Cyprus-Forum.com

[Acikgoz]

So for the people that live in the "mythical" place of TRNC are embargoed.
Recognized by the UN or not, the TRNC exists, the myth itself no longer exists.
So Goebbels, even Malapapa agrees.

[halil]

http://www.embargoed.org/

[Malapapa]

http://www.embargoed.org/

You think you've got problems... Overseas invaders/conquerors/rulers/colonisers of Cyprus since 1,500 BC.

Hittites
Assyrians
Myceneans
Arcadians
Phoenicians
Persians
Macedonians
Romans
Arabs
Byzantines
Crusaders
Knights Templar
Lusignans
Maronites
Venetians
Ottomans
British
Greek military junta
Turks

So come back in 3,500 years and we'll compare notes.

[Acikgoz]

Guess for all those who fixate on Greek Cypriot purity, wonder if a few strands of other DNA might have gotten into the mix.

Who cares in 3,500 years - check the exponential change in human culture in the last 100 years, extrapolate 35 times.

[Gasman]

Exactly Acikgoz. I don't understand this fixation with the small number of remaining TCs on the Island. Not compared with the numbers of recent and present incomers from all over the EU and beyond. Legal and illegal.

Meet the new Cypriots!
Generally people regard Cyprus as an island inhabited exclusively by Greeks and Turks, but now providing a new home or sanctuary for tens of thousands of refugees, economic migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa and settlers, the former British colony is experiencing its most diverse multi-culturalism, yet in the mindset of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot politicians, it is still very much a Greco-Turkish Cypriot affair. Long pursuing their own unofficial policy of monoculturalism that has led to the assimilation of traditional minorities such as the Maronites and Latins, now even pro-reunification politicians in both the Republic of Cyprus and the North are pursuing a new goal of biculturalism, itself an offshoot of bizonality. But is this adequate as a sustainable solution for the kind of multicultural state post-1974 Cyprus has become?

EU FACTOR
Cyprus has always been home to more than two communities, but in recent years owing to the strength of the Cypriot economy and the historic accession of the island to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, the Republic of Cyprus has rapidly become a magnet for economic migrants from Asia and a safe haven for refugees from rickety democracies in the Middle-East, while many more trying to enter the Republic often end up living in transit in the North. In addition, an increased presence in recent years of entrepreneurial Russian and Pontian Greek communities, Asian guest workers as well as ethnic Muslim Kurds and Arabs from within Turkey in North, are each playing their part in transforming the character of the island. Following EU membership, there is a new ease at which people from across Europe can study and work in Cyprus, and with thousands of Europeans each year looking to purchase their very own patch of turf beneath the Mediterranean sun each year, the island is continually changing.


UNOFFICIAL POLICY OF ASSIMILATION
However, official policies and attitudes regarding the island’s own cultural diversity remain lost in a time when assimilation was the norm for small minorities in Cyprus. Regardless of how many tens of thousands of economic migrants, and refugees have settled on the island, successive Cypriot governments still pursue an unofficial policy of assimilation, claiming that even traditional communities like the Maronites, Latins and Armenians who have lived in Cyprus since the 9th century ‘belong’ to the Greek Cypriot community. Erroneously interpreting the 1959 agreement, where these communities were put in an awkward position of having to choose whether they wanted to be registered under the Greek or Turkish Cypriot electoral register, Cypriot politicians today exploit this as justification to pursue a goal of monoculturalism. Worse, some Cypriot politicians even in this day and age so obsessed with a majority rule theory are convinced that they alone can claim the name Cypriot; they fail to even come to terms with the fact that Turkish Cypriots are Cypriots, or that even communities smaller than theirs are still equal.

In the occupied North matters are by no-means better. Cypriot Gypsies are not even registered as an official minority community. Moreover, they are presumed to be Turkish Cypriots or a sub-group within that community despite their separate language and nomadic lifestyle. Yet many Turkish Cypriots rather than involve them in sharing power and in the future of the North they view them as common criminals.

