Tag: Greek Cypriots

  • In Cyprus, a new generation inherits a conflict

    In Cyprus, a new generation inherits a conflict

    Tell a Greek Cypriot that your next destination is the Turkish city of Istanbul, once the seat of empires, and there’s a chance you will be gently chided. “You mean `Constantinople,’” the conversation partner might say, referring to the former Byzantine capital, which fell to Ottoman armies in 1453.

    By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

    map of Cyprus lge2

    PYLA, Cyprus —Tell a Greek Cypriot that your next destination is the Turkish city of Istanbul, once the seat of empires, and there’s a chance you will be gently chided. “You mean `Constantinople,’” the conversation partner might say, referring to the former Byzantine capital, which fell to Ottoman armies in 1453.

    This allegiance to the past is tinged with defiance, a stubborn refusal to call a place by the name chosen by the inhabitants of a hostile country. But it is more recent civil strife and war, nearly half a century ago, that infuse the psyche of Cyprus, a Mediterranean island favored by vacationers for its sun and beaches. Â

    In a strange twist, divided Cyprus has taken on a role meant to unify, this month assuming the rotating presidency of the European Union, a six-month stint that gives it a self-promotional platform even as it scrambles for a multi-billion dollar bailout to support its troubled banks. In another quirk of split-screen Cyprus, it is seeking money from oil-rich Russia, an increasingly important friend, in addition to the EU, as it tries to avoid the austerity measures that would likely come with any European aid.

    At the heart of these dueling directions lies the “Cyprus problem,” as it is blandly known.

    Talk of a peace settlement between the island’s majority Greek Cypriot community and Turkish Cypriots that would end decades of political uncertainty is giving way to a sense that the problem is, unofficially, the default solution.

    “People are simply not interested in any form of power-sharing,” said Yiannis Papadakis, a social anthropologist at the University of Cyprus. “There is a strong denial of this reality.”

    Papadakis said the problem is so consuming that it has sapped will on both sides to debate migration, the environment, women’s rights and other important social issues. He questioned whether they can compromise and trust each other if they ever reach a political settlement.

    Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, split into an internationally recognized, Greek-speaking south and a Turkish-speaking north after a 1974 invasion by Turkey, a reaction to a coup attempt by supporters of union with Greece. Travel restrictions between the two sides have relaxed, but negotiations on security and territory foundered. Only Turkey, whose EU candidacy has stalled partly because of the impasse, recognizes the government in the north.

    The result is an island that is not quite a nation, with an identity that is the sum of its shards. When George Andreou became the first Cypriot to climb Mount Everest and held up his nation’s flag at the summit in May, it was a reminder of division as well as a symbol of unity.

    The flag, designed by a Turkish Cypriot and adopted in 1960 after independence from British rule, shows a map of the whole island and two olive branches, a symbol of peace between communities. But Turkish Cypriots use a flag that is a variation of the star and crescent emblem of Turkey, their patron.

    In his rucksack, Andreou, 39, also carried the old flag of his hometown Famagusta, which he and his ethnic Greek family fled ahead of Turkish forces, less than one year after he was born. The climber has never returned to his house in Famagusta, where Turkish Cypriots now live, because he thinks it would help to legitimize Turkish forces based in the northern part of the island.

    “It is like I never lived my childhood or I refused to remember,” Andreou wrote in an email. “I know from my parents that they had been very difficult years since we left everything behind, hoping we would go back soon. It never happened. Instead, we lived in houses without doors and windows, in tents, in the fields, anywhere just to stay safe and away from war.”

    Days after Andreou, a banker, returned from the Himalayas, his wife gave birth to their first child, who may grow up to discover the same sour politics. The same goes for the 3-year-old daughter of Ahmet Sozen, a Turkish Cypriot research director at Cyprus 2015, a group that seeks to promote joint understanding.

    Sozen said the uncertainty goes back to the 1950s, when his father, now 80 years old, was a police officer in a British administration fighting a Greek Cypriot guerrilla group that sought union with Greece.

    While today’s stalemate is violence-free, Sozen maintains the ethnic Greek-Turkish divide has a corrosive impact on Cypriot psychology.

