Cyprus-Forum.com

[miltiades]

We need to erase the Turkish language from Cyprus - like the EU has done.

Why not erase the English, Russian and other languages spoken in Cyprus ?
Then we can erase the Cypriot language and establish the Kalamaristica our official lingo !!

[GreekIslandGirl]

We need to erase the Turkish language from Cyprus - like the EU has done.

Why not erase the English, Russian and other languages spoken in Cyprus ?
Then we can erase the Cypriot language and establish the Kalamaristica our official lingo !!

This might be way above your cognitive ability to appreciate, Milty, but it's about the Greek Cypriots having a voice - being allowed to draw up their own constitution and reforms within the framework of equality and individual human rights.

For example, this is what happens under unfair conditions of power distribution:

Phillip Zimbardo is famous for the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, in which 24 students were asked to play the roles of 'guards' and 'prisoners' in a mock prison at Standford University. Intended to last for two weeks, the experiment was abandoned after six days, after the previously normal 'guards' became extremely sadistic and the 'prisoners' became submissive and depressed.

The experiment is believed to demonstrate the extreme impressionability and obedience of people when they are presented with a supporting ideology and power.

The TCs had too much power over us under the 1960 Imperialist-British-drawn constitution and that power can nowadays only be maintained by 40,000 Turkish troops continuing to impose it by military means. Such disproportionate TC-power over us has no social acceptability these (more civilised) days and cannot be sustained under normal conditions.

Given so much power over us, the TCs could only become more sadistic ...

[Sotos]

Turkish being an official language in Cyprus is not a problem. There are a lot of real problems in Cyprus created by Turkey and the UK and this is not one of them. Having their language as official doesn't give them any unfair power over us. For reasonable modifications to the British-drawn constitution look at Makarios 13 points in 1963. Those were some good suggestions.

[Paphitis]

We need to erase the Turkish language from Cyprus - like the EU has done.

Why not erase the English, Russian and other languages spoken in Cyprus ?
Then we can erase the Cypriot language and establish the Kalamaristica our official lingo !!

Kalamaristica is actually a far nicer language than Chibreika!

[GreekIslandGirl]

Turkish being an official language in Cyprus is not a problem. There are a lot of real problems in Cyprus created by Turkey and the UK and this is not one of them. Having their language as official doesn't give them any unfair power over us. For reasonable modifications to the British-drawn constitution look at Makarios 13 points in 1963. Those were some good suggestions.

That would be fine if it made sense - if we voted and chose such a thing. But, for 15% of the population do we really need that extra level of bureaucracy to have further translations and 3 languages on every billboard, sign and document? That's dystopian in my view -fine to have English as well as Greek as English is the accepted lingua franca.

Maybe language does not appear as important as other matters, or should be considered a priority over the other wrongs in the Constitution, but language has a particularly subversive element and the British know that better than anyone. They have a Council specifically set up to impose/spread English and all the connotations that go with it. The English were infamous for banning languages (e.g. Welsh) to control. Canada suffered wars to impose English over French. Language is a powerful political tool and that's why the English forced Turkish upon us - for no other reason than to subvert the Greeks.

If the TCs are fair-minded, they would accept this. Greek, since that is in the history of Cyprus and its majority native culture, and English as the modern universal language. Enough!

[Sotos]

English is not an official language in Cyprus. And TCs are 18%... so I think it is significant enough to justify some extra bureaucracy.

[GreekIslandGirl]

English is not an official language in Cyprus. And TCs are 18%... so I think it is significant enough to justify some extra bureaucracy.

English is not an official language in many places where it - still - serves a purpose as a bridge language - its main global usage. As such, and due to our open-door to tourism, it justifies itself. English is a bridge language; Turkish is not!

Although information can be provided in, for example, Turkish or Russian for the many minorities, where Britain has continued to carry out this multi-lingual service for its own minorities it is now finding this strategy has backfired (result is ghettoisation and failure to integrate) and there are moves to enforce the use of English only on anyone residing in the UK (that doesn't mean of course that other languages are not taught or used as required by individuals).

[Cap]

We need to erase the Turkish language from Cyprus - like the EU has done.

Why not erase the English, Russian and other languages spoken in Cyprus ?
Then we can erase the Cypriot language and establish the Kalamaristica our official lingo !!

Kalamaristica is actually a far nicer language than Chibreika!

I beg to differ!

[shmuel16]

From the late 1950

[Tim Drayton]

You will note that the website of The European Commission Representation in Cyprus is in three languages:

English: http://ec.europa.eu/cyprus/index_en.htm

Greek: http://ec.europa.eu/cyprus/index_el.htm

Turkish: http://ec.europa.eu/cyprus/index_tr.htm