve the problem we must face reality. What was the nationality of let us take for example of the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire Constantine the Great and his mother Empress Helen. Were the Hellenes slaves to the Romans or not?

I consider myself TC (as oppsed to GC not as opposed to Cypriot) simply because my father considerd himself TC and my aunts and uncles and cousins do likewise. I do not speak Turkish and am not muslim by religious conviction and I was school in england. So I guess for me the answer is 'history' or ancestry.