Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

Reports of my death are also greatly exaggerated

[Alexis]

As are many others.

[RAFAELLA]

An article from Politis newspaper. I tried to translate it with my poor english...anyhow, the meaning is only one.

Αν ήμουν Τουρκοκύπριος...
If I was a Turkish Cypriot...

* Θα είχα εξασφαλίσει νωρίς διαβατήριο της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας και θα ταξίδευα ελεύθερα σε όλο τον κόσμο, ως ένας γνήσιος Ευρωπαίος πολίτης.
I would make sure to get a CyR passport and I would travel around the world as genuine EU citizen.

* Θα είχα, κατ' επέκταση, πρόσβαση σε όλες τις υπηρεσίες του κράτους (νοσοκομεία, ασφάλιση κτλ).
I would have access to all the services of CyR, hospitals etc.

* Θα συνέχιζα να κατοικώ στο σπίτι που μου χάρισε η τουρκική εισβολή και θα μπορούσα να πουλήσω μέρος της περιουσίας αυτής στους ξένους που τόσο ενδιαφέρον επιδεικνύουν τελευταίως.
I would keep living in the house that I was given by the Turkish occupation and I could sell part of this property to foreigners who show interest for such buys lately.

* Θα διερευνούσα τις πιθανότητες να εξασφαλίσω και το σπίτι που είχε η οικογένειά μου και τώρα είναι στα χέρια των Ελληνοκυπρίων.
I would look for any chances of getting the house that my family owns and now it is in the hands of Gcs.

* Θα περνούσα καθημερινά στην άλλη πλευρά για δουλειά.
I would pass to “the other side” – free area every day to go to work.

* Θα επέστρεφα στα κατεχόμενα έχοντας στην τσέπη το μισθό των Ελληνοκυπρίων και περνώντας πολύ άνετα, λόγω του χαμηλότερου βιοτικού επιπέδου στα κατεχόμενα.
I would return to the occupied area having in my pocket the salary of the Gcs, the salary according to Gc standards, and I would have an easy life due to the low cost of living in the occupied area.

* Με τις νέες συμφωνίες που έκανε η κυβέρνηση με την Ε.Ε., θα μπορούσα -αν ήθελα- να φέρνω κάθε μέρα προϊόντα αξίας 135 ευρώ, χωρίς τους ελέγχους που οι αστυνομικοί έκαναν μέχρι χθες στα οδοφράγματα.
Due to the agreement of the CyR-EU, I could bring every day, if I wanted, goods worth of 135 Euros without any checks from the police.

* Θα μπορούσα να φέρνω και τα προϊόντα που παράγει η υπόλοιπη οικογένεια στις περιουσίες που πήραμε και είτε να τα διαθέτω στην ντόπια αγορά, είτε να τα εξάγω με προνομιακό πάντα καθεστώς.
I could bring goods that the rest of the family produce from the properties that we grabbed and I could either sell them to the local market or export them.

* Μπορώ να επιλέγω από πού με συμφέρει να πάρω κινητό τηλέφωνο ή να βάλω βενζίνη στο αυτοκίνητό μου. Από πού να κάνω τα ψώνια μου και γιατί.
I would choose from where I could do my shopping, buy a cheaper mobile, petrol etc

* Από το επίσημο κράτος θα είχα μόνο να παίρνω, ενώ όλες μου οι υποχρεώσεις θα αφορούσαν το ψευδοκράτος.
From the recognized CyR I would only gain whereas all my obligations would be to the puppet state.

* Θα είχα τη δυνατότητα να φέρω μερικούς έποικους από την Τουρκία οι οποίοι, με ένα κομμάτι ψωμί, θα μου έκαναν όλες τις δουλειές. Όπως κάνουν οι Ελληνοκύπριοι με τις Σριλανκέζες…
I would have the ability to bring some settlers from Tr who would do all the jobs for me just for a piece of bread, just like the Gcs do with Srilankees workers.

* Αν ήμουν Τουρκοκύπριος, ολίγον θα με ενδιέφερε αν με θεωρούν πολίτη του κράτους ή του ψευδοκράτους κι αν ηγέτης μου είναι ο Τάσσος ή ο Ταλάτ. Αυτά είναι δικά τους προβλήματα. Αυτά που αφορούν εμένα, την οικογένειά μου και την καθημερινότητά μου, θα ήταν τόσο καλά ρυθμισμένα που θα έμοιαζαν όλα με λαχείο. Τα περί "απομόνωσης" στην οποία υποτίθεται ότι βρίσκομαι, δεν θα με αφορούσαν. Τι κι αν ταξιδέψω από τη Λάρνακα ή την Τύμπου; Τι κι αν κάνω τις εισαγωγές ή εξαγωγές μου από την Αμμόχωστο ή τη Λάρνακα ή τη Λεμεσό; Δυο βήματα τόπος είμαστε κι οι αποστάσεις δεν μετρούν. Όλοι αυτοί οι όροι ανήκουν στους πολιτικούς οι οποίοι είναι οι μόνοι ίσως που βρίσκονται σε απομόνωση.
If I was a Tcs, I wouldn’t give a s*** if I am considered a citizen of the recognized state of Cyprus or the puppet state and if my leader was Tassos or Talat. These are their problems, not mine. My concerns: my family and my everyday life would have been so well organized and settled that could easily look like we’ve won a lottery ticket.
All this “isolation” stuff that I am suppose of going through, do not affect me.
What’s the difference if I travel from Larnaca or Tymbou airport?
What if I make my imports/exports from Famagusta, Larnaca or Limassol port? Distances in Cyprus are not long. All these regulations belong to the politicians who seem to be they are the only ones in isolation.