    “I don’t want my little daughter to go through the same thing in her life,” said Sozen, who was inspired to become a professor of politics in order to help find a solution, even though his self-described “life mission” sometimes exhausts and frustrates him. Polls by his group indicate that Turkish Cypriots, who have leaned toward living apart because of fears of being dominated, and Greek Cypriots, who have tended to prefer a one-state island dominated by their majority, are moving further from the compromise of a power-sharing federation.

    Greek Cypriots fear encroachment from Turkey, a rising power that objects to Greek Cypriot plans for off-shore oil and gas exploration. They highlight past suffering, but gloss over the question of 1960s attacks on Turkish Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots resent the Greek Cypriot rejection of unification in a 2004 referendum.

    “As more time passes, it’s not good for the result, meaning that people are not moving toward the solution spirit. On the contrary,” said Sozen, noting that the problem is exacerbated by a gap between Cypriots and their leaders. “People are alienated in the sense that the common people are shut away from the official process. The general public is not really informed by what is happening.”

    In February, Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu said negotiations with the Greek Cypriot leader left “a zucchini taste in the mouth,” a Turkish way of saying they have grown bland.

    His Greek Cypriot counterpart, President Demetris Christofias said in May that talking to Eroglu was like trying to knock down a wall by throwing eggs at it.

  • Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency

    Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency

    eu1The Turkish government declared that it will suspend its relations with the European Union if the Greek half of Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union scheduled in July 2012 without first solving the reunification issue between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan stated that Turkey does not recognize Cyprus as a nation.

    The modern history of Cyprus starting in the 1970′s is strife with military violence and political struggles that resulted in a Greek coup d’etat, a Turkish invasion and the formation of a North Turkish state and a Southern Greek state. These events led to a two-way movement of refugees on the island.

    The movement of civilians in recent times has caused many controversially claiming ‘family land’ and other such land that was supposed to be inherited decades ago.

    Both sides on the relatively small island have caused their shares of troubles between the European world and Turkey.

    The island countries have been the site of United Nations interventions and the heavy presence of more than 30,000 Turkish troops and the Greek Cypriot National Guard effectively cutting the island into two entirely different ethnic and political camps.

    The Greek side became recognized by the European Union enjoying more benefits, such as the chance to preside as EU president, than its Turkish neighbor.

    Talks between the two sides in the past have failed or faltered but were rejuvenated in 2008. Both sides in the past have tried reunification plans including the Annan Plan which failed in part because of the Greek Cypriot’s admant rejection of the plan.

    (Cover Photo: European Community)

    via Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency | iNewp.com.

  • AMERICA CAN RELY ON TURKEY, BUT NOT ON ANTI-TURKISH LOBBIES IN AMERICA

    AMERICA CAN RELY ON TURKEY, BUT NOT ON ANTI-TURKISH LOBBIES IN AMERICA

    What follows below is a yet another typical, toxic and vituperative anti-Turkish propaganda, this time from the notorious Turk-hater Congressman Sarbanes, the son of equally notorious Turk-hater Greek-American Senator Sarbanes—of originator of US-arms-embargo-on Turkey- in-1970s fame. Sarbanes spewed this disinformation and falsifications to mark the 36th anniversary of the Turkish rescue and peace operation on Cyprus on July 20, 1974 to protect the lives and liberty of the island’s Turkish Cypriots. First Sarbanes’ words, then my rebuttal. Enjoy!

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    CAN AMERICA RELY ON TURKEY ?

    by Rep. John Sarbanes, Huffington Post, July 20, 2010

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/can-america-rely-on-turke_b_652739

    Turkey has been getting a lot of attention recently. American foreign policymakers, among others, are beginning to realize that the United States cannot count on its ally Turkey in a pinch. But American surprise and dismay at Turkey ‘s increasing petulance on the world stage and among its NATO peers reflects just how naive the U.S. has been in its interpretation of Turkish behavior over many decades. Turkey ‘s unreliability as a NATO ally and its incompatibility with Western democratic values is well understood by those who have long suffered Turkish aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean .

    Turkey ‘s failure to genuinely uphold the shared values of NATO makes it a weak link in the alliance. By design, NATO originated as a defensive political and military alliance for those countries engaged in the hostilities of WWII. Turkey , the largest NATO member not to have fought in WWII, was enlisted to reinforce defenses against the Soviet Union . Yet, in the summer of 1974, NATO member Turkey invaded and occupied more than one third of the island Republic of Cyprus . Coming at the height of the Cold War, and at a time of delicate relations between Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and the NATO alliance, Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus risked war with NATO member Greece and a resultant rupturing of the NATO alliance.

    Adding insult to injury, the weapons used by the Turkish military to invade Cyprus were those of its NATO benefactors, principally the United States . In 1975, the Congress imposed an arms embargo on Turkey for its offensive use of American weapons. Rather than fulfill its NATO obligations, or follow its legal obligations as demanded by Congress , Turkey retaliated by closing all American military installations on Turkish soil, and by severely restricting American access at two NATO bases. At that time, military installations in Turkey were deemed essential surveillance posts in the Cold War fight against the Soviet Union . Turkey refused to reopen these facilities until the U.S. lifted the arms embargo, signaling that its relationship with the United States was never more than a transactional one, rather than one rooted in a shared commitment to the rule of law, individual liberties, democracy, and collective Western security.

    July 20th marks 36 years that the Turkish military has occupied Cyprus . In that time, neither the Republic of Cyprus nor its people have directed any aggression towards Turkey . In stark contrast, Turkey maintains an active colonization program where it is illegally resettling some 180,000 Anatolian Turks into the homes and possessions of the 200,000 Greek Cypriots it evicted from the occupied territories. The Turkish military is also systematically eradicating the Hellenic and Christian heritage from the occupied territories. All but five of the 500 Greek Orthodox Churches in the occupied territories have been looted, desecrated, or destroyed. To no avail, the international community, including the United States , the European Union, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice have all called on Turkey to honor its international obligations and cease and desist from these hostilities against the people of Cyprus .

    The Republic of Cyprus is a full-fledged member of the European Union. Turkey seeks that status as well, but as a NATO member illegally occupying European Union soil, Turkey puts NATO and the EU at loggerheads. The result is that the EU and NATO are unable to cooperate in the consolidation of their economic and strategic interests in the Eastern Mediterranean .

    Turkey ‘s ongoing occupation of Cyprus is compelling evidence that it has little interest in meeting the standards of individual liberties, human rights and religious tolerance shared by America and other democratic nations. Lacking the ties that bind, Turkey is apparently quite willing to jeopardize relations with its long-time allies. Witness its 2003 denial of the deployment of US forces along the Northern Iraq border and its recent vote in the U.N. against Iran sanctions.

    The United States and its allies must call upon Turkey to abide by international law and meet its responsibilities as a dependable NATO partner. And on this, the 36th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Cyprus , the United States should demand an immediate withdrawal of the 45,000 Turkish soldiers now occupying northern Cyprus . Until that occurs, policymakers in the White House and in the Congress must press the issue in every conversation with their Turkish counterparts. In this way, the United States can work towards establishing a strong, enduring, and values-based alliance with Turkey that will serve to bring justice to the people of Cyprus , strengthen NATO, and reinforce collective Western security.

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    TURKISH INTERVENTION BROUGHT PEACE TO THE ISLAND – Part 1 of 8

    The Cyprus question is one of the longest-running ethnic conflicts in the world dating back to the mid-1950’s. It is the result of the Greek Cypriot armed campaign to annex the island to mainland Greece – an irredentist ambition known by the Greek term enosis –against the will of Turkish Cypriots, one of the two ethnic peoples of Cyprus for over four centuries, and against the internationally established legal status of the state of Cyprus.

    CYPRUS WAS BORN OUT OF A COMPROMISE, THEN RENEGGED ON IT – Part 2 of 8

    The independent Republic of Cyprus was born as a compromise solution in 1960. The Republic of Cyprus was a partnership state based on the political equality of the co-founding Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot peoples. It had a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice-president, each with veto powers to ensure political equality at the executive level. The legislature reflected the demographic balance between the two communities, on the one hand (with a 70/30 per cent ratio), and their political equality and effective participation in the legislative process, on the other. The judiciary was composed of one judge from each side, with a “neutral” judge from a third country as its president. This partnership Republic was guaranteed by the three “Guarantor” powers – Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom – under a special international treaty, the Treaty of Guarantee.

