Cyprus-Forum.com

[Gasman]

I used to think that 'what to do about' all the settlers would be a big sticking point where any solution is concerned. Nowadays I think the biggest sticking point is 'what to do about' all the foreigners who have bought GC owned property, and even more of them who have built on GC owned land.

Of course the latter was not a big problem to be taken into consideration before they started building all over the north. And there weren't so many settlers and descendants of settlers, born in Cyprus. And they couldn't come to an agreement back then.

[londoner]

B25 says deport them all but my point is some were born on the island to mixed marriages, so do we also deport Cypriot spouses and children as well.

[Get Real!]

Some have been in Cyprus over 30 years, some were born on the island, others have married Cypriots. Any suggestions or solutions

What IS to happen to illegal settlers can only be answered if you have a crystal ball, but what SHOULD happen is a matter of international law…

http://thecyprusproblem.100webspace.net ... icle19.htm

[BirKibrisli]

I am coming to the conclusion that the average Cypriot is born with a defective gene which makes them immune to normal human feelings like empathy and compassion...

We know well what it is like to be driven forcibly out of our ancestral homes,but we are prepared to inflict the same thing on others who find themselves in this situation through no fault of their own...

I don't believe for one minute that the European Human rights Court will go along with our bright idea of denying people their birth right...

I think given the right incentives most of the settlers (and I don't include those born in Cyprus or married to Cypriots in this term) would leave voluntarily...If legal owners choose to exercise their right of return they should of course be given their houses and land back,as long as they intend to reside in them...If not they should receive approporiate compensation and forgo their titles...I honestly do not foresee many refugees being prepared to uproot themselves again,hence the property issue will not be as big a problem as some people predict...As long as there are goodwill and common sense!!!

[londoner]

Good point Birkibrisli, it all comes down to a matter of trust and in reality how many individuals will want to move south to north or vice versa and uproot their families again. Most people under the age of 40 have no idea of living in a mixed community and it will take many years before trust is re-established

[Tim Drayton]

I am coming to the conclusion that the average Cypriot is born with a defective gene which makes them immune to normal human feelings like empathy and compassion...

We know well what it is like to be driven forcibly out of our ancestral homes,but we are prepared to inflict the same thing on others who find themselves in this situation through no fault of their own...

I don't believe for one minute that the European Human rights Court will go along with our bright idea of denying people their birth right...

I think given the right incentives most of the settlers (and I don't include those born in Cyprus or married to Cypriots in this term) would leave voluntarily...If legal owners choose to exercise their right of return they should of course be given their houses and land back,as long as they intend to reside in them...If not they should receive approporiate compensation and forgo their titles...I honestly do not foresee many refugees being prepared to uproot themselves again,hence the property issue will not be as big a problem as some people predict...As long as there are goodwill and common sense!!!

Another possibility is that the rightful onwers consent to the present occupants remaining as rent-paying tenants.

[CopperLine]

All settlers are illegal and are in violation of the 4th Geneva convention. They should be deported immediately and then re-apply for entry.

You can't just excuse a crime over time, it needs dealing with.

Imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years and expecting to be pardoned.

No sir, out the go, married or otherwise. thats my take.

As for social housing, Cyprus does not need nor want ghetto style estates breeding problems for the country as a whole. Turkey can take them back just as she brought them.

Hope that anwsers your question.

B25 your reasoning by analogy - "imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years ... " - is inappropriate and misleading. The question of settlers and, a fortiori, of the children of settlers is immensely more complicated and nuanced. It does not have the neat, reassuring simplicity of a single action and a single wrong.

Instead of sinking yet again into the vindictive cycle of traumas of the past by expelling the so-called settler population why not try for something laudable, humane and conciliatory ?

When I see the stoop labour around Lefke, the fruit pickers around Morfou/Guzelyurt, the construction labourers in Kyrenia, or the small shop keepers in Lefkosa, I see hard working, poorly paid men and women doing want they can to keep body and soul and family together. It is this kind of people who make up the majority of settlers : these are not the great beneficiaries of the Cyprus problem -unlike the Turkish army, the nationalist politicians, the big TC and T big business, the British holiday makers and house buyers. (Let's face it the rich and powerful will be staying if they wish to, irrespective of their nationality irrespective of the terms of a settlement).

What is to happen to Turkish settlers if there is a solution ? All persons who are resident in Cyprus, north and south, on settlement day should be continue with right of residency even be given citizenship : Turkish setters, Sri Lankan maids, Kurdish construction workers, Thai taxi drivers, and allEU citizens can stay anyway.

[B25]

All settlers are illegal and are in violation of the 4th Geneva convention. They should be deported immediately and then re-apply for entry.

You can't just excuse a crime over time, it needs dealing with.

Imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years and expecting to be pardoned.

No sir, out the go, married or otherwise. thats my take.

As for social housing, Cyprus does not need nor want ghetto style estates breeding problems for the country as a whole. Turkey can take them back just as she brought them.

Hope that anwsers your question.

B25 your reasoning by analogy - "imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years ... " - is inappropriate and misleading. The question of settlers and, a fortiori, of the children of settlers is immensely more complicated and nuanced. It does not have the neat, reassuring simplicity of a single action and a single wrong.

Instead of sinking yet again into the vindictive cycle of traumas of the past by expelling the so-called settler population why not try for something laudable, humane and conciliatory ?

When I see the stoop labour around Lefke, the fruit pickers around Morfou/Guzelyurt, the construction labourers in Kyrenia, or the small shop keepers in Lefkosa, I see hard working, poorly paid men and women doing want they can to keep body and soul and family together. It is this kind of people who make up the majority of settlers : these are not the great beneficiaries of the Cyprus problem -unlike the Turkish army, the nationalist politicians, the big TC and T big business, the British holiday makers and house buyers. (Let's face it the rich and powerful will be staying if they wish to, irrespective of their nationality irrespective of the terms of a settlement).

