Cyprus-Forum.com

[dip]

reminds me about another story (originally from associated press news, sept. 2009):
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=8503867&page=1

CYPRIOT MIXED WEDDING
DEFIES ETHNIC DIVISION
by MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press Writer

From opposite sides of their divided island, Georgia Chappa and Murat Kanatli made it their mission to break down the ethnic hatreds by bringing rivals together.

Their biggest success so far is themselves. They got married Friday.

It wasn't easy. The parents objected at first, and there were menacing responses from nationalists on both sides — against Kanatli in the Turkish Cypriot north, and Chappa in the Greek Cypriot south.

Mixed marriages are extremely rare in Cyprus, but "We are both people who dare to do things," says Chappa.

The Mediterranean island, which considers itself the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has known little peace in modern times. A guerrilla war for independence from Britain was followed by a Turkish invasion in 1974 to reverse a coup by nationalists seeking union with Greece. The fighting ended with an island-wide 180-kilometer (112-mile) barricade dividing Cyprus into an internationally recognized southern sector and a breakaway Turkish republic in the north.

Nicosia, the capital, was also cut in two, and like the other 800,000 Greek Cypriots and 200,000 Turkish Cypriots, Chappa and Kanatli grew up in total isolation from each other, on an island less than half the size of New Jersey (a third the size of Belgium).

Change came in 2003, when Turkish Cypriot authorities opened four checkpoints to allow movement between the two sides. One of those who came across was Kanatli. He met Chappa at an inter-communal gathering in Nicosia the following year.

They quickly discovered they had a common interest — breaking down barriers. Chappa, 38, a clinical dietitian, is involved with a women's group, Hands Across the Divide. Kanatli, 36, leads the New Cyprus Party, a small leftist group that preaches rapprochement.

Romance followed, and so did trouble.

At first they kept their families in the dark, and when they finally let out the secret, there were misgivings. "Both sets of parents I guess, they tried not to meet, or to get to know, find out about the person their child was going out with because it was easier to keep to ... the stereotype," said Chappa, a lively and cheerful woman who did most of the talking during an interview with the couple.

But things gradually eased up. "The last family meetings for both parents, it's more relaxed," says Kanatli. "They get it as a relationship between one girl and one boy...we've come to that stage."

A couple of years ago, Chappa said, she had eggs thrown at her car as she and Kanatli were driving in Nicosia. Kanatli says his outspoken peace advocacy draws taunts from extremists in his community. They call him a "Turkish-speaking Greek Cypriot." About a year before he met Chappa he was beaten up while filming an extremist rally.

Chappa said a typical reaction from Greek Cypriots who heard about their engagement was "Have we run out of men?"

Meanwhile, talks between the two sides about reunification have achieved little, and a U.N.-brokered peace deal in 2004 was shelved after 65 percent of the north voted for reunification, but 76 percent of the north voted no in separate referendums.

Chappa and Kanatli haven't given up. They spend most of their time quietly working for peace and reconciliation. Neutral ground comes naturally to them. Neither speaks the other's language but both are taking lessons, and meanwhile they communicate in English — a legacy of British rule. Kanatli was born Muslim but calls himself an atheist. Chappa is Greek Orthodox Christian.

They plan to live on the southern side, because of Chappa's job, but also spend time in the north.

They were married Friday, but not in Cyprus. "We chose not to get married on a divided island," Chappa says. Instead they tied the knot on another island, Samos, just off the Turkish coast. It was easier for their families to get there than to travel to a Cyprus venue.

They were married in a civil ceremony in the Greek island's town hall by Mayor Philipos Petrouskos, watched by relatives from both families, some in tears. The mayor had to start earlier than planned because he was busy organizing a festival of Greek-Turkish friendship.

He said he was "very moved" that Chappa and Kanatli had chosen his island for their marriage, and hoped they would "go on in life in unity." Then everyone headed to the tavern to celebrate to bouzouki music.

Before heading to Samos, Chappa said she knew of two mixed couples who broke up under family pressure, but believed such unions will become commonplace.

She remembers when the barrier opened in 2003 and Greek Cypriots watched the northerners pour in. "Everybody was pointing and saying, 'Look! Turkish Cypriots shopping in the supermarket!' Now it's normal ...

"At some point it will become normal with relationships as well."

[Oracle]

with quotes like"jesus a typical GC peasant" you are hardly bringing hope and peace yourself..........

Care to explain why?

