by Simon » Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:12 pm
By the way, I think as this report from Cyprus Mail shows, we share much more than 'just a language and religion.'
[quote]Marking a famous ‘ochi’
By Constantine Markides
GREEK Cypriot students took to the streets en masse yesterday in celebration of Ochi day, which commemorates Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas’ rejection of an ultimatum put to him by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on October 28, 1940.
The ultimatum demanded Greece to either permit Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy unspecified “strategic locations” or else face war. Metaxas is said to have at once responded with the single word ‘ochi’ – ‘no’ – which the Greek population then echoed by immediately taking to the streets and shouting out his reply.
Police yesterday morning cordoned off a large area of downtown Nicosia, through which students from private and public schools marched to drumbeats, bearing the flags of Greece and Cyprus.
Though not marching with straight legs in the notorious style of the goosestep – which George Orwell referred to in a 1941 essay as an “affirmation of naked power” that consciously and intentionally contains “the vision of a boot crashing down on a face” – the students did nonetheless march with rigid outflung arms that ironically bore some resemblance, albeit in a less disciplined version, to the marching style of the Italian troops that Greece managed to repel.
One parent watching the parade told the Cyprus Mail that his two sons had marched in the parade for the last seven years, and said that since only the top students from each school participated, it was seen as a great honour if they were selected for the march.
Though the main parade and ceremony was in Nicosia, World War II veterans, former EOKA fighters, secondary school pupils, university students, boy scouts and members of various organisations also marched in parades in other cities.
Attending yesterday’s parade was President Tassos Papadopoulos, Acting Primate of the Cyprus Church Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos, Greek Ambassador Demetrios Rallis, House President Demetris Christofias, Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Constantinos Bisbikas, and a number of other political and military officials.
Papadopoulos said that those who fought against the Axis forces in 1940 “fought for their homeland, for freedom, and against fascism”.
Yesterday was a day for high oratory on the Hellenist spirit. Speaking at Ayios Ioannou church in Nicosia, newly elected DIKO president Marios Karoyian said that Hellenism had “managed to teach the entire world that the country that birthed democracy was the country that was willing and first to safeguard the interests not only of the Greek people but also of mankind.”
It was also an opportunity for politicians to pontificate on the Cyprus problem and draw associations between Metaxas’ response to Italy and Cyprus’ potential veto of Turkey’s accession to the EU.
EDEK president Yiannakis Omirou said that Turkey must meet its obligations towards Cyprus, enshrined on October 3, 2005 with the opening of its accession course, “or else there is only one answer that Cyprus and Greece should give, and that is a ‘No’ to the continuation of Turkey’s accession course.”
Acting DIKO head Nicos Cleanthous – in a speech on the “the honour and the dignity and the spilling of blood” given by “Mother Country” Greece – took the association one step further, suggesting that the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan Plan was as noble as that of the Greece’s refusal to submit to Italian fascism.
“With the ‘No’ of April 25, Cypriot Hellenism defended – just as the Panhellenes did on October 28, 1940 – their national, individual, and collective dignity.”
Metaxas’ alleged one-word response in 1940 to the ultimatum might in fact be a national legend, as many scholars claim the actual response was the French phrase “Alors c’est la guerre” (‘Then it is war’).
Whatever the actual response, with the rejection of the ultimatum, Italy invaded Greece with 20,000 Italian troops that same morning, marking the beginning of Greece’s participation in World War II. Mussolini expected an easy victory, but the Greek army proved more battle-worthy than the Italians anticipated and Greece expelled the Italians, driving them back into Albania.[/quote]
Greece is Cyprus' best ally in this world, whether you like it or not, so maybe we should be a little more supportive of them.
In one thread you call yourself Greek, albeit emphasising you are Cypriot first, yet in another you seem to be completely separating yourself from anything Greek. I may have misunderstood, but your posts can be slightly contradictory at times.
