A Short History Of Cyprus Problem For Dummies
defaultnot
Cyprus which was ruled by different suzerains, but which never in its
entire history came under Greek rule, was conquered by the Ottomans in
1571 and ruled by them until 1878. Under Ottoman rule the Turks and
Greeks of Cyprus lived in peace and harmony, despite their differences
in terms of ethnicity, religion, language, culture and communal
traditions. Unlike the Venetians, who were the previous rulers of
Cyprus, the Turks enabled the Greek Cypriot population to flourish in
all fields. In 1878, Great Britain assumed the provisional
administration of Cyprus. In 1914, when the Ottoman Empire entered the
First World War, Cyprus was unilaterally annexed by Great Britain.
Turkey formally recognized this annexation with the signing of the
Peace Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
Although the Turks and Greeks of Cyprus peacefully co-existed under
the Ottoman Turkish administration, their relationship began to
deteriorate following the take-over of the island by Great Britain.
Under British rule, the Greek-Orthodox Church campaigned for the union
of Cyprus with Greece (Enosis). Starting from the mid-1950s, this
campaign was given support by Greece. EOKA was established as an
underground terrorist organization to achieve this aim. Thus, the
Enosis movement took a turn for violence, ostensibly against the
British, but in fact with the objective of uniting the island with
Greece. EOKA violence claimed British and Turkish Cypriot lives. From
1955 to 1958 Turkish Cypriots were driven away from mixed villages and
their houses were burnt down. Greek and the Greek Cypriot coercion,
killing and intimidation, however, failed to achieve its aims. Turkey
and the Turkish Cypriots strongly opposed Enosis. Geopolitically,
Cyprus was of great importance for the national security of Turkey and
the Turkish Cypriots refused to accept Greek dominance and regarded
Enosis as neo-colonialism. Britain, as the colonial power, also
resisted Enosis and declared that the Turkish and Greek Cypriots were
equally entitled to freely determine their own future. In the
meantime, Greece made several attempts to exploit the UN as a means of
realizing Enosis. However, the UN General Assembly did not support
Greek demands designed to achieve annexation under the guise of
self-determination, but urged a peaceful and just solution among the
parties concerned.
++++++++++++++
After causing much suffering to achieve Enosis, the Greek government
realized that neither Turkey or the Turkish Cypriot people, nor Great
Britain or the UN would consent to the union of Cyprus with Greece. In
shaping the destiny of Cyprus, a negotiated settlement remained to be
the only way. In the late 1950s the world was undergoing rapid change
and the colonies were becoming independent one after another. Britain
expressed its readiness to transfer sovereignty jointly to the Turkish
and Greek Cypriot peoples for the creation of an independent,
partnership state in Cyprus. To achieve this, Britain insisted on
retaining sovereign bases in Cyprus and safeguarding the rights of
both Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Besides, Britain maintained that she
should have the right to intervene along with Turkey and Greece, if
there was an attempt to alter the agreed state of affairs.
Against this background, talks were initiated between the Turkish and
Greek governments, with the knowledge of the two sides in Cyprus.
These talks led to the Zurich Agreement of 1959 which soon afterwards
was endorsed in London between five parties, namely, Turkey, Greece,
United Kingdom, Dr. Küçük on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot people, and
Archbishop Makarios on behalf of the Greek Cypriot people. On this
basis, the constitution of 1960 was negotiated and the Treaties of
Guarantee, Alliance and Establishment were concluded. When the
five-party Treaties were signed, Great Britain transferred sovereignty
to the two peoples on the island. Thus, the Republic of Cyprus came
into being as an independent partnership state.
These arrangements were based on the equality and partnership of the
Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in the independence and the
sovereignty of the island. The legitimacy of the 1960 partnership
Republic lay in the joint presence and effective participation of both
sides in all the organs of the state. Neither party had the right to
rule the other, nor could one of the partners claim to be the
government of the other. Basic articles of the constitution and the
Treaties safeguarded the rights of the two equal peoples.
In addition to the internal balance thus created between the two
constituent peoples of Cyprus, the Treaties also established an
external balance between the two respective motherlands. In this
connection, Turkey and Greece would not be able to obtain a more
favorable political or economic position than the other over Cyprus.
