Cyprus-Forum.com

[repulsewarrior]

Syriza was amazingly vocal in Turkey’s Taksim-Gezi upheavals in the summer of 2013. Its banner in English during Gezi that read "The Sea Separates Us but the Dignity Unites" was unforgettable for Turkey’s young activists. Also, one of Gezi’s victims targeted by police bullets, Berkin Elvan, 14 — of Alevi origin — became a symbol of solidarity for Syriza. The posters carrying his image with the slogan (also in Turkish) “You are our brother, Berkin” were seen during the Greek election campaign.

Syriza is very sensitive to the Kurds’ plight in and around Turkey. A Syriza delegation visited the Turkish-Kurdish frontier settlements near Kobani in November, while the Kurds were engaged in their epic resistance against the Islamic State (IS).

It's striking that the liberation of Kobani from IS coincided with the electoral victory of Syriza. While people were celebrating Syriza’s victory in Athens, the Kurds in Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Suruc, the border town right across from Kobani, were dancing in the streets, also saluting Syriza.

Turkey’s public opinion, as a matter of fact, learned that Syriza has organic relations with two Turkish parties: HDP and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP). The latter was founded in 1996 and it is the real replica of the Syriza in Turkey. It was the coalition of a number of quasi-Marxist far-left parties of 1970s Turkey. It has been in constant contact with those who later formed Syriza. However, the ODP never succeeded to get over 0.1% of the vote in Turkey’s elections.

The HDP is a different story. The core is the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is close to the positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party. The BDP, under the instructions of the imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, decided to expand to ally mainly with the Turkish left, and transformed into the HDP to run it as a wider, Kurdish-Turkish pro-democracy leftist party. Its co-chairman, a relatively young and appealing politician, Demirtas, ran as a candidate for presidency in August and got very close to 10% of the votes, very near the national threshold in parliamentary elections. Previously, the Kurdish vote for the BDP and its predecessors was always around 6% to more than 7%.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... z3Q9yHaH3d

more on the word "brother".

[Lordo]

his honour will not be measured by what he says about people in other countries but how he behaves towards the terggish living in greece. calling them terggis rather than muslim is a start. or even better ask them how they would like to be referred. hows that for true democracy.

[Paphitis]

his honour will not be measured by what he says about people in other countries but how he behaves towards the terggish living in greece. calling them terggis rather than muslim is a start. or even better ask them how they would like to be referred. hows that for true democracy.

They are Greek and they shall be referred to as Greeks!

At the very most, they are Muslim Greeks!

[Oceanside50]

Shitheadedness, bloody mindedness, you choose. The economy was righting itself, the projected growth for 2015 was 3 per cent, the highest in the Eurozone, this much they were told, by foreigners, not locals with an axe to grind. And that is when they decided that austerity is intolerable and the new mob is going to return them to the pre crisis standards of living.

The longer I live here the less I understand them. People born in the 1970s and 80s "remember" the civil war that ended in 1949 and vote accordingly.

Seeing this, and the circus that is Turkey, I ssee why both motherlands want to obliterte Cyprus, it is embarassing to have a serious, functioning state that contrasts with their karagiozilikia.

My instincts tell me that his election is a delayed act of defiance because like you pointed out the highest Econ growth of the eu, Greeks are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

[miltiades]

A few observations that I have made that make me "like" Alexis Tsipra.

First he does not wear a dirty looking beard
Second he does not wear a stupid tie even when sworn in as the PM.
Third, he politely tells the Archbishop that his eminence is not required at the sworn in ceremony.

Fourth, he does not embrace the mythology surrounding religion.
And lastly he was named after my ...own son, Alexis
Good luck to him .

[Lordo]

his honour will not be measured by what he says about people in other countries but how he behaves towards the terggish living in greece. calling them terggis rather than muslim is a start. or even better ask them how they would like to be referred. hows that for true democracy.

They are Greek and they shall be referred to as Greeks!

At the very most, they are Muslim Greeks!

really, how many greeks do you know that are called mehmet ahmet and ecevit. by your logic you are a kangaroo or a wallaby as they are the true population of aus land

[Atheist]

A few observations that I have made that make me "like" Alexis Tsipra.

First he does not wear a dirty looking beard
Second he does not wear a stupid tie even when sworn in as the PM.
Third, he politely tells the Archbishop that his eminence is not required at the sworn in ceremony.

Fourth, he does not embrace the mythology surrounding religion.
And lastly he was named after my ...own son, Alexis
Good luck to him .

His actions prove that he doesn't mind going against grain. He definitely has balls.

Unfortunately the power of Greece is limited against the Germans. I hope he will find support from other EU countries or else he will not be able to deliver what he promised.

[B25]

In case anyone is interested.
https://elatora.wordpress.com/2014/03/0 ... %83%CE%B9/

[Lordo]

In case anyone is interested.
https://elatora.wordpress.com/2014/03/0 ... %83%CE%B9/

in what? bunch of squiggly text. when will you people join the real world and use latin letters like the rest of europe ffs.

[Nikitas]

Latin like the rest of Europe, hmmm that include the easter European Cyrillic alphabet users?

The treaty of Lausanne set the titles Moslem and Christian for the corresponding populations living in Greece and Turkey. Erdoghan refers to the Greeks of Istanbul as "our Christian subjects" never once calling them Greek. You got a problem with that, take it up with him.

Syriza's internationalist antics were OK in opposition. Now they have to deal with daily incursions by Turkish jets into Greek airspace and the virtual trampling of the innocent passage rules by warships. Their tune is likely to change pretty fast.

For the dual British - other, citizens here who oppose the participation of the Church in official business i suggest they look at the British Royal coat of arms, it says "Dieu et mon droit", God and my law. You condemn that too?