Pyrpolizer wrote:My Koumbaros (best man in my wedding) is a refugee from Morfou and he introduced me to his Morfites TC friends that he knew from childhood and some other TCs who were refugees from villages nearby. As they said the majority of those TCs living in Morfou are either native or from nearby villages. All of them same mentality, very nice people… One of them is so fanatically supporting the RoC without fear even in front of the Karasakalis that really astonished me. And of course the first time we met we exchanged all the interesting points about ourselves 2 of those TCs (among a group of 14) had purely Greek surnames. Sorry I don’t want to give their names publicly.
Another striking thing: Morfou had a football team pre 1974, named "Dhigenis-Morfou". Today that team has a club in Nicosia. Go at that club in Nicosia anytime you like, and tell me why there are always some TCs in there. They still support their hometown football team man, unbeleivable!!! I am convinced the TCs of Morfou are a special case… Bir believe me there are many TCs like you and Kikapu living in Cyprus, you guys are not some accidental exception in some forum….
Anyway lets go to the Anan Plan:
We say the Anan Plan was a partition Plan, ASSUMING that plan would actually work and provide for a stable system. Put a BIG question mark here. In addition to that however none of the other issues that constitute the CP were satisfactory for the GCs. The property issue for example was practically ripping the GC refugees off their properties.
So assuming the only problem with the Anan Plan was whether it was a partitionist plan or not, then yes every sensible person should have risked it and voted yes.Perhaps it would eventually prove not to be so, and that would be much better than todays situation, as you very correctly pointed out.
Unfortunately my friend not only the Anan Plan was a partitionist plan it had too many other negatives for the GCs and in addition to that in my opinion it had absolutely no chance to work. It was a trap, not only for the GCs but for the TCs as well. Start from the fact that the UN themselves advertised the Anan Plan as being that pdf document of 182 pages available in their Web page. That document was the most messy and contradictory thing I even read. The real Anan Plan however was another 20,000 pages of details. I ve read only part of those details mainly about the property issue. (how could anyone read them given the fact they only gave us what 2-3 weeks to vote) All those 20,000 pages were available at the UN web side ONLY if you made a deep search. While the 182 pages are available until today the other 20,000 are NOWHERE to find today…(ask yourself why)
Imo we would end up with no state, no governing system, the Turkish army would stay not because of hostilities but because the whole place would be run by mobs and the mafia, and all decent Cypriots (GCs and TCs alike) would be looking for a new home and new start somewhere in Europe. As for the property issue-right of return etc, those would become irrelevant.
I love hearing real life stories,so thanks for telling us,Pyro...
One of my Uncle's from Paphos town was resettled in Morphou,but I never had a chance to visit him there...He passed away some years ago..
Yes,it sounds like a special place with some special people there...DT is telling a similar story. It just goes to show how at human level we are really all the same.It is such a tragedy when you think about it,I mean what happened to all these people after 1963 and 1974...We ought to feel ashamed...Our conscience is large enough to allow us to carry the dreams and the guilt of the generations before us...
As I said I am not an expert on the AP...But I know that anything would be better than the status quo,and it was a pity that the only chance we got of moving on in 30 years we threw away...I can't stop feeling that the sides have interpreted the Plan wastly differently and perhaps mistakenly ...And the mutual mistrust (The TCs towards GCs ,and the GCs towards Turkey) coloured most people's response to AP...Just think about this,if both sided believed the other was acting in good faith,would the AP seem as dangerous or unworkable as it was...??? Cypriots certainly have a lot of reasons not to trust the USA,Britain,and the UN for that matter,but there might be some paranoia at work here as well...Okey,we rejected the AP,but look where it got us....
One day we might look back at the AP as some of us are looking but at the 1960 Constitution and say,"it was not perfect but it was our best chance of going forward and and making a future together..."