As part of these balances the 1960 Agreements prohibited the
membership of Cyprus in any international organization or pacts of
Alliance in which both Turkey and Greece were not members.
Enosis and partition were expressly prohibited. Since the two peoples
had special and close ties with their motherlands, both Turkey and
Greece were given the right to station military contingents in the
island. Turkey, Britain and Greece undertook to guarantee this state
of affairs. Finally, as a result of the Cyprus Agreements, Britain
retained sovereignty over two military bases.
+++++++++++++++++++
As established in 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was not a unitary state
but a political partnership. It was hoped that the Turkish Cypriots
and the Greek Cypriots, as the two peoples of the island and new
partners, would be able to live peacefully together. But this
expectation was not fulfilled. The Greek Cypriots and Greece did not
give up their ambitions and designs. They regarded independence merely
as a springboard for annexation of the island to Greece. The Greek
Cypriot leadership continued to campaign for this "objective" and
sought to unlawfully bring about constitutional amendments which would
negate the partnership status of the Turkish Cypriots. This would
clear the way for annexation by creating in effect a Greek Cypriot
state, with a Turkish minority.
Since the pursuit of such goals were prohibited under the constitution
and the guarantee system of 1960, they could only be achieved by
defying and destroying the legitimate order. This meant the use of
force to overtake the joint-State and to force the other partner into
submission. Greek Cypriot and Greek designs and the use of force to
achieve their unlawful aims led to the collapse of the partnership
system. As a result of the Greek Cypriot armed attacks, the
bi-national Republic, as envisaged in the international Treaties,
ceased to exist in December 1963. The breakaway Greek Cypriot wing of
the partnership state usurped the title of " Government of Cyprus".
The Turkish Cypriots who never accepted this seizure of power, began
to set up a Turkish Administration to run their own affairs.
+++++++++++++++++
Starting in December 1963, for the next eleven years the Turkish
Cypriots had to seek survival in violent and traumatic conditions.
Nearly 30.000 Turkish Cypriots who were forced out from their homes
became refugees in enclaves which corresponded to a mere 3% of the
territory of Cyprus. In these enclaves the Turkish Cypriot people
lived under what the UN Secretary-General called, in his reports to
the Security Council, "veritable siege", with no freedom of movement
and deprived of basic necessities to survive. The Greek Cypriots, with
Greek military assistance, raided isolated Turkish villages and
attacked the Turkish Cypriot quarters of the different towns. The
armed campaign led to the destruction of 103 Turkish Cypriot villages
along with all the mosques and holy places. Hundreds of Turkish
Cypriots were murdered, wounded and taken as hostages. In the course
of the violence that erupted in 1963, over 200 Turkish Cypriots went
missing. Due to immense human suffering, thousands of Turkish Cypriots
fled from the island. Those who managed to survive were deprived of
their salaries, their land, and their other means of livelihood. The
Security Council discussed the situation and decided to dispatch a UN
peace-keeping force. This force which was stationed in the island in
March 1964 could not however secure the return to normal conditions
since power was already in the Greek Cypriot hands.
As part of the Enosis strategy, Greece had secretly sent 20.000 troops
to the island in collaboration with the Greek Cypriot leadership. A
military junta had assumed power in Greece and differences developed
between the junta and the Greek Cypriot leadership over the method of
achieving annexation. On 15 July 1974, a coup d'etat took place in
Cyprus, planned and executed by Greece, as a short-cut to Enosis. A
puppet Greek Cypriot government was formed under a Greek Cypriot
gunman. The coup staged by the military junta in Athens resulted in
further bloodshed in the form of massacres of Turkish Cypriots and
through clashes between anti- and pro-coup Greek Cypriot factions.
During the events of 1974 more Turkish Cypriots went missing who
remain unaccounted for until today. The Greek Cypriot leader Makarois,
barely managing to escape, appeared on 19 July 1974 in the Security
Council to accuse Greece of an act of invasion and occupation.
