quattro wrote:Piratis wrote:supporttheunderdog wrote:All IMHO., The threat of Enosis was part of the reason why Turkey had strategic interests in Cyprus, since they probably had concerns, possibly in the light of events up to and in July 74, probably quite reasonable, about Greek expansionism. As it was, the continued aim of Enosis , by some GC interests , including as late as 1967 big Mak Himself, in violation of the treaties, ensured divsion, and the obvious intent of the Greek led coup, representing the clearest possible violation of the treaties by Greece, finally gave Turkey the opportunity it needed. In that respect, probably at no time since 1955 (if not before) was Enosis going to be acceptable to Turkey, and all talk about Enosis should have died in 1960 at the latest, but the insistance on certain GC factions to keep Enosis alive gave Turkey the best grounds it coukld have wished for to keep Takism alive.
Big Maks' foreign policy ventures were a further factor, where his delusions of self importance as a world leader evidently pissed-off the USA i.e Kissinger big time, meaning that Kissinger was unlikley to move to support big Mak when the sh1t hit the fan, if not, as some argue, actively seek his removal. In that respect I think the evidence very clearly shows Kissingerw(and probably Callaghan, knew about the possibility of both the Coup and the Invasion and did SFA to stop them, which is disgraceful enough, but the evidence is tenous and the case somewhat speculative that Kissinger actively encouraged either.
Expansionism is when you send your troops and take over a territory against the will of the majority of the population. Expansionism was what the Ottomans did and what Turkey did in 1974.
On the other hand, since the vast majority of the population of Cyprus is Greek, being freed from foreign oppressors in the exact same way as all other Greek territories were freed, is not called "expansionism" but Liberation.
A real independence could be an acceptable alternative. But Cyprus was never given a real independence. What was forced on us with the 1960 agreements was some pseudo independence with foreign troops, foreign bases, foreign judges of the supreme court, "guarantor powers" and Ottoman style privileges granted to an 18% minority on the expense of the rest of Cypriots.
Did you really expect us to settle for such thing?
the vast majority of the population of Cyprus are CYPRIOTS,
And the majority in Crete are Cretans, the majority in Athens are Athenians, the majority in London are Londoners...
But I am talking about our ethnicity here, not about locations. And the ethnicity of the majority of Cypriots is Greek, the same as the one of Cretans and Athenians, and unlike the one of Londoners.
I don't think there is a (significantly large) place in the world today where everybody is from the same ethnic group.
