Sotos wrote:I read some articles that Greek and Turkish Cypriots have similar DNA. I also heard that Turkish Cypriots were Greek Cypriots that became Muslims when Cyprus was part of the Ottoman empire. Are Turkish Cypriots really Turkish?
I don't think there is anything strange about some Turkish Cypriots actually being Greek Cypriots who converted to Islam. If members of any kind of society trace their origins, they will find a large number of people originating somewhere else.
What we call Greek or Turkish is not a race. To be Greek or Turkish, you don't need to be from a specific race, from a specific religion or even speak the Greek and Turkish languages. There are examples for each of these cases. What we say Greek or Turkish or whatever is how people identify themselves and weather or not their identification is accepted by the rest.
Please also don't forget that history does not start and end with Greeks and Turks. There are thousand years of history in Anatolia and Cyprus even before greeks. And there are 10s of thousands of years of human (homo sapiens) existence in the region. All this time people moved around and mixed. There were large civilization even before Greeks and Turks in the region.
Greek and Turkish empires were just like all the other empires, big forces of assimilation. They absorbed a large number tribes, cultures, etc. Ottomans in turn absorbed most of the Byzantine Empire as well. In some places they were later absorbed back into the Greek society. Since Turks did not fall from the sky, similar things happened in Cyprus as well. And not only Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots look very similar, Cypriots in general and the people of Anatolia are also very similar in looks and genetics.
However, us begin genetically similar does not mean anything. For example, in Bosnia there is no question that Bosnians and Croatians and Serbians are all the same people with different religions. They even speak the same language. But that did not stop them from slaughtering each other. It will not stop us in Cyprus either. If we looked differently or were genetically different, it would not mean anything either.
If we really want it, we can find many differences that will divide us. If not the religion it might be the language, if not the language it might be our political views, if not that the teams that we support. And if we really want to live together, we can live together with all our differences.