+++++++++=
After consultations with Britain which did not want to take joint
action under the Treaty of Guarantee, Turkey intervened as a guarantor
power on 20 July 1974 in conformity with its treaty rights and
obligations. The Turkish intervention blocked the way to the
annexation of the island by Greece, stopped the persecution of the
Turkish Cypriots and brought peace to Cyprus. The conditions became
ripe for a negotiated settlement for the first time since December
1963.
In February 1975, the Turkish Cypriot people re-organized itself as a
federated state in the hope that this would facilitate a federal
settlement. The UN Secretary-General was entrusted with a mission of
good offices by the Security Council in order to bring the two sides
together and facilitate their negotiations on an equal footing. On 2
August 1975, at the third round of the Vienna talks an agreement was
reached between the two sides, for the voluntary regrouping of
populations. The agreement made it possible for the Turkish and Greek
Cypriots to live in two geographically separate areas and under their
own administrations. Following 1974, the new set of circumstances
contributed to the prosperity of the island. Democracy flourished in
both parts of Cyprus.
The high-level agreement of 1977 between the two sides in Cyprus set
the goal as the establishment of a new partnership in the form of a
bi-communal, bi-zonal federation. Under the auspices of successive UN
Secretaries-General, a number of parameters such as political
equality, bi-zonality, bi-communality, property exchange, the
continuation of the Treaties of Guarantee and of Alliance and the
tackling of EU membership after a settlement emerged as a framework
for a solution. Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side strived for a
federation. They maintained that partnership and reconciliation in the
island can only be achieved by safeguarding the sovereign equality of
the Turkish and Greek Cypriots and the balance between two motherlands
vis-a-vis Cyprus.
From 1974 onwards, in defiance of the rule of law and the established
principle that federations can only be built between equal partners,
the Greek Cypriot side continued with its sovereignty claims over the
entire island. This prompted the Turkish Cypriot side to assert its
rights by proclaiming the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
in 1983.
But the Turkish Cypriot side continued to participate in the UN
process and to contribute to the efforts for the achievement of a
federal settlement. On the other hand, the Greek Cypriot
administration paid only lip-service to the internationally supported
proposal of federation and dragged its feet in the talks that were
being held under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. The course
which the Greek Cypriot side followed, namely its rejection of the
1985-86 UN Draft Framework Agreements, the 1992 UN Set of Ideas and
the 1994 Confidence Building Measures, demonstrated that it was out to
ignore the framework established through the UN process. Indeed, the
defiance against the basic parameters for a solution clearly show that
the Greek Cypriot side never foresaw a bi-zonal federal system and
that it totally rejects the idea of equal partnership with the Turkish
Cypriot side.
+++++++++++++++++++
After consultations with Britain which did not want to take joint
action under the Treaty of Guarantee, Turkey intervened as a guarantor
power on 20 July 1974 in conformity with its treaty rights and
obligations. The Turkish intervention blocked the way to the
annexation of the island by Greece, stopped the persecution of the
Turkish Cypriots and brought peace to Cyprus. The conditions became
ripe for a negotiated settlement for the first time since December
1963.
In February 1975, the Turkish Cypriot people re-organized itself as a
federated state in the hope that this would facilitate a federal
settlement. The UN Secretary-General was entrusted with a mission of
good offices by the Security Council in order to bring the two sides
together and facilitate their negotiations on an equal footing. On 2
August 1975, at the third round of the Vienna talks an agreement was
reached between the two sides, for the voluntary regrouping of
populations. The agreement made it possible for the Turkish and Greek
Cypriots to live in two geographically separate areas and under their
own administrations. Following 1974, the new set of circumstances
contributed to the prosperity of the island. Democracy flourished in
both parts of Cyprus.
The high-level agreement of 1977 between the two sides in Cyprus set
the goal as the establishment of a new partnership in the form of a
bi-communal, bi-zonal federation. Under the auspices of successive UN
Secretaries-General, a number of parameters such as political
equality, bi-zonality, bi-communality, property exchange, the
continuation of the Treaties of Guarantee and of Alliance and the
tackling of EU membership after a settlement emerged as a framework
for a solution. Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side strived for a
federation. They maintained that partnership and reconciliation in the
island can only be achieved by safeguarding the sovereign equality of
the Turkish and Greek Cypriots and the balance between two motherlands
vis-a-vis Cyprus.
