Piratis wrote:Pyrpolizer wrote:BirKibrisli wrote:And there is the other side of the coin ,of course...How many GCs are really genetically Greek,after the very colourful history of our little island??? We know of the research which has shown that Cypriots of different ethnic backgrounds all share the same gene pool,and this pool is different to those of the mainland Greeks and Turks...The likes of Oracle and Piratis would dismiss this,saying that we share 99% of our DNA with the apes too...But the key is in the remaining 1 %....There is enough difference in that 1% which made the researchers conclude that Cypriots are closer to each other genetically than they are to their respective "ancestors"...So we are genetically closer cousins (I would say more like brothers and sisters) to each other than to Greeks and Turks...
Piratis would say it is the culture and religion and language which determines who you are,and he is largely correct...Only,in Cyprus despite our language and religious differences our cultural identity is remarkably similar...This to me suggests that there had been far greater mixing and matching of our two main communities in the past than we would like to admit.I have talked about this before,my grandmother's first language was Greek (the Cypriot version of course)...Now how can that be???There are two possible explanations...Grandma's family were Turks who immigrated to Cyprus from Crete or other parts of Greece,or they were descendants of GCs who had converted to Islam...There is no other explanation...Yet,my mother has no idea about her mother's family history...Certain things were obviously taboo to talk about...On my father's side there are definitly Latin and Arabic connections...So how "Turkish" could I really be??? And I'd say most Cypriots have a similar background to mine...So,what has made Piratis and Co so fanatically Greek,and some other TCs so fanatically Turkish...This is what we should be thinking about...There in lies the key to the solution of Cyprob...
We are mostly Arabs I think....
Simply the original Greek culture and population was able to absorb and assimilate the constant influx from neighbouring countries.
Why Arabs? From what I know the Arabs never settled en mass on the island. They just liked to raid our towns. We had more Jews than Arabs in Cyprus.
Ethnicity is all about culture and identity, it is not about genes. A DNA test can not determine your ethnicity. It is pointless to think in terms of genes.
Why split hairs then. It was the Semites then. Joseph Nasi mentioned the large Jewish population of Cyprus which were oppressed by the Venetians (and their collaborators, no doubt).
Joseph Nasi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Joseph Nasi (or Nassi; also known as João Miquez in a Portuguese variant, Giuseppe Nasi in Italian, and as Yasef Nassi in Ottoman Turkish; 1524–1579) was a Jewish diplomat and administrator, member of the House of Mendes, and influential figure in the Ottoman Empire during the rules of both Sultan Suleiman I and his son Selim II. He was a great benefactor of the Jewish people.[1]
A Court Jew,[2] he was appointed the Lord of Tiberias,[3] with the expressed aim of resettling Jews in Palestine and encouraging industry there; the attempt failed, and, later, he was appointed the Duke of Naxos and the Seven Islands.[4] Nasi also brought about war with the Republic of Venice, at the end of which Venice lost the island of Cyprus to the Ottomans. After the death of Selim, he lost influence in the Ottoman Court, but was allowed to keep his titles and pension for the remainder of his life.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Ottoman Court
3 Settling Tiberias
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
[edit]Early life
Nasi was born in Spain as a Marrano (practicing Judaism in secret), and was a friend of Maximilian, nephew of the Habsburg King Charles I of Spain.[5] He escaped to Portugal after Charles decided to confiscate the Mendes fortune,[5] and, after the Holy Inquisition began operating against Portuguese Marranos, moved to Antwerp, in the Habsburg Netherlands, with his aunt, Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi. He studied at the University of Louvain,[5] but had to flee the Inquisition in 1547.[5] He then moved to France and later to Venice, before finally leaving for the Ottoman realm in 1554.[5]
[edit]Ottoman Court
When he arrived in Istanbul, Nasi made a fortunate decision in supporting the future sultan Selim, against his rival Bayezid; as a result, he was favored by the Seraglio, and eventually became a high ranking diplomat and minister.[5]
Due to his trading connections in Europe, he was able to exercise great influence on Ottoman foreign policy.[3] Among his achievements were negotiating peace with Poland, and influencing the new election of the Polish king. He was awarded the monopoly of the beeswax trade with Poland, and of the wine trade with Moldavia, and maneuvered in the latter country to keep princes favorable to his policies in power. In 1561, Nasi backed Ioan Iacob Heraclid to rule as despot, supported Alexandru Lăpuşneanu's return to the throne in place of Ştefan Tomşa (1564), and ultimately endorsed Ion Vodă cel Cumplit (1572);[6] he was himself considered a suitable choice for hospodar of either Moldavia or Wallachia in 1571, but Selim II rejected the proposal.[6]
During the war between the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice, Nasi's negotiations with the Jewish community in Venetian-ruled Cyprus were uncovered, and, as a result, the Jewish population of Famagusta (with the exception of Jews who were natives of the city) was expelled in June 1568 (see History of the Jews in Cyprus).[7] It is believed that he intended parts of Cyprus to be a Jewish colony, and encouraged the Ottoman annexation of Cyprus in the war to that end; he was granted a coat of arms by Selim that indicated he would be given viceregal rank in that colony.[8] Nasi's relative Abraham Beneviste (Righetto Marrano) was arrested in 1570, on charges of having set fire to the Venetian Arsenal on Nasi's instigation.[9]
Maintaining contacts with William the Silent,[10] Nasi encouraged the Netherlands to revolt against Spain, a major adversary of the Ottoman Empire (the rebellion was ultimately carried out by the Union of Utrecht, as the start of the Eighty Years' War).[11] For this and other achievements, he was appointed by Selim to become the Duke of Naxos; he also later became the Count of Andros. Represented locally by one Francesco Coronello,[4] Nasi mainly ruled the Duchy from his palace of Belvedere, where he also maintained his own Hebrew printing press (kept by his wife and cousin, Doña Reyna, after Joseph's death).
[edit]Settling Tiberias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nasi
I ain’t going back to read all that! 
