Paphitis wrote:What ethnicity each person belongs to is based on certain criteria, such as language, culture, religion and also the way that people identify themselves.
Well done Piratis!
Language doesn't define ethnicity and neither does religion. At least you got it partly correct and so this has to rate as the first sensible thing you have said in this thread.
Ergo, if Cypriots choose to define themselves as Cypriot, and they will, then this is their ethnicity.
Language, religion and culture are the main reasons why people identify themselves in the way they do. The other main reason is interests. People can identify themselves as separate from another group even if they share the same language, religion and culture, because being separate is for their own interest.
The question is if being separate is in the interests of the Greek Cypriot people or not. You believe it is, and yes, if all (or most) of us decide that we want to be separate, we can be.
It all comes down to the choice I was talking about earlier. Cyprus is not separate because we choose it after we decided that doing so is for our interests. On the contrary Cyprus is separate against our choice because this is what served the interests of some foreign Imperialists.
Mind you, if that was done from the beginning, we wouldn't be here arguing about the Cyprus Problem.
This is were you fall victim of the Turkish propaganda. The Turks are trying to convince you that what is wrong is not their crimes against Cyprus, but who we are, and if we change who we are everything will be great. This is nonsense of course. Their aim is to ISOLATE Cyprus as much as possible, making it easier for them to continue to oppress and exploit us.
Being Greek is not the problem. If that by itself was the reason of the problem, then any territory that has both Greeks and Turks would have the same problem as we do. Constantinople for example has both Turks and Greeks. Is there a "Constantinople problem"?. Do they have to declare Constantinople as a separate state and the residents of that territory abandon their ethnic identities and create some new one? No, the territory is part of Turkey, the Turks (the majority) decided to call it Istanbul and neither of these caused a "Constantinople Problem" or an "Istanbul problem".
So don't be fooled by the lame excuses of the Turks. What they want is to isolate Cyprus even further because this is what serves their own interests.
