Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

I think the most important contribution of Don here is what he said about a conscript army standing no chance at all in front of a well trained and armed professional army. Of course we stand to be accused of derailing the subject which is one of a bunch of villagers, some of the brave type some of the murderous type, led by a simpleton army spare over and a "clever" clergy man, who defeated the British Empire in 1955-1959. Now, the people who believe these fairy tales are the most patriotic forumers, who claim that they have the magic potion to free Cyprus. This type of stupid mentality has brought Cyprus to its knees, but these people never learn, until we lose the whole of the island.

[Don Kelley]

But, which are the reasons due to which the 40.000 elite, battle hardened, well trained, very much disciplined and very well equipped British Troops failed to subdue the 250 EOKA fighters?
Many explanations and reasons have been given already by historians. I challenge and invite the forum members to either dispute the British defeat or to express their opinion for it. From my part, I quote below what Great George Grivas himself said about this issue in his memoirs:

“I doubt whether there was a single boy above the age of twelve who did not take part in some mission during the Cyprus campaign. I know no other example in history where the whole of a country's youth, boys and girls, has taken so active and effective a part in the struggle for their country's freedom. Even the little boys of the primary schools played their part. Apart from the demonstrations in which they were at the side of their seniors, they carried on a peculiar struggle of their own, the 'Battle of the Flags', as they called it.

Living in a fantasy world again? So now we know that during the Eoka campaign which according to Grivarse was executed with all those boys aged above 12 years there were only 250 of them in the whole organisation, so can you tell us just how many boys over 12 there were in Cyprus during the uprising if they were all amongst the 250 as has been claimed?

[Don Kelley]

I think the most important contribution of Don here is what he said about a conscript army standing no chance at all in front of a well trained and armed professional army. Of course we stand to be accused of derailing the subject which is one of a bunch of villagers, some of the brave type some of the murderous type, led by a simpleton army spare over and a "clever" clergy man, who defeated the British Empire in 1955-1959. Now, the people who believe these fairy tales are the most patriotic forumers, who claim that they have the magic potion to free Cyprus. This type of stupid mentality has brought Cyprus to its knees, but these people never learn, until we lose the whole of the island.

Thank you for that sensible reply, I genuinely love Cyprus and would love to retire there.
The British governmenyt gave up the fight to retain the British Empire not only in Cyprus but all over the world.
The Empire days had gone, Britain had just fought two wars WWII & Korea and was near bankrupt and very soon to end conscription.
Young British people would no longer tolerate being conscripted to go and fight in the far corners of the world to support an outdated colonial system purely for the benefit of rich people.
The British army of today is completely made up of proffessional regular soldiers who volunteered the same with the RAF and RN.
The Britsh were ready and able to stop the Turkish advance in its tracks but had no UN mandate.

[Don Kelley]

the income that is gained by the sba is futile in comparison to the income that would be gained if the areas of the sba would be given back to the ROC, WE are talking about roughly 3% of the land area of cyprus with beach front property.

And we all know who'd get in first with their greedy hands 'Leptos' and the likes.

[GreekIslandGirl]

... WHY WAS the mighty British Empire DEFEATED BY GRIVAS (the GREEK Cypriot hero) and EOKA.

Because they listened to Sir Winston Churchill.

"It is only natural that the Cypriot peoble who are of Greek descent, should regard their incorporation into their mother country as an ideal to be earnestly, devoutedly and fervently cherished."

They aren't Greek descent they are Arabs who were owned by the Egyptians.
Now how bad can that be to be owned by the Egyptians?

So Don knows better than Britain's foremost National Hero, Churchill. Why don't you fill us in on Cyprus' Egyptian connections? (Since you failed to come up with any evidence for all the other trash you've been spilling so far.)

