There are a number if articles which point to genetic similarities, e.g. the prevalence of strains Thalassaemia in both GC and Tc populations, which are NOT present in Greeks or Turks, where the gist of the articles is that independent development of such a similar illness in13 generations is unlikely and that suggests that where a genetic illness is common to two groups the two groups are probably related, i.e. have a common set of ancestors.
See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1012610/pdf/jmedgene00294-0036.pdf
An interesting observation of this study is that oc-thalassaemia is frequent in both Cypriot cultural communities, the Greek and the Turkish. Since only 13 generations have passed since the arrival of the original Turkish settlers, it is unlikely that the high frequencies of oc-thalassaemia in the two communities were attained independently by natural selection during such a short period of time. It is more likely that the similarity in frequency of oc-thalassaemia genes reflects the common origin of the cultural communities, at present segregated, from the people that inhabited the island 400 years ago.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1390250
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7734346
[url]ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/inco2/docs/coe_3rd_agm_annex_3_aphrodite.pdf[url]
there was the study of Hemoglobin Variants in Cyprus but on the basis of what is quoted elsewhere here I am inclined to the view that it lacks objectivity as it makes a number of contentious statements on History which may not be supported by the evidence and which suggest a subjective political rather than objective scientific agenda behind the article
In that respect see [/url]http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/what-intra-inter-population-genetic-variance-tells-us/[/url]
from the last one
Then there is Cyprus. Today the island is ethnically divided between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. But in the Bronze Age Cyprus seems to have had a civilization with a close connection with the Near East, in particular Egypt. Sometime between the Bronze Age and the Classical Era it became an outpost of Greece. But notice the near total absence of Northern European among the Cypriots. Like the people of Sardinia, but unlike Sicily, Cyprus is relatively far from the Eurasian mainland. So how did Cyprus become Greek? If the Greeks always had a noticeable Northern European component, or at least during the Bronze Age, that would indicate that the Cypriots are a case of cultural diffusion and emulation of a small Greek elite which arrived during the migrations of the Sea Peoples. Or, the Northern European element could be due to admixture with the Slavic peoples who arrived in Greece after the collapse of East Roman frontier in the 6th century. Or it could be a combination of both. In any case, the Cypriots look most like the Syrians genetically, though the Syrians seem to have a lot more trace exogenous components.
I understand other Haplogroup studies tend to militate against close genetic links with Greece or Turkey (but closer between TC and GC and possibly Levantine peoples.