From 1974 onwards, in defiance of the rule of law and the established
principle that federations can only be built between equal partners,
the Greek Cypriot side continued with its sovereignty claims over the
entire island. This prompted the Turkish Cypriot side to assert its
rights by proclaiming the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
in 1983.
But the Turkish Cypriot side continued to participate in the UN
process and to contribute to the efforts for the achievement of a
federal settlement. On the other hand, the Greek Cypriot
administration paid only lip-service to the internationally supported
proposal of federation and dragged its feet in the talks that were
being held under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. The course
which the Greek Cypriot side followed, namely its rejection of the
1985-86 UN Draft Framework Agreements, the 1992 UN Set of Ideas and
the 1994 Confidence Building Measures, demonstrated that it was out to
ignore the framework established through the UN process. Indeed, the
defiance against the basic parameters for a solution clearly show that
the Greek Cypriot side never foresaw a bi-zonal federal system and
that it totally rejects the idea of equal partnership with the Turkish
Cypriot side.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The international community is trying to help the two parties to reach
a negotiated settlement ever since the outbreak of the Cyprus conflict
in 1963. There is more than one source of division in Cyprus. But the
most crucial one is the differences in the aspirations of the two
sides. Soon after the creation of the bi-national State of Cyprus in
1960, the Greek Cypriots attempted to eliminate the Turkish Cypriots
through ethnic cleansing in order to clear the way for Enosis. They
destroyed the 1960 order and turned the joint state into a Greek
Cypriot entity by usurping the title of "Government of Cyprus".
However, in the face of the strong resistance of the Turkish Cypriots
and the stance of Turkey, the Greek/Greek Cypriot camp failed to
realize their design of "Hellenizing" Cyprus.
In the period following 1974 it became clear that the Greek Cypriots
and Greece have not given up their ambitions of achieving dominance
over Cyprus. Despite the bitter events from 1963 to 1974, the Greek
Cypriot administration, instigated by Greece, increased its military
build-up and provocative activities in the island. The armament
efforts were stepped up under the so-called " joint military
doctrine". Sophisticated weapon systems were introduced into the Greek
Cypriot military arsenal. Air and naval bases for the use of Greece
were constructed. All these military activities have further raised
tensions and deepened the existing mistrust in Cyprus. In the past,
Greek Cypriot arms build-up has only brought about suffering. Then why
does it continue? The Greek Cypriot leadership has made it clear that
they would never give up the cause of Hellenizing Cyprus and that use
of force would not be excluded in attaining this goal.
On the other hand, the Turkish Cypriot side has expressed its
readiness for a partnership agreement which safeguards the sovereign
equality of the two sides and the balance between Turkey and Greece.
But the Greek Cypriots have shown that they do not want a partnership
on this basis. And why should they? They have not destroyed the 1960
order in order to share power with the Turkish Cypriots in a new
partnership. The Turks want to live as equals. The Greeks want
dominance and power over the Turks.
Today, the two peoples of Cyprus are enjoying conditions of peace and
tranquility. But the bitter events from 1963 to 1974 are not
forgotten. The humanitarian tragedy of the Bosnians and the Kosovars
recall the sufferings endured by the Turks of Cyprus. The conflict in
Kosovo has also unveiled the open support of the Greek Cypriot
administration to the aggressor. The Greek Cypriot community and the
church have mobilized their means for the Serbs.
Post a follow-up to this message
Seanie O'Kilfoyle
"defaultnot" <defau...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e8c7f505.04020...@posting.google.com...
Good post !
Wonder how many seconds it will take for one of the RACIST Denialist biggots
to come along and attempt to alter this history ?