[Don Kelley]

[quote="GreekIslandGirl"It is only natural that the Cypriot peoble who are of Greek descent, should regard their incorporation into their mother country as an ideal to be earnestly, devoutedly and fervently cherished."[/quote]
They aren't Greek descent they are Arabs who were owned by the Egyptians.
Now how bad can that be to be owned by the Egyptians?[/quote]

So Don knows better than Britain's foremost National Hero, Churchill. Why don't you fill us in on Cyprus' Egyptian connections? (Since you failed to come up with any evidence for all the other trash you've been spilling so far.)[/quote]

I know that it is hard to swallow the truth when you've been brought up on fairy tails, but it would be interesting to see how far back your actual experience of life in Cyprus goes.
If you'd lived in Limassol or the immediate areas you'd know full well how much the Cypriots in those places benefitted in the 14 years following independence.
Also where were these Eoka heroes who defeated the highly trained and skilled British forces when the Turkish conscripts invaded?
Just tell us how far back your actual and personal experience does.

[kurupetos]

I think the most important contribution of Don here is what he said about a conscript army standing no chance at all in front of a well trained and armed professional army. Of course we stand to be accused of derailing the subject which is one of a bunch of villagers, some of the brave type some of the murderous type, led by a simpleton army spare over and a "clever" clergy man, who defeated the British Empire in 1955-1959. Now, the people who believe these fairy tales are the most patriotic forumers, who claim that they have the magic potion to free Cyprus. This type of stupid mentality has brought Cyprus to its knees, but these people never learn, until we lose the whole of the island.

The Cypriots wouldn't have stand the thinnest chance to survive if they were like Budaniot. Go f*ck yourself!

[wyoming cowboy]

Poor arguments cowboy, extremely poor. Just to suggest that the Brits would send settlers to Cyprus shows how much you understand these matters. Britain has been a democracy for tens of centuries and its people cannot be ordered around by any government. Really cowboy! You basically understood nothing of what I wrote and conveniently did not see that the great ethnarch, Papadopoulos himself, also admitted to the same exactly things as Lanitis and Klerides. The part about prophets after Christ is more than stupid as these and many other people warned of the consequences of the armed struggle before and immediately after it started.

Kimon keeps mumbling about EOKA defeating Britain militarily. By 1959 EOKA was as good as dead. In fact, one of the issues that the Brits used to squeeze the arm of Makarios into eventually accepting the proposed deal, was that they knew exactly where Grivas was hiding and had Makarios not signed, they would pick him up the next day. Even Constantine Karamanlis used the same argument to convince Makarios to sign. Otherwise, there would be no point in Makarios agreeing to an end of the armed struggle when the objectives of the struggle were not met and on top the TC's were made equal partners in an independent country with veto rights. Think hard Kimon, why did he call it a day in 1959 and not thrown the proposals into the dustbin in Lancaster House, if EOKA was not defeated and could still bring about enosis through the armed struggle?

Massive gathering that took place in Limassol, then Nicosia Commercial Club. The people marched to Government House to demonstrate their unwavering resolve for union of Cyprus with Greece. Stoning of Government House and the torching of four cars of the occupation forces, as well as of the wooden structure of Government House. The intervention of the police to disperse the crowd resulted in a death and wounding of demonstrators. Similar protests took place in other towns and many Cypriot villages. The English eventually managed to impose order with the help of the army, having left dead and many injured people behind.

Arrests, confinements, deportations, imprisonments and monetary fines followed. Bishops plus Makarios among the exiled.

Uprising described as "the ripe expression of long-seething disappointment and the manifestation of overflowing national feelings."

1931-1940 - Cypriot people endured dictatorship, as their basic constitutional freedoms were abolished and suppressive measures taken against Greek education on the island.


