Cyprus-Forum.com

[shalay]

hi all,
i am ethnically a Turkish-Cypriot but have lived in Australia my whole life( 19 years) and consider myself Australian.
What I don't understand is why there is so much hatred going round in Cyprus?
I realise there is a history of pain and missing persons and anger on both sides but there is no reason to blame people today for them. call me optimistic and naive but thats what i believe.
My family came from a village called Guzelyurt (not sure of its Greek name) and it was a mixed village (this was pre-1974, they emigrated to Aus in 1955) but i've heard so many stories of everyone getting on great, my Grandad's best friend was greek and my grandad was best man at his wedding. fastforward to the year 1974 and my Grandma and Aunt were forced to dig their own graves my Greek Cypriot military before being rescued by the Red Cross, now obviously thats a traumatising experience but never have they expressed any hatred towards Greek Cypriots. I, if i were to blame anyone, it would be the person who gave the orders. i dont see any point in saying 'i hate your people because of what happened to my family' because its ridiculous to hold an entire race accountable for the actions of a few individuals. I've met atleast 5 Greek Cypriot Australians and never have we expressed any animosity towards each other. They say 'i'm from cyprus' and i say 'oh wow me too' and we ask whether each has ever visited the country and then the conversation moves on.
I mean I understand that there is alot of hatred towards the politicians etc but why must that generalise to the general populations of each side?
When people ask what ethnicity I am, i say Cypriot and leave it at that.
I remember visiting a TC family friend in London and she was telling me one of her male TC friends in london has a best friend who's GC and they are both fluent in Turkish and Greek and they speak both languages interchangeably to each other. if they can do it, why is it so hard for everyone else?
Perhaps I find it difficult to understand as Australia is a multicultural nation and those of Greek, Turkish, Cypriot, Indian, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese etc etc descent coexist happily and without a thought as to our ethnic differences.
I respect that the English language has become an intermediary language and has in a way broken down barriers, but why the continued hatred for things that happened long ago?

[Piratis]

why the continued hatred for things that happened long ago?

I don't know if the TCs hate the GCs for things that happened long ago. What I know is that the GCs are forgiving people and do not hate others for things that happened in the past. This is why we managed to have 80 years of peaceful coexistence right after the end of Ottoman/Turkish rule, even though the Greek Cypriots suffered under Turkish rule.

But the illegal occupation of Cyprus by Turkey (with the support of the majority of TCs) is not something that happened in the past, but something that is happening as we speak. Turkey at this very moment keeps 1/3rd of Cyprus under military occupation, violating the human and property rights of 100s of thousands of Cypriots, destroying our cultural heritage, selling off our properties to foreigners, changing the names of our villages, and keeps brining thousands of Settlers in Cyprus in her effort to Turkify the north part of our island. All these things are happening now.

Cyprus is also a multicultural country. Cyprus is not just TCs and GCs, but also Armenians, Maronites, Latins and many others that came to Cyprus in recent years and became citizens of our country. All citizens of Cyprus can live peacefully with each other as equal Cypriot citizens and democratically, one person one vote, rule their own island (like in Australia).

The exception to this is the TCs. The TCs do not accept to be equal citizens like all the rest. They want privileges and disproportionally large powers even when this comes at the expense of the basic human and democratic rights of the rest of the Cypriot people. They even demand that the ethnic cleansing performed against the majority of the Cypriot people in 1974 should be legalized, so they can have some "Turkish State" on land stolen from us. They illegally keep 1/3rd of Cyprus as hostage, and they are trying to blackmail the rest of the Cypriot to accept some "solution" that would create in Cyprus some apartheid kind of system, which would forcefully segregate the population and discriminate people based on their ethnicity.

Not all TCs are like that of course. Some members here (e.g. Kikapu) do not support the racist demands of the Turkish/TC leaderships. But unfortunately the majority of TCs support such things (otherwise different kind of leaderships would be elected) and those kind of people are justifiably hated by the rest of the Cypriot population.

I hope you are not like the majority of TCs, and you support for Cyprus what you have in Australia. A multicultural country where every citizen is equal, without forced segregation and racist discriminations - which were the things that created the hate to begin with.

A respond from a typical TC (one who belongs in the majority I talked earlier) would be that we can't have in Cyprus what they have in Australia and every other normal democratic country, because Greek Cypriots are "evil" (they might not use that word, but that would be the meaning). In order to support their "evil GC" theory they will give some selectively chosen events in history from half a century ago, and will fully ignore their own wrong doings. Most importantly they will ignore the fact that they never allowed Cyprus to be a normal democratic country, since they have always demanded segregation and racist discriminations.

Why the majority of TCs are like that? No, it is not because they are "evil". It is because Turkey promises to them all those privileges, land gains and super powers on the expense of the majority, and unfortunately greed is part of the human nature and if you have the possibility to take more than your fare share, you will (most people at least).

