Filitsa wrote:Understood, but still I ask, "Why celebrate the anniversary of the invasion?" This is a Turkish celebration in Cyprus, not a Cypriot celebration. As Demetriou wrote it's a do-as-the-Turkish-government-says mentality that doesn't serve the cause for peace and unity. I see it as a slap-in-the-face to all Cypriots. Don't you?
Filitsa,
Every country or nation in the whole world is trying to have some days in the year in which to celebrate their heroic past, boost the moral of its people and display (show off) its determination and ability to engage in future wars.
The same goes in Greece for example, where they celebrate the 1821 revolution against the Ottoman Empire on the 25 of March, which marked the beginning of Greece’s independence and the 1940 victory against the fascist Italian invaders and the Axis, which is celebrated on the 28 of October every year.
Now in the case of Turkey, they seem not to have too many such glorious events in their history as a nation. Therefore, in the absence of such more important events against much bigger and stronger opponents, as it is the case of Greece, they choose to celebrate the invasion against Cyprus in 1974. They are not concerned about the fact that a country 100 times bigger than Cyprus attacked us at a time in which we were in the middle of a civil war and the whole country and the army were completely disorganised and substantially disarmed by EOKA B, they are not concerned about the fact despite the disadvantageous position in which we were found, their 1974 operation had nearly evolved into a complete military fiasco in which they lost almost the same number of troops as the GCs, but instead they are only concerned about the fact that they achieved a victory on us. Consequently, they feel the need to celebrate this event every year, as if they achieved the biggest victory on earth, in order to self -boost their moral.
