by rawk » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:53 am
Hi bakala mate
I've spent a shed load of evenings surfing these sites reading over a thousand postings, what a sad bastard I am, and I'm starting to get a realisation of the opposing Cypriot minds.
At the end of the day, the Greek Cypriot population of Cyprus has had a much stronger affinity to the concept of being part of Greece (don't forget this nation lives on more islands in the Mediterranean than any other) than being a solely Cypriot nation. After 1960, they did their best to bring this about, because thats truly where their hearts and identity lay, to Greece, their motherland.
Then came the events of 1974 and the ensuing partition of Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots now proclaim their new Cypriot identity and challange the Turkish residents of the north to join them on their terms, incidentally not helped by th crass decision to allow the south's EU entry without a resolution of the country's division.
However, methinks they protest too much. The Greek Cypriot community overwhelmingly rejected the Annan plan in a referendum and I now believe it is no longer an issue about land but politics. The Greek Cypriots have now got their new found wealth, the refugees are entering their 2nd generation of living on confiscated Turkish land. They have got a Greek state with no troublesome Turkish minority, who wants to uproot and go north to an unknown changed landscape mbased on memories of 32 years ago, what would they do about schools, churches, jobs? A union of the 2 territories could cause property prices in the south to nosedive to reach the levels in the north, the National Guard would have to be reduced in numbers, tourism would flock to the newly "discovered north", GC politicions would have to surrender juicy political positions to new Turkish members of the new National Assembly.
The truth of it is, the Greek Cypriots are now quite comfortable with their new EU sponsored statelet, re-union of Cyprus could ruin this cosy state of affairs. Despite all the ranting of individuals about lost land, and I accept their personal loss is real, the irony of it is that the Greek Cypriot community have adjusted to the status quo quite nicely, thank you. The rest of it is propaganda and a convenient pot boiler to keep the TRNC on its toes and out of the international loop.
But what goes around comes around, despite its shortcomings, the TRNC will achieve international recognition, the EU realising its the only way to break the logjam and circumvent the ROC's efforts to keep their precious status quo and block Turkey's entry to the EU. The irony is that the Greek Cypriot leadership wrote off regaining the north years ago after being quietly warned off by Greece , the UK and USA. All that's happened since has been a slick PR job to keep the south prosperous and the north poor. That's now changing and desperate legal measures are being used by the ROC government. But they are between a rock and a hard place and what goes around......
rawk