What is to happen to Turkish settlers if there is a solution ? All persons who are resident in Cyprus, north and south, on settlement day should be continue with right of residency even be given citizenship : Turkish setters, Sri Lankan maids, Kurdish construction workers, Thai taxi drivers, and allEU citizens can stay anyway.

Hello Copper,

I cannot agree with you sorry. If we did this we would be legalising Turkeys violations. Nothing against settlers personally, how could I, I don't even know them (well one of the is VP). I will make a deal with you. When the UK grants residency and citizenship to the 500,000+ ilegal immigrants, I would accept to do the same in Cyprus. You can't just pick and chose when to apply the law. It is there for a reason and if everyone folowed them we would be much better placed today.

settlers here are all ilegals, their offspring as well as it runs down the line.
My demand still stands.

The 4th Geneva convention was written for a reason and turkey is not in a position to violate and escape justice as she pleases. This is the problem, everyone is sucking turkeys balls, US, UK and others. Why, why is she not brought into line. Binladen, Saddam Husain, Gaddafi have been persecuted for alot less.

Bye bye settlers.

[CopperLine]

All settlers are illegal and are in violation of the 4th Geneva convention. They should be deported immediately and then re-apply for entry.

You can't just excuse a crime over time, it needs dealing with.

Imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years and expecting to be pardoned.

No sir, out the go, married or otherwise. thats my take.

As for social housing, Cyprus does not need nor want ghetto style estates breeding problems for the country as a whole. Turkey can take them back just as she brought them.

Hope that anwsers your question.

B25 your reasoning by analogy - "imagine a murderer coming forward after 30 years ... " - is inappropriate and misleading. The question of settlers and, a fortiori, of the children of settlers is immensely more complicated and nuanced. It does not have the neat, reassuring simplicity of a single action and a single wrong.

Instead of sinking yet again into the vindictive cycle of traumas of the past by expelling the so-called settler population why not try for something laudable, humane and conciliatory ?

When I see the stoop labour around Lefke, the fruit pickers around Morfou/Guzelyurt, the construction labourers in Kyrenia, or the small shop keepers in Lefkosa, I see hard working, poorly paid men and women doing want they can to keep body and soul and family together. It is this kind of people who make up the majority of settlers : these are not the great beneficiaries of the Cyprus problem -unlike the Turkish army, the nationalist politicians, the big TC and T big business, the British holiday makers and house buyers. (Let's face it the rich and powerful will be staying if they wish to, irrespective of their nationality irrespective of the terms of a settlement).

What is to happen to Turkish settlers if there is a solution ? All persons who are resident in Cyprus, north and south, on settlement day should be continue with right of residency even be given citizenship : Turkish setters, Sri Lankan maids, Kurdish construction workers, Thai taxi drivers, and allEU citizens can stay anyway.

Hello Copper,

I cannot agree with you sorry. If we did this we would be legalising Turkeys violations. Nothing against settlers personally, how could I, I don't even know them (well one of the is VP). I will make a deal with you. When the UK grants residency and citizenship to the 500,000+ ilegal immigrants, I would accept to do the same in Cyprus. You can't just pick and chose when to apply the law. It is there for a reason and if everyone folowed them we would be much better placed today.

settlers here are all ilegals, their offspring as well as it runs down the line.
My demand still stands.

The 4th Geneva convention was written for a reason and turkey is not in a position to violate and escape justice as she pleases. This is the problem, everyone is sucking turkeys balls, US, UK and others. Why, why is she not brought into line. Binladen, Saddam Husain, Gaddafi have been persecuted for alot less.

Bye bye settlers.

B25
First, countries around the world, the UK, most EU countries, the USA, etc included, have periodic amnesties (or 'regularisations' as the currently preferred euphemism) for so-called illegal immigrants. I fail to see why Cyprus, for such a crucial purpose i.e, settlement and reconciliation should not do such a thing. The declaration of such an amnesty does not "reward" Turkey, it acknowledges the existence of ordinary workers which you say you have nothing against.

You say there are 500,000 + illegal immigrants in the UK,and yet the Home Office/Border and Immigration Agency only has c.4,000 people recorded as
being deported/returned for illegal entry last year. So where is your half million figure from ? The Daily Mail/Hate ? Perhaps you mean legal immigrants.


I know a thing or two about Geneva4 and how/why it was drafted. And let's consider when it is invoked and when it is used. With the collapse of the USSR were ethnic Russians expelled from the Baltic states or other easterne European states using Geneva4 ? No. They were, sensibly, allowed to remain in an effort to build a more tolerant and progressive post-Soviet society.

[Me Ed]

I am coming to the conclusion that the average Cypriot is born with a defective gene which makes them immune to normal human feelings like empathy and compassion...

We know well what it is like to be driven forcibly out of our ancestral homes,but we are prepared to inflict the same thing on others who find themselves in this situation through no fault of their own...

I don't believe for one minute that the European Human rights Court will go along with our bright idea of denying people their birth right...

I think given the right incentives most of the settlers (and I don't include those born in Cyprus or married to Cypriots in this term) would leave voluntarily...If legal owners choose to exercise their right of return they should of course be given their houses and land back,as long as they intend to reside in them...If not they should receive approporiate compensation and forgo their titles...I honestly do not foresee many refugees being prepared to uproot themselves again,hence the property issue will not be as big a problem as some people predict...As long as there are goodwill and common sense!!!

Another possibility is that the rightful onwers consent to the present occupants remaining as rent-paying tenants.

I believe that this is probably the only viable solution to both the property AND settler issue.

Out of interest, what do the settlers pay and to whom do they make any payments to at the moment?