miltiades wrote:Birkibrisli, with educated well meaning honest and fair minded Cypriots such as you appear to be the road to a solution and a peaceful outcome for our Cyprus problem will be shorter and less painful. I wish that the majority of our people shared your genuine concerns and were as sensible as you are Sir.
Thank you for your kind words,Miltiades.
We are all largely products of our environment,but later on in life we might get a chance to learn to think for ourselves.I was one such lucky person.
Let me tell you a story I very rarely talk about.
In December 1963 I was 12 years old living in the Turkish part of Nicosia within the walls. When the civil war started my father had to go and fight at the walls to stop the GC attacks we all thought was imminent.Before going off my father instructed me on the use of a hand grenade,and told me to never leave the house till he got back,and if the Greek Cypriots came to the door before he did to gather my mother and 3 sisters around me and blow us all up...
For the next 3 days I walked around with this grenade in my pocket trying not to let the others know what might be in store for them.At night what little sleep I got was with that bloody thing under my pillow.
Lucky it was my father who came back and not the GC fighters.
Did that experience (which by he way was not the most traumatic I went through) made me fear and hate all things Greek and GC? Of course.
But fate played a lovely trick on me.When we immigrated to Australia in 1969 we lived in the garden flat of my cousins's best friend who happened to be a Greek from the mainland.Because I didn't have my mother with me (she came years later) the wife of our landlord sort of adopted me,and treated me like a son. That was the beginning of my awakening.Not all Greek people were monsters after my blood...
The rest is history..but I do get very sad when I read posts like Klik's and wonder where all that hatred and venom come from. Then i find solace in the thought that if i survived my traumatic experiences that no child should have to go through,and can still function normally (more or less!) as a human being,then the Cypriot spirit must be very strong indeed,and there is hope for us yet...
because some people can't see beyond their imediate needs. Man I wish I had a piece of land or a house in the buffer zone and I would gladly donated it to the state if it meant TRUE UNIFICATION. Unfortunately mine are @ Xero not sure what its called now.