* Αν ήμουν λοιπόν Τουρκοκύπριος, δεν θα είχα κανένα πρόβλημα όλη αυτή η κατάσταση να συνεχιστεί για όλη μου τη ζωή. Και θα ήμουν ευγνώμων σε όλους αυτούς που αφήνουν το χρόνο να προχωρά χωρίς να αμφισβητούν το δικό μου, προσωπικό, "προνομιακό καθεστώς"...
Well, If I was a Tcs I wouldn’t have any problem if I was under this situation for the rest of my life. I would be grateful to those who let the years go by without doubting my own “privileged regime”…

ΠΟΛΙΤΗΣ: 05/02/2005 Σελ.: 6
Κωδ. άρθρου: 522298

[garbitsch]

I am aghast and discusted. We all now Politis is the voice of Enosis.

[Alexios]

I am aghast and discusted. We all now Politis is the voice of Enosis.

I am dissappointed about your view of Politis, as i thought you are one of the better informed members of the forum.Politis is one of the 2 dailies in the south that openly sided with the YES campaign and a paper which daily criticizes the policies of the present government on all levels.Saying that Politis supports ENOSIS is like saying that Volcan supports unification!!
Ofcourse you dont have the chance to read the paper as it not published in english but i would think the paper,s stance would be well known to T/Cs so far.Several of the paper,s leading journalists including Chief Aditor Andreas Paraschos have even been called traitors!!!
From what i remember the article published was a letter to the newspaper and not an editorial written by the paper itself.The paper is simply democratic enough to publish the views of anybody

[BirKibrisli]

I can only hope that Politis newspaper like Volkan gazetesi is indeed a fringe outlet and this article was not read by many GCs.
It is openly trying to incite resentment and bitterness amongst the GCs towards TCs.While it is not possible to deny that a minority of TCs might think or act like that,most sensible observers of the Cyprus conflict would agree that overall all Cypriots have lost an awful lot because of this senseless conflict.I wonder if I need to remind people that tens of thousands of TCs left Cyprus between 1964 and 1974,and those who were from the South left everything behind,like the GCs who left the North after 1974.It is sad that the mentality who brought us to where we are today still lives in both sides.This reminds me of an unpleasant experience I once had while holidaying in Ankara. I went to an open fruit and vegetable market one day (we call it a Pazar,you probably have something similar in Greek) and as everyone does there I wanted to hire a porter to help me cart things home which was a considerable walk away.These porters are usually young boys(aged 12 to 16) or old men over 65 years.It was out of the question for me to hire an old man,and as I was eyeing the young ones to see which one looked strong enough,two of them started to fight each other for my custom.They were kicking and punching each other and were really trying to hurt each other.I was deeply disturbed by the whole thing so I stepped in and stopped the fight and hired them both.On our way home I gave them a lecture in politics and class struggle.I told them they were both the victims of the system,and instead of fighting each other they should unite and work together to change the system which forced them to such desperate measures to make a living.I doubt they understood anything I told them,and probably thought I was a sucker employing two people to do the job of one.

[Alexios]

Dear Birkibrisli

Fortunately Politis is not a fringe paper.It is the second selling paper in the south after Fileleftheros.But being truly democratic it does not censor letters unless they are of an onbsene lunguage.If it did it would go against its own words of criticism to other papers for their one sided stance on the Cyprus problem.I feel very strongly about the paper so i beg you to just take my word for it.Take away Politis and you take away propably the loudest reapprochment voice in Cyprus.

[Nicko]

Re alexios, its a good paper!!

[garbitsch]

I am aghast and discusted. We all now Politis is the voice of Enosis.

I am dissappointed about your view of Politis, as i thought you are one of the better informed members of the forum.Politis is one of the 2 dailies in the south that openly sided with the YES campaign and a paper which daily criticizes the policies of the present government on all levels.Saying that Politis supports ENOSIS is like saying that Volcan supports unification!!
Ofcourse you dont have the chance to read the paper as it not published in english but i would think the paper,s stance would be well known to T/Cs so far.Several of the paper,s leading journalists including Chief Aditor Andreas Paraschos have even been called traitors!!!
From what i remember the article published was a letter to the newspaper and not an editorial written by the paper itself.The paper is simply democratic enough to publish the views of anybody

I might mix up the newspapers, because as you said we never have a chance to read them. But still this post was just written to insult Turkish Cypriots imo.

[BirKibrisli]

Dear Birkibrisli

Fortunately Politis is not a fringe paper.It is the second selling paper in the south after Fileleftheros.But being truly democratic it does not censor letters unless they are of an onbsene lunguage.If it did it would go against its own words of criticism to other papers for their one sided stance on the Cyprus problem.I feel very strongly about the paper so i beg you to just take my word for it.Take away Politis and you take away propably the loudest reapprochment voice in Cyprus.

Hello Dear Alexios,
I will happily take your word for what Politis stand for.
I was not advocating censorship by the way.It is becoming more and more obvious to me how much work we have to do to foster real understanding and respect for each other.Without understanding and respect there can be no trust,the essential element if we are ever to become one nation.But that is the price for democracy and freedom of speech, and we cannot do without those as you so rightly point out.