Cyprus-Forum.com

[mehmet]

the recent discussion about bulgarians and turks inspire me to look up and make this contribution as food for thought. This is from a book title'The Balkans' by Misha Glenny. In this section he was quoting from a writer of that time by the name of HN Brailsford.

'I was talking to a wealthy peasant who cme from a neighbouring village to Monastir market. He spoke Greek well but hardly like a native. 'Is your village Greek?' I asked him, 'or Bulgarian?' 'Well,' he replied, 'it is Bulgarian now, but four years ago it was Greek.' The answer seemed to him entirely natural and commonplace. 'How,' I asked in some bewilderment, 'did that miracle come about?' 'Why,' said he, 'we are all poor men, but we want to have our own school and a priest that will look after us properly. We used to have a Greek teacher. We paid him 5 pounds a year and his bread, while the Greek consul paid him another 5 pounds; but we had no priest of our own. We shared a priest with several other villages, but he was very unpunctual and remiss. We sent to the Greek Bishop to complain, but he refused to do anything for us. The Bulgarians heard of this and they came and made us an offer. They saidthey would give us a priest who would live in the village and a teacher to whom we need pay nothing. Well sirs, ours is a poorvillage, and so of course we became Bulgarians'

Add to that the history of Greek Muslims, the ethnic mix in the Greek/Albanian regions, the Macedonian Greek/ Slavic mix. Then remember that the most loyal soldiers to the Sultans were the Janissieries and originally Christians from Europe and that the Harem was populated by Caucasian women and it makes discussions about ethnicity and nationality and the disputes that have arisen from it very complex. In Cyprus in Lourouina and maybe some other villages there are the Muslim villages which were originally Greek speaking. I read somewhere that some of the most nationalistic Turkish Cypriots were from these villages.

How in such circumstances can someone be sure of their identity?

[Bananiot]

Interesting, very interesting, yet the Middle East and the Balkans are a genes melting pot as eveyone knows.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend on something we heard very often this summer from GC tv stations. Our athletes made us "nationally proud" was a daily theme.

The term "nation" was used as though we all draw our greek genes from the same pool and when one greek wins a medal this reflects on the superiority of the race since the winner and every greek personally share the same genes. This is the worst type of nationalism and such points of view have no historical background and have led to many wars, genocides and holocausts. Science has given answers to the above theories. Nations were created only about 250 years ago and they have an expiry date.

[Piratis]

Bananiot, I am sure the Turks are proud for their Olympic metals, even if most of todays Turks have very little to do genetic wise with the original Turks that came from Asia and looked like Mongols and not Caucasians.

We are Greeks, because like other Greeks we share the same language, culture and religion and there is nothing wrong with that.

In the USA they used to call people with dark skin as "Blacks" or "Negros". Now they call them "African Americans". There is nothing wrong to be proud of your roots, but that doesn't mean you can not be proud of your country at the same time.

This is why we are first and above all Cypriots. If our roots (cultural ones, not genetic) differ, thats ok and it is perfectly normal. This is not just a Cyprus phenomenon.

The point of what Mahmet said is that deep down we are all just humans, and genetically I can be more similar to Insan than Mehmet is. Most probably all GCs have some (or more) Turkish blood and vice versa.
If the occupation of Cyprus was not there I couldn't care less if somebody is TC or GC, the way now I don't care if somebody is Armenian or Maronite. The only main difference is language, and I don't see why two or more languages can not exist in the same place. The same goes for religion. Me being an Atheist/Agnostic I don't even belong to the "Greek Orthodox majority" and I have no problem with that.

Unfortunately some people in here keep emphasizing this GC/TC thing saying that GC want to dominate or swallow TCs and nonsense like that.

[michalis5354]

Our athletes made us "nationally proud" was a daily theme.

Which athletes ? Our athletes did not win even a single metal!

They do nothing to unite our homeland and very comfortable fool the people that they are really sincere in searching for a JUST VIABLE SOLUTION! This is a HUGE HYPOCRICY

[Chrisswirl]

In Anatolia at the beginning of the centuary the Christian community mainly called themselves Christian Ottomans, not Greeks. When they were sent to Greece the Greeks called them Turks.

[Piratis]

They didn't call themselves. Thats how the Ottomans named them.

[PEACE]

This is why we are first and above all Cypriots.

Who is the first and above all Cypriots?

Can you please explain your sentence to me,Mr. Piratis?

[iskismet]

He is saying that you are all Cypriots first and that being Greeks & Turks comes second.

Peace will be on Cyprus when that is truly the case.

[PEACE]

He is saying that you are all Cypriots first and that being Greeks & Turks comes second.

Peace will be on Cyprus when that is truly the case.

Aaa, i see! Yes,i think so.Being Greek or Turkish comes second of course.