But alas, times are changing and attitudes must change also, particularly now Cyprus is anchored into the EU. For those still unable to think of themselves as Cypriots, but continue to struggle for “Turkish Cypriot rights” or “Greek Cypriot rights,” they now have competition. An obstacle to their ethnocentric campaigns, the new arrivals will later become their headache. What will they do when these new growing communities of Kurdish Cypriots, Pontian Cypriots, the target of much racism today on the island will sooner or later organise and too demand their own community rights?


FLAWED GOALS OF BICULTURALISM
Perhaps, a result of physical separation, many Greek and Turkish Cypriots are unaware of the implications of their changing environment, with supporters of pro-reunification busy gathering with friends from the ‘other side’ to re-live old times. But while it is positive to see Greek and Turkish Cypriots unite in their campaigns, some are struggling for a false solution, a future biculturalism or a bi-ethnic state, whereby Greek and Turkish Cypriots will inevitably both share the process of assimilation. In other words, “continue a policy of monoculturalism in your own future component state and we’ll do likewise.” Traditionally, the uneasy final agreement between two communities involved in an ethnic conflict in which neither community has gained absolute triumph; biculturalism is already becoming outdated in modern day Canada, where it was originally introduced to appease the nationalisms of the two main communities there. Ill-equipped to multi-cultural societies, the trouble with biculturalism is that it only works if everybody is from two communities.

Biculturalism to compliment a bi-zonal solution is inappropriate for 21st century Cyprus, as it is merely a marriage between Greek and Turkish Cypriot monoculturalist politics, with everybody else who doesn’t fall into these two labels forced to assimilate or remain socially excluded. The government of Cyprus and northern authorities needs to recognise the more accurate multi-cultural environment and apply to their politics before we can claim to have grasped a solution. Without viewing involving all communities in governance and nation-building, even a reunified Cyprus will fail to achieve social reunification.

DANGER OF NATIVES VS NEW ARRIVALS
Without incorporating the true face of Cyprus into official policies and attitudes, Cypriots can and should expect Cyprus’ ten of thousands of Kurdish Cypriots, Sri Lankan Cypriots, Filipino Cypriots and many other permanent residents of island to soon build their own list of multiple ethnocentric demands. After all, have we Greek and Turkish Cypriots not set fine models for them to follow? Unless we include every community on the island in a peace process and in future nation building by embracing diversity, then frankly we should expect cultural ghettos to form leading to a segregation of the ‘natives’ and the new arrivals.

MEET THE NEW CYPRIOTS
For those still in doubt to the true face of Cyprus, I invite you to simply walk around the island’s towns, to places like Famagusta where Kurdish Cypriots as well as Arab Cypriots from Hatay (Turkey) argue over taxi fares or sip tea outside tea houses as they do in Anatolia. Or to the countryside, where Laz Cypriots conscious of the Black Sea mountains and valleys they left behind escape to cool forests to avoid the heat of the Mediterranean sun, or outside a Nicosia café, where a Senegalese man flirts uncontrollably with a native Cypriot girl, while in the adjacent park, Sri Lankan Cypriots gather to peel mango and talk in Sinhala or Tamil about recent political events in Colombo. Meet the new Cypriots!

[Malapapa]

Guess for all those who fixate on Greek Cypriot purity, wonder if a few strands of other DNA might have gotten into the mix.

Not with Yialoser. His pedigree goes all the way back to Aristotle's toilet-cleaning slave.

Who cares in 3,500 years - check the exponential change in human culture in the last 100 years, extrapolate 35 times.

... quit moaning about embargoes, assimilate with the rest of the long-suffering Cypriots in a reunited Cyprus, free from foreign rulers at last. Or go live in Turkey.

[Acikgoz]

Great piece, thanks.

[apc2010]

Exactly Acikgoz. I don't understand this fixation with the small number of remaining TCs on the Island. Not compared with the numbers of recent and present incomers from all over the EU and beyond. Legal and illegal.