    DELICATE INTERNAL BALANCE WAS DESTROYED BY GREEK ULTR-NATIONALISTS, NOT TURKS – Part 3 of 8

    The “state of affairs” thus created by the Zurich and London Agreements of 1960 was based on an internal balance between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities, as well as an external balance between Turkey and Greece as the respective “motherlands” of the two ethnic peoples of the
    island. This seemingly perfect system of checks and balances, however, faced a serious challenge within three years of its inception, when the Greek Cypriot side attempted to amend the Constitution by removing all provisions that gave the Turkish Cypriots a meaningful say in the affairs of the State. Failing that, they launched an all-out armed attack on the Turkish Cypriots throughout the island, killing and wounding thousands, driving one-quarter of the Turkish Cypriot population out of their homes and properties in 103 villages and causing widespread destruction.

    GREEKS TURNED CYPRUS INTO A SLAUGHTERHOUSE VICTIMIZING TURKISH CYPRIOTS – Part 4 of 8

    The ferocity of this onslaught was described by former Undersecretary of the US State Department, George Ball, in his memories titled “The Past Has Another Pattern” by observing that Makarios, the then Greek Cypriot leader, had “turn(ed) this beautiful island into his private abattoir.” He further stated that “Makarios’ central interest was to block off any Turkish intervention so that he and his Greek Cypriotes could go on happily massacring the Turkish Cypriots.”

    THE TURKISH RESCUE OPERATION SAVED THE TURKISH CYPRIOTS FROM ANNIHILATION – Part 5 of 8

    The Turkish rescue operation undoubtedly saved the Turkish Cypriot community from mass-extermination; prevented the annexation of Cyprus to Greece, and thus saved the independence of the island. Turkey’s legitimate and timely action has kept the peace on the island since 1974. Today, the Constitution of the Republic is dead and the “Cyprus” government has been completely usurped and monopolized by the Greek Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots and successive Turkish Governments have worked for the achievement of a settlement and have either initiated or accepted all major United Nations documents aimed at such just and lasting solution.

    THE “ANNAN PEACE PLAN”: ACCEPTED BY TURKS, REJECTED BY GREEKS – Part 6 of 8

    The latest and most elaborate document in this respect was the “Annan Plan” named after former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was the architect of the plan. The Annan Plan was put to separate and simultaneous referenda of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots on April 24, 2004. It was overwhelmingly accepted by the Turkish Cypriot people by a 65% majority; but was rejected by the Greek Cypriot people, at the behest of their leadership, by even a greater margin of 76%.

    EU AND USA FAILED TO KEEP THEIR PROMISES TO TURKISH CYPRIOTS – Part 7 of 8

    Although the United States, the European Union and other members of the international community have joined in the call for the lifting of the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, little has been done to put words into action in this regard. What is at stake is not only the long-overdue and well deserved restoration of the human rights of the Turkish Cypriots through their integration with the international community, but also the credibility of those who have made promises and took decisions to end this
    isolation. Concrete and meaningful steps in that direction will not only put an end to this untenable situation but will also help the unification efforts on the island by motivating the Greek Cypriot side to come to a just and lasting settlement.

    NO BLOOD SPILLED FOR 36 YEARS, THANKS TO TURKISH INTERVENTION – Part 8 of 8

    Despite the absence of an international solution to unify the island of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots have been enjoying peace and tranquility and have developed strong democratic institutions, world class universities, tourism facilities and able entrepreneurs. In fact, Turkish Cyprus can be a model for other nations in that region on how to cope with hardship within the framework of democracy and respect for human rights. A beautiful country with its unspoiled nature and famous for its warm Turkish hospitality, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is a place worth visiting year around. For more information on travel and other issues related to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, please visit www.trncinfo.com.

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    For more information please visit: www.tc-america.org. and www.ataa.org