Precisely because you fail to see that this "uneducated GC peasant" managed to bring up a son who was happy to marry a Turk-TC.

Now explain to us, is this some subconscious hatred of yours for GCs who bring their kids up to ignore ethnic differences, or just general?

As it is, the Turk-TCs would have been happy to see their daughter marry anyone but a potential Honour Killing Muslim!

[Pyrpolizer]

reminds me about another story (originally from associated press news, sept. 2009):
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=8503867&page=1

CYPRIOT MIXED WEDDING
DEFIES ETHNIC DIVISION
by MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press Writer

From opposite sides of their divided island, Georgia Chappa and Murat Kanatli made it their mission to break down the ethnic hatreds by bringing rivals together.

Their biggest success so far is themselves. They got married Friday.

It wasn't easy. The parents objected at first, and there were menacing responses from nationalists on both sides — against Kanatli in the Turkish Cypriot north, and Chappa in the Greek Cypriot south.

Mixed marriages are extremely rare in Cyprus, but "We are both people who dare to do things," says Chappa.

The Mediterranean island, which considers itself the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has known little peace in modern times. A guerrilla war for independence from Britain was followed by a Turkish invasion in 1974 to reverse a coup by nationalists seeking union with Greece. The fighting ended with an island-wide 180-kilometer (112-mile) barricade dividing Cyprus into an internationally recognized southern sector and a breakaway Turkish republic in the north.

Nicosia, the capital, was also cut in two, and like the other 800,000 Greek Cypriots and 200,000 Turkish Cypriots, Chappa and Kanatli grew up in total isolation from each other, on an island less than half the size of New Jersey (a third the size of Belgium).

Change came in 2003, when Turkish Cypriot authorities opened four checkpoints to allow movement between the two sides. One of those who came across was Kanatli. He met Chappa at an inter-communal gathering in Nicosia the following year.

They quickly discovered they had a common interest — breaking down barriers. Chappa, 38, a clinical dietitian, is involved with a women's group, Hands Across the Divide. Kanatli, 36, leads the New Cyprus Party, a small leftist group that preaches rapprochement.

Romance followed, and so did trouble.

At first they kept their families in the dark, and when they finally let out the secret, there were misgivings. "Both sets of parents I guess, they tried not to meet, or to get to know, find out about the person their child was going out with because it was easier to keep to ... the stereotype," said Chappa, a lively and cheerful woman who did most of the talking during an interview with the couple.

But things gradually eased up. "The last family meetings for both parents, it's more relaxed," says Kanatli. "They get it as a relationship between one girl and one boy...we've come to that stage."

A couple of years ago, Chappa said, she had eggs thrown at her car as she and Kanatli were driving in Nicosia. Kanatli says his outspoken peace advocacy draws taunts from extremists in his community. They call him a "Turkish-speaking Greek Cypriot." About a year before he met Chappa he was beaten up while filming an extremist rally.

Chappa said a typical reaction from Greek Cypriots who heard about their engagement was "Have we run out of men?"

Meanwhile, talks between the two sides about reunification have achieved little, and a U.N.-brokered peace deal in 2004 was shelved after 65 percent of the north voted for reunification, but 76 percent of the north voted no in separate referendums.

Chappa and Kanatli haven't given up. They spend most of their time quietly working for peace and reconciliation. Neutral ground comes naturally to them. Neither speaks the other's language but both are taking lessons, and meanwhile they communicate in English — a legacy of British rule. Kanatli was born Muslim but calls himself an atheist. Chappa is Greek Orthodox Christian.

They plan to live on the southern side, because of Chappa's job, but also spend time in the north.

They were married Friday, but not in Cyprus. "We chose not to get married on a divided island," Chappa says. Instead they tied the knot on another island, Samos, just off the Turkish coast. It was easier for their families to get there than to travel to a Cyprus venue.

They were married in a civil ceremony in the Greek island's town hall by Mayor Philipos Petrouskos, watched by relatives from both families, some in tears. The mayor had to start earlier than planned because he was busy organizing a festival of Greek-Turkish friendship.

He said he was "very moved" that Chappa and Kanatli had chosen his island for their marriage, and hoped they would "go on in life in unity." Then everyone headed to the tavern to celebrate to bouzouki music.

Before heading to Samos, Chappa said she knew of two mixed couples who broke up under family pressure, but believed such unions will become commonplace.

She remembers when the barrier opened in 2003 and Greek Cypriots watched the northerners pour in. "Everybody was pointing and saying, 'Look! Turkish Cypriots shopping in the supermarket!' Now it's normal ...

