We don't "need" to be Greek. We
are Greek. And by "we" I am referring to the vast majority of the Cypriot people. Of course there are non Greek minorities in Cyprus, like there are non Greek minorities in every other Greek island or territory, or non English minorities in London.
Asking why Cypriots "need" to be Greek is like asking why Athenians or Cretans need to be Greek, or why Londoners need to be English. It is not a matter of "need" but a matter of who we are.
The question is why the foreign Imperialists don't want to allow Cypriots to be what they are, and instead they are trying to force us to be something else. First they used brute force to deny to us our right to unite our island with the rest of Greece, and since then with constant propaganda they are trying to even change our identity. Why? The answer is obvious: Because they want to keep Cyprus isolated, making it easier for themselves to continue exploiting our island.
Take the UK for example. Not only the difference between regions of England (e.g. London and Liverpool) are greater than those between Greek regions (e.g. Crete and Cyprus) but in the same country they include Scotland and north Ireland. Why does London and Liverpool "need" to be part of the same country? Why even Scotland, Wales, England and North Ireland "need" to be part of the same country? How can they have a
United Kingdom, but at the same time they are hell bend not to allow our own nation to be united using such lame excuses?
Then there’s religion. But it should be noted that the Church of Cyprus, like that of Russia, is actually autocephalous within the family of Orthodox Churches. Indeed Cyprus was the first Roman province to convert to Christianity.
The religion of most Cypriots is
Greek Orthodox.
What about language? After all, most of us speak Greek (or something akin to it). But do Americans regard themselves as English? Do Austrians want to be seen as Germans? And weren’t all Cypriots happy to speak the principal vernacular of Cyprus before division took root?
What you refer as "Americans" are not the native people of those lands but settlers mostly from Europe. As far as Austrians, they attempted at least twice to unite with Germany, and this was denied to them by outside powers who didn't want Germany to become more powerful.
How about culture? But if we’re honest there’s little to distinguish traditional ‘Greek Cypriot’ and ‘Turkish Cypriot’ culture and values. (OK, one group may eat less pork for religious reasons, but then some people ‘go the whole hog’ these days and become vegetarians!)
There is even less to distinguish the culture in Cyprus with the culture of other Greek islands and territories, particularly islands such as Crete and Rhodes.
Ethnicity? This is almost certainly wrong on genetic grounds. The frequent appeals to both communities for bone marrow donors show Cypriots share more genes with each other than with the populations of either Greece or Turkey. We look the same, for goodness sake!
First of all ethnicity is not encoded in genes, and secondly if TCs are related to us genetically that wouldn't mean that we are not Greek, but that TCs used to be Greek as well.
History? But which history do we go for? Cyprus has been inhabited for over 9,000 years and has been occupied by almost every significant power in the region and beyond. The island hasn’t been part of a Greek state for the best part of a thousand years – that’s if you count the Byzantine Empire, which at the time described itself as Roman. Perhaps it’s time to move on and be ourselves.
We are Greeks for 1000s of years and this is what we have been even when under foreign rule. Or do you think we become Turks when under Ottoman rule and then English when under British rule? Foreign rulers can change, our ethnicity does not.
Finally, we come to nationalism – a need to emphasise our supposed difference from Cypriots with a Muslim background. But doesn’t needing to be ‘Greek’ cause our Muslim compatriots to need to be ‘Turkish’? And if some of us must look to Greece, aren’t others forced to look to Turkey? But what if we were both simply ‘Cypriot’ and looked to Europe and the world?
So what you are saying here is that we should change our identity for political reasons. But this wouldn't help either because even if it was possible to change our ethnicity, there are still plenty of other differences, such as religion and language. The problem can not be solved by oppressing the differences, the problem can be solved only by accepting and respecting those differences.
