EricSeans wrote:Expatkiwi,
You have an advantage over many laymen in that you have studied the Cyprus conflict in depth. I too did this as part of my Masters course a few years ago. However, in doing any advanced study of this kind the importance of fieldwork is crucial to understanding what you have only covered in theory. In other words, you have to get out there and really get to know the people of Cyprus, their communities, their history, their leaders and their influences. You have to be able to put yourself inside their heads in order to draw the right conclusions.
You've revealed something of yourself so let me do the same by comparison. I had nearly 10 years association with Cyprus before my studies, so when the island aspect of my work came up I was able to get a position as an intern with the UN peacekeeping force and also had a good range of contacts, some of whom I had already interviewed as a journalist. In the course of getting to know Cyprus I met serving and former foreign ministers on both sides, civil servants, NGO officials, discovered a missing person's grave at the scene of a 1974 firefight, was taken prisoner by the Turkish army but most importantly spent long periods of time in the company of Cypriots and their families.
Some of these experiences I would not want again, but the depth and intimacy was vital to my making informed decisions and forming my opinions of the historical framework behind the Cyprus conflict. I initially saw the Turkish Cypriots as the underdogs (and in many ways they still are) but in reality there was a huge political background of which I was previously unaware, which is best summarised as bracketing the TCs with a victim mentality that always placed the blame on the Greek Cypriots but never themselves or the uncompromising ruler and occupier, Turkey.
Put simply, I think you have adopted a kind of "Stockholm syndrome" without actually spending much, if any, time with the hostage takers and those they have under their control and influence. You see a TC enclave as a safe haven from GC aggression and never a place where TCs were often herded unwillingly by their TMT masters - and woe betide those who challenged the neighbourhood "karasakal". The truth is found in the shades of grey and not the black and whites you have heard, by your own admission, from TC immigrants to the US. The further away from the homeland the more extreme the nationalists become and the taller their tales of hate and anomosity grow. You factor Enosis into your reasoning for TC emancipation without acknowledging this sentiment has been dead for decades. And you base your views on GC mentality on a few immigrant hotheads you have met in the States (see above).
Perhaps tellingly, you speak of Denktas with admiration and say your correspondence with him confirms your correct decision in supporting the Turkish position. This is surely a shallow observation to make of a man who countless TCs see as to blame for cementing their isolation with his UDI and being largely responsible for their current plight. Fan mail induces flattery but is nothing more than superficial. Your partial condemnation of the Turkification of the north is commendable but your support for partition - as if it has somehow stopped the GCs from making kebabs out of the TCs since 1974 - marks you out as someone who, perhaps unwittingly, does not have the best interests of the TCs at heart. And the reason for this IMHO is your physical and psychological distance from Cyprus and the Cypriots.
A very good and accurate post.
Expat needs to expand his research and sources.