Meet the new Cypriots!
Generally people regard Cyprus as an island inhabited exclusively by Greeks and Turks, but now providing a new home or sanctuary for tens of thousands of refugees, economic migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa and settlers, the former British colony is experiencing its most diverse multi-culturalism, yet in the mindset of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot politicians, it is still very much a Greco-Turkish Cypriot affair. Long pursuing their own unofficial policy of monoculturalism that has led to the assimilation of traditional minorities such as the Maronites and Latins, now even pro-reunification politicians in both the Republic of Cyprus and the North are pursuing a new goal of biculturalism, itself an offshoot of bizonality. But is this adequate as a sustainable solution for the kind of multicultural state post-1974 Cyprus has become?

EU FACTOR
Cyprus has always been home to more than two communities, but in recent years owing to the strength of the Cypriot economy and the historic accession of the island to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, the Republic of Cyprus has rapidly become a magnet for economic migrants from Asia and a safe haven for refugees from rickety democracies in the Middle-East, while many more trying to enter the Republic often end up living in transit in the North. In addition, an increased presence in recent years of entrepreneurial Russian and Pontian Greek communities, Asian guest workers as well as ethnic Muslim Kurds and Arabs from within Turkey in North, are each playing their part in transforming the character of the island. Following EU membership, there is a new ease at which people from across Europe can study and work in Cyprus, and with thousands of Europeans each year looking to purchase their very own patch of turf beneath the Mediterranean sun each year, the island is continually changing.


UNOFFICIAL POLICY OF ASSIMILATION
However, official policies and attitudes regarding the island’s own cultural diversity remain lost in a time when assimilation was the norm for small minorities in Cyprus. Regardless of how many tens of thousands of economic migrants, and refugees have settled on the island, successive Cypriot governments still pursue an unofficial policy of assimilation, claiming that even traditional communities like the Maronites, Latins and Armenians who have lived in Cyprus since the 9th century ‘belong’ to the Greek Cypriot community. Erroneously interpreting the 1959 agreement, where these communities were put in an awkward position of having to choose whether they wanted to be registered under the Greek or Turkish Cypriot electoral register, Cypriot politicians today exploit this as justification to pursue a goal of monoculturalism. Worse, some Cypriot politicians even in this day and age so obsessed with a majority rule theory are convinced that they alone can claim the name Cypriot; they fail to even come to terms with the fact that Turkish Cypriots are Cypriots, or that even communities smaller than theirs are still equal.

In the occupied North matters are by no-means better. Cypriot Gypsies are not even registered as an official minority community. Moreover, they are presumed to be Turkish Cypriots or a sub-group within that community despite their separate language and nomadic lifestyle. Yet many Turkish Cypriots rather than involve them in sharing power and in the future of the North they view them as common criminals.

But alas, times are changing and attitudes must change also, particularly now Cyprus is anchored into the EU. For those still unable to think of themselves as Cypriots, but continue to struggle for “Turkish Cypriot rights” or “Greek Cypriot rights,” they now have competition. An obstacle to their ethnocentric campaigns, the new arrivals will later become their headache. What will they do when these new growing communities of Kurdish Cypriots, Pontian Cypriots, the target of much racism today on the island will sooner or later organise and too demand their own community rights?


FLAWED GOALS OF BICULTURALISM
Perhaps, a result of physical separation, many Greek and Turkish Cypriots are unaware of the implications of their changing environment, with supporters of pro-reunification busy gathering with friends from the ‘other side’ to re-live old times. But while it is positive to see Greek and Turkish Cypriots unite in their campaigns, some are struggling for a false solution, a future biculturalism or a bi-ethnic state, whereby Greek and Turkish Cypriots will inevitably both share the process of assimilation. In other words, “continue a policy of monoculturalism in your own future component state and we’ll do likewise.” Traditionally, the uneasy final agreement between two communities involved in an ethnic conflict in which neither community has gained absolute triumph; biculturalism is already becoming outdated in modern day Canada, where it was originally introduced to appease the nationalisms of the two main communities there. Ill-equipped to multi-cultural societies, the trouble with biculturalism is that it only works if everybody is from two communities.

Biculturalism to compliment a bi-zonal solution is inappropriate for 21st century Cyprus, as it is merely a marriage between Greek and Turkish Cypriot monoculturalist politics, with everybody else who doesn’t fall into these two labels forced to assimilate or remain socially excluded. The government of Cyprus and northern authorities needs to recognise the more accurate multi-cultural environment and apply to their politics before we can claim to have grasped a solution. Without viewing involving all communities in governance and nation-building, even a reunified Cyprus will fail to achieve social reunification.

DANGER OF NATIVES VS NEW ARRIVALS
Without incorporating the true face of Cyprus into official policies and attitudes, Cypriots can and should expect Cyprus’ ten of thousands of Kurdish Cypriots, Sri Lankan Cypriots, Filipino Cypriots and many other permanent residents of island to soon build their own list of multiple ethnocentric demands. After all, have we Greek and Turkish Cypriots not set fine models for them to follow? Unless we include every community on the island in a peace process and in future nation building by embracing diversity, then frankly we should expect cultural ghettos to form leading to a segregation of the ‘natives’ and the new arrivals.

MEET THE NEW CYPRIOTS
For those still in doubt to the true face of Cyprus, I invite you to simply walk around the island’s towns, to places like Famagusta where Kurdish Cypriots as well as Arab Cypriots from Hatay (Turkey) argue over taxi fares or sip tea outside tea houses as they do in Anatolia. Or to the countryside, where Laz Cypriots conscious of the Black Sea mountains and valleys they left behind escape to cool forests to avoid the heat of the Mediterranean sun, or outside a Nicosia café, where a Senegalese man flirts uncontrollably with a native Cypriot girl, while in the adjacent park, Sri Lankan Cypriots gather to peel mango and talk in Sinhala or Tamil about recent political events in Colombo. Meet the new Cypriots!

careful when Os wind powered laptop is charged ,,you are in trouble..

[Get Real!]

So for the people that live in the "mythical" place of TRNC are embargoed. Recognized by the UN or not, the TRNC exists, the myth itself no longer exists.

That 37% of Cypriot territory is currently under an illegal Turkish occupation is not a myth, BUT… that this occupied territory has a name other than “occupied territory” IS a myth as the assumed "TRNC" label only exists in the minds of the insignificant few who invented it…

RESOLUTION 541 (1983)

Adopted by the Security Council on 18 November 1983

The Security Council,

Having heard the statement of the Foreign Minister of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus,

Concerned at the declaration by the Turkish Cypriot authorities issued on 15 November 1983 which purports to create an independent state in northern Cyprus,

Considering that this declaration is incompatible with the 1960 Treaty concerning the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee,

Considering therefore that the attempt to create a "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", is invalid, and will contribute to a worsening of the situation in Cyprus,

Reaffirming its resolutions 365(1974) and 367(1975),

Aware of the need for a solution of the Cyprus problem, based on the mission of good offices undertaken by the Secretary-General,

Affirming its continuing support for the United Nations Peace-Keeping Force in Cyprus,

Taking note of the Secretary-General's statement of 17 November 1983,

1. Deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus;

2. Considers the declaration referred to above as legally invalid and calls for its withdrawal;

3. Calls for the urgent and effective implementation of its resolutions 365(1974) and 367(1975);

4. Requests the Secretary-General to pursue his mission of good offices in order to achieve the earliest possible progress towards a just and lasting settlement in Cyprus;

5. Calls upon the parties to cooperate fully with the Secretary-General in his mission of good offices;

6. Calls upon all States to respect the sovereignty, independence,
territorial integrity and non-alignment of the Republic of Cyprus;

7. Calls upon all States not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus;

8. Calls upon all States and the two communities in Cyprus to refrain from any action which might exacerbate the situation;

9. Requests the Secretary-General to keep the Security Council fully informed.

Adopted at the 2500th meeting by 13 votes to 1 against (Pakistan) with 1 abstention (Jordan).

http://www.un.int/cyprus/scr541.htm

There you go… your mythological problems solved!

[Acikgoz]

Oh Malapapa, those words of Makarios belong in the 60s. Evolve a little and stop telling me to leave my island if I don't agree with you on how I believe a safe and successful future for Cyprus should come about.