Agamemnon
ILLEGAL TURKISH AGGRESSION
ILLEGAL TURKISH STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM
ILLEGAL TURKISH INVASION AND OCCUPATION
TURKISH PREPARED IDEOLOGICAL GENOCIDE
BLATANT TURKISH VIOLATION OF THE UN's CHARTER AND RESOLUTIONS and the
EUROPEAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
--
Turkish Violations of International Law
http://www.agamemnon.dabsol.co.uk/Violate.htm
American Complicity in the Turkish Genocide of the people of Cyprus.
http://www.greece.org/cyprus/Takism8.htm
Jason K. Lambrou
After the death in the sixteenth century of Suleiman the Lawgiver, the
Ottoman Empire went rapidly downhill. One cause was the... peculiar system
by which the subsequent
Sultans were chosen and trained. It became apparent to ruling Sultans
that to allow more than a single one of one's sons to gain experience as a
provincial governor or an
army commander led to disaster: each son would desperately try to build
a faction of clients and soldiers, and each Sultan's death would be
followed by a brutal and
destructive civil war (if, that is, the sons did not preempt and start
the civil war before their father's death. So the sons of the Sultan were
kept inside the palace all their life.
However, the eldest-son principle being weak, all that did was shift
the struggle from outside to inside the palace. Each son (and his mother)
would wage a war of intrigue
against the others, trying hard to assemble a sufficient coalition to
support his accession to the Sultanate when the time came. On the death of
one Sultan, all but one of his
sons would be executed. Only the one son who had the support of enough
clerics, bureaucrats, and--most important--janissary officers would
survive, and would become
Sultan.
Needless to say, to have spent your childhood and youth trapped in a
very large palace preparing for the day when you and your faction could
kill all your whole siblings,
half-siblings, and their mothers, other kin, and supporters did not
prepare Sultans-to-be to rule an empire that extended from Budapest to
Basra.
defaultnot wrote:
> United Kingdom, Dr. Kόηόk on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot people, and
Xtes-00k
Thus, we understand that it's your patriotic obligation to be regulated and
to the extent
of parroting history according to the Turkish ministry of information.
Well, I will put to you straight-forward.
In Europe, USA and in any other parts of the world, the Turkish ministry of
information was NEVER
a reliable source of credible accuracy.
You are wasting your time but again... it's NotYourFault.
Xtes-00k
"defaultnot" <defau...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e8c7f505.04020...@posting.google.com...
Seanie O'Kilfoyle
"Agamemnon" <agam...@hello.to.NO_SPAM> wrote in message
news:bvrac0$5tj$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "defaultnot" <defau...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:e8c7f505.04020...@posting.google.com...
>
> ILLEGAL TURKISH AGGRESSION
>
> ILLEGAL TURKISH STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM
>
> ILLEGAL TURKISH INVASION AND OCCUPATION
>
> TURKISH PREPARED IDEOLOGICAL GENOCIDE
>
> BLATANT TURKISH VIOLATION OF THE UN's CHARTER AND RESOLUTIONS and the
> EUROPEAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
>
1 hour and 32 minutes is all it took for the festering lunatic to rear his
ugly DENIALIST head
Seanie O'Kilfoyle
"Xtes-00k" <Chris...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:wAlUb.15729$%93.54...@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> Mr Defaultnot, is not your fault being born a Turk.
> Thus, we understand that it's your patriotic obligation to be regulated
and
> to the extent
> of parroting history according to the Turkish ministry of information.
Well I wasn't born a Turk and I see a lot more TRUTH from the
non-nationalist greekling corner
Jason K. Lambrou
he used his penis instead of his mind,
one day he bent over,
and his dog took over,
a gave him a bone from behind.
Xtes-00k
Being born a turk is not a curse as you put it. Is the image and the
unchanged mentality of the Kemalist turk that sucks.
It's curable.
BTW, I was addressing to ... -Default.
But you, as always, never stopped being the pop-up doggy-guard in defense
of any sultans- mouthpiece.
Xtes-00k
"Seanie O'Kilfoyle" <Pi...@Easy.SCHPAMM.com> wrote in message
news:QNwUb.360$DG5...@newsfep3-gui.server.ntli.net...
June R Harton
Silly lies, troll.