Allow me to clarify myself. When basic human rights are taken away from people , as is described by the red quote i used from Gig's post. People will rebel and fight against their oppressors...even though the odds are against them. We as Greek cypriots know and knew, that we will never have the absolute power to eradicate our oppressors. We know there are geopolitical stakes, to granting our requests for freedom. After Eoka was formed in 1955, and the first salvos were fired on April 1st, our brothers living in Constantinople, were attacked by the Turks and lots of them expelled. Wanting to form Eoka and fight for our freedom, was not taken on a whim. It was seen as life or death. Either the Greek cyps continue to live under the yoke of the oppressive British and slowly lose all their self respect, dignity and identity as a people or they fight. They choose to fight regardless of the insurmountable odds stacked agaisnt them, they had no other choice. Clerides and Lanitis can say what ever they want, then and now it doesnt change the facts of the situation at the time. It seems stupid to someone like you Bananiot, and other neo Cypriots, that Eoka would launch a fight against the British Empire and its allies, and think they could achieve results, but Eoka and the Greek cypriots did fight, which should show you the desperation that Greek Cypriots were under. The British didnt give two toots about the Greek Cypriots, look at how demeaningand racist they were to the Greek cypriots and you write that they have democratic values. If they did have democratic values there would not be a Cyprus problem today.

To requote myself......."Meta Xpistov prophitis gaedaros esti'.........The "gaedaros prophits" refers to you,Bananiot! You must be a gaedaros prophitis to come back 60 years later and criticize EOKA and its purpose.

[kimon07]

People like Don and Bananiot can avoid making fools of themselves by simply visiting the links I always post to support my arguments.

Example:

"The military conflict ended in stalemate, but this was really a victory for EOKA – because a few hundred guerrillas, with popular support, had remained undefeated while facing British troops who numbered over 40,000 at the height of the conflict."

http://www.troopsoutmovement.com/oliversarmychap5.htm

There are many more above. Enjoy their content and be educated or insist to ridicule yourselves. The choice is yours.

And let me remind you once again. The topic is not about what happened in 1963 or 1974, but about 1955-1959, when 250 GREEK Cypriot guerrillas ridiculed the British Empire. We are therefore examining the causes of this unprecedented military BRITISH DEFEAT.

[kimon07]

Here are some of the reasons why the the mighty Empire was defeated by a handful of "WOGS".


“As the conflict continued, British troops found themselves in an increasingly hostile environment. Many members of the security forces were killed or injured, often in street ambushes. Charles Foley describes how the soldiers were isolated from the Cypriot people and crowded together in bad living conditions: ‘Most of the troops were living under canvas, plagued by flies and dust. When it rained, the tents were often found to leak; bedding was soaked, the electricity system broke down, the fuel for the stove gave out, and the ground became a swamp. The men were confined to barracks more or less permanently; if they were allowed out they had to move in groups of four, armed and in uniform, and they could visit only the handful of bars officially declared “in bounds”. This frustration and discomfort sought an outlet. As the troops’ frustrations built up, soldiers were fed on hate propaganda and the security chiefs excused anything that smacked of reprisals on the grounds of “intolerable provocation” ...’ Many of these young soldiers became angry and aggressive and ‘incidents’ started to occur:
A typical incident occurred at Kathykas, one of three villages which had been searched by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders after one of their men had been killed and another wounded in an ambush. The authorities spoke of ‘slight injuries’ and the Greek mayor of men beaten and bayoneted and a nineteen-year-old wife raped. One Cypriot had been shot dead after stabbing two soldiers who burst into his home in the darkness. A village priest was said to have had his beard set on fire and his head rubbed with mud.[34]”

and

“In July 1958 the Prime Minster, Harold Macmillan, who had succeed Sir Anthony Eden as the Tory leader after the Suez debacle, visited Cyprus. His trip included several meetings with the troops:
One of the Premier’s calls was to Lyssi village, which lay under a ten-day curfew, but he spoke to no one there except soldiers and police, departing with ten copies of The Grenadier, a Guards magazine for Guards. Breaking into verse at one point, the cyclostyled magazine declared:
Sergeant Clerk is the Acorn’s clerk
But is prone to get in rages.
If the Wogs give any trouble
He puts them into cages.
The cages were the barbed-wire pens where men waited their turn for questioning - another name for them was ‘play-pens’; the Wogs, of course, were the Cypriots. The visitor wrote across a souvenir copy: ‘With best wishes from an old Grenadier - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister’.[36]”
http://www.troopsoutmovement.com/oliversarmychap5.htm