"At some point it will become normal with relationships as well."

I had some correspondence with Murat Kanatli in the past.
Here's some links from his emails. Never knew he got married.... wish him and his wife all the best.


[email protected]

www.ykp.org.cy www.yenicag.com.cy
www.ykpgenclik.org www.yenikibris.info

Askersiz Lefkosa Kampanyasini destekleyin
Support the campaign for demilitarization of Nicosia
www.ykp.org.cy/demnicosia

*********************

If under such conditions of almost complete separation there are intercommunal marriages, imagine what would happen in case of a solution.

[Tim Drayton]

Pyrpolizer,
Thanks for sharing this. It was interesting.

[Pyrpolizer]

Until there is a city in Cyprus with at least 4 or 5 million(never) Cyprus will continue to be full of peasants.Now go and shave your pig and milk the donkeys.

You mean like Athens (5 million) or Konstantinople/Istambul (12 million)?

[apc2010]

Until there is a city in Cyprus with at least 4 or 5 million(never) Cyprus will continue to be full of peasants.Now go and shave your pig and milk the donkeys.

You mean like Athens (5 million) or Konstantinople/Istambul (12 million)?

Neither are in cyprus last time i checked

[Pyrpolizer]

Until there is a city in Cyprus with at least 4 or 5 million(never) Cyprus will continue to be full of peasants.Now go and shave your pig and milk the donkeys.

You mean like Athens (5 million) or Konstantinople/Istambul (12 million)?

Neither are in cyprus last time i checked

So?

[Pyrpolizer]

Pyrpolizer,
Thanks for sharing this. It was interesting.

You are welcome my friend.

[Pyrpolizer]

with quotes like"jesus a typical GC peasant" you are hardly bringing hope and peace yourself..........

Care to explain why?

Precisely because you fail to see that this "uneducated GC peasant" managed to bring up a son who was happy to marry a Turk-TC.

Now explain to us, is this some subconscious hatred of yours for GCs who bring their kids up to ignore ethnic differences, or just general?

As it is, the Turk-TCs would have been happy to see their daughter marry anyone but a potential Honour Killing Muslim!

Not at all. I just pointed the contradiction/or the paradox if you like, to the fact that the TC mother could say something using the few GREEK words that she knew,and what she said really TOUCHED me, whereas the GC mother could not, just because she could not handle the "kalamaristika".Thus she was helped by the presenter to just answer with simple yeses.

[sniper]

I only watch very selectively some TV programs, however while zapping last night i stumbled upon this competition show. The competitors are couples that are about to get married soon, I am not sure what they will get if they win..
Anyway among the competitors there was a GC young man who is getting married to a TC young woman. Both around 23 years old. One of the questions they asked them was to tell an anniversary date, they both answered november xx, 2006 (it was the date they met). The GC guy terribly in love with her, he kissed her 2 times, the girl seemed about 4 months pregnant, her mother was in the audience and said "may God bless my children BOTH of them, I love them BOTH the same", The young man's mother was also in the audience, Jesus a typical GC peasant who could not spell a single phrase in her own language...
At some stage the young man talked how he decided to marry the TC girl, he said the first time i saw her I said "Panayia mou, what a woman!!"
The presenter also asked if there is a problem from the fact that the boy is from this side and the girl from the other side, regarding their friends, their relatives etc. One of their friends was sitting in the audience he said "I am their friend I know both of them for a long time, There is absolutely no problem with me"
The boy is actually a bit shorter than the girl. One of the critics was from Xanthi, Greece, you know the majority of the people there are Turks, she told a proverb to the girl in Turkish something along the lines"It is not good for the husband to be tall because the tall men are stupid" The girl laughed and translated the joke to the boy.

Admitedely the TC girl looked much cleverer than the GC boy, she not only could speak greek but write them too... And she was in fact VERY BEAUTIFUL!

I told myself, hey man look what is happening in the real world, and what those idiots at CF are doing to each other.

Much to my regret guys the majority of participants in this forum are doing nothing else that letting out their WORST characters, and spread HATE against the other community.
All those of you who do this, just stop for a minute and ask yourselves if what you show in this forum is your REAL character or the WORST side of it...

i come from an extremely mixed family and i have to say that i love the different cultures and languages although we do not speak them all. but the fact that we have many cultures and religions in our family it has made us so open minded that i truly am grateful for it.