For fair use only:
MEDIA BYPASS
Vol. 8, #11, November 2000
pp. 28-31
Torturing Cypriot History
Hostile Environment of Yesteryear Still Remembered
by Matthew J. Stowell
As an American with no Cypriot or Greek ancestry, I understand how Cyprus'
complex and, to most Americans, obscure past can make many easy prey to the
disinformation fed our press by the Turkish government.
A common propaganda bite used by the Turkish state to legitimize its 1974
invasion of Cyprus is that "The Greek Cypriots then unleashed a campaign of
extermination and eviction that killed or wounded thousands and drove a
frightening percentage of Turkish Cypriots into besieged enclaves.."
(Insight Magazine, "Fences Might Be the Right Thing for Multiethnic Nation
of Cyprus", Ahmet Erdengiz, Feb. 7).
This claim has been refuted by findings of impartial sources such as the UN
Secretary General's report No. S/5950, para. 142 which confirms that as a
result of the brief but turbulent period of hostilities between Greek and
Turkish-Cypriot extremists from December 21, 1963 to June 8, 1964, a total
of 43 Greek Cypriots and 232 Turkish Cypriots are missing and presumed dead.
Clearly, this was no "campaign of extermination".
Moreover, these deaths were a direct result of Britain's documented policy
of arming Turkish separatists and encouraging Greco-Turkish conflict to
facilitate its control over Cyprus.
While extremists of both communities are to blame for intercommunal
violence, fueled by British attempts to prevent this overwhelmingly Greek
island-nation from achieving its self-determination, history is clear that
Turkish extremists initiated the cycle of violence that claimed victims on
both sides.
In June of 1958, a bomb explosion outside the information office of the
Turkish Consulate-- later shown to have been planted by Turkish extremists
(the "TMT")--set off the first intercommunal clashes on Cyprus. As noted by
British author Christopher Hitchens in his highly acclaimed work on Cyprus,
Hostage to History, the self-proclaimed president of Cyprus' occupation
regime, Rauf Denktash, admitted in a 1984 interview that it was a Turkish
Cypriot friend who planted the bomb. As a result, "Turkish Cypriots
promptly burned out a neighboring district of Greek shops and homes, in what
was to be the first Greek-Turkish physical confrontation on the island. A
curfew was imposed, and Greek guerrillas [were] blamed [by British
authorities] for the bomb as they were for everything else."
Next the British released from jail eight Greek Cypriot EOKA fighters,
forcing them to walk through the Turkish village of Guenyeli, where they
were quickly set upon and murdered. Thus began two months of violence by
extremists on both sides, killing 56 Greeks and 53 Turks. Tellingly, the
British arrested 2,000 Greeks, but only 60 Turks.
In addition to the hostile environment that was created by combatants on
both sides, there was a second factor that led to the polarization of both
communities: with a view toward partition, the Turks withdrew from
predominantly Greek areas and evicted Greeks from areas where Turks were in
the majority. In a single week over 600 families, two-thirds of them Greek,
left their homes, and many Turks who left Greek areas did so under intense
pressure from Turkish separatists.
Turkish Cypriots who favored compromise or a close relationship between the
two ethnic communities were targets of TMT violence. Turks caught smoking
Greek cigarettes or visiting Greek shops were beaten, and Turkish gangs
forced some Turkish Cypriots to resign from Greek Cypriot trade unions. In
Limassol, a Turkish Cypriot owner of a restaurant popular with Greeks was
threatened and later murdered by the TMT. Two progressive-thinking,
London-educated Turkish barristers who spoke against partition were killed
outright by these same Turkish gangs.
Turkish extremists forced several thousand Turkish peasants to abandon their
farms and animals and move into an overcrowded Turkish enclave in Nicosia.
"Thus the aim of partition, camouflaged by Turkish propaganda as
'federation,' was relentlessly pursued regardless of loss of human life and
the human misery created. However, this so-called 'first phase' of the
invasion of Cyprus by Turkey only partly succeeded, since well over half of
its brethren refused to obey instructions to abandon their homes for the
predetermined enclaves" (The Making of Modern Cyprus, Panteli). On December
23, 1963, Turkish gangs also moved through the Armenian quarter of Nicosia
and forced the inhabitants