Unfortunately TCs do not realize that Turkey only cares for her own geo-strategic interests, and that by having such outrageous demands in the end they get much less than what they would if they accepted to be equal Cypriot citizens.

[Cap]

Ask runaway

[kentish]

why the continued hatred for things that happened long ago?

I don't know if the TCs hate the GCs for things that happened long ago. What I know is that the GCs are forgiving people and do not hate others for things that happened in the past. This is why we managed to have 80 years of peaceful coexistence right after the end of Ottoman/Turkish rule, even though the Greek Cypriots suffered under Turkish rule.

But the illegal occupation of Cyprus by Turkey (with the support of the majority of TCs) is not something that happened in the past, but something that is happening as we speak. Turkey at this very moment keeps 1/3rd of Cyprus under military occupation, violating the human and property rights of 100s of thousands of Cypriots, destroying our cultural heritage, selling off our properties to foreigners, changing the names of our villages, and keeps brining thousands of Settlers in Cyprus in her effort to Turkify the north part of our island. All these things are happening now.

Cyprus is also a multicultural country. Cyprus is not just TCs and GCs, but also Armenians, Maronites, Latins and many others that came to Cyprus in recent years and became citizens of our country. All citizens of Cyprus can live peacefully with each other as equal Cypriot citizens and democratically, one person one vote, rule their own island (like in Australia).

The exception to this is the TCs. The TCs do not accept to be equal citizens like all the rest. They want privileges and disproportionally large powers even when this comes at the expense of the basic human and democratic rights of the rest of the Cypriot people. They even demand that the ethnic cleansing performed against the majority of the Cypriot people in 1974 should be legalized, so they can have some "Turkish State" on land stolen from us. They illegally keep 1/3rd of Cyprus as hostage, and they are trying to blackmail the rest of the Cypriot to accept some "solution" that would create in Cyprus some apartheid kind of system, which would forcefully segregate the population and discriminate people based on their ethnicity.

Not all TCs are like that of course. Some members here (e.g. Kikapu) do not support the racist demands of the Turkish/TC leaderships. But unfortunately the majority of TCs support such things (otherwise different kind of leaderships would be elected) and those kind of people are justifiably hated by the rest of the Cypriot population.

I hope you are not like the majority of TCs, and you support for Cyprus what you have in Australia. A multicultural country where every citizen is equal, without forced segregation and racist discriminations - which were the things that created the hate to begin with.

A respond from a typical TC (one who belongs in the majority I talked earlier) would be that we can't have in Cyprus what they have in Australia and every other normal democratic country, because Greek Cypriots are "evil" (they might not use that word, but that would be the meaning). In order to support their "evil GC" theory they will give some selectively chosen events in history from half a century ago, and will fully ignore their own wrong doings. Most importantly they will ignore the fact that they never allowed Cyprus to be a normal democratic country, since they have always demanded segregation and racist discriminations.

Why the majority of TCs are like that? No, it is not because they are "evil". It is because Turkey promises to them all those privileges, land gains and super powers on the expense of the majority, and unfortunately greed is part of the human nature and if you have the possibility to take more than your fare share, you will (most people at least).

Unfortunately TCs do not realize that Turkey only cares for her own geo-strategic interests, and that by having such outrageous demands in the end they get much less than what they would if they accepted to be equal Cypriot citizens.

stupid boy

[B25]

Welcome Shalay,

you can answer your own question by coming to Cyprus and experience the pain of the 200,000 evicted GCs from their homes and held away at gun point. You can answer it by looking at the fenced off Varosha keeping its owners from returning and letting it rot. You can answer it, by looking at the gigantic Turkish flag on the mountain side (and illuminated at night) to continually remind us of the massacres and rapes and murders your fellow turks inflicted upon the GC people.
You can answer it by looking at our churches and cemetarys, desicrated and now used as barns and left the ruin, or answer it by all the stolen church artifacts sold on the black market, you can answer it by a hundred other things if you just came here to see.

At 19, living is aussi land all your life, you need to read a bit more, before coming here and asking such a provocative question.

All the same, if you were in our shoes, how would you feel??

[runaway]

Ask runaway

I hate you south cypriot

[miltiades]

Ask runaway

I hate you south cypriot

Shut up foreigner !!!

[Get Real!]

What I don't understand is why there is so much hatred going round in Cyprus?

Stupid question... haven’t you heard or read about the Turkish military illegally occupying 37% of Cypriot territory, and the “Turkish Cypriots” harboring and abetting them?

[runaway]

Ask runaway

I hate you south cypriot

Shut up foreigner !!!

I hate you too foreigner gavur rum.

[Cap]

Ask runaway

I hate you south cypriot

But of course you do. Hating is part and parcel of your ethnicity. Turkish hate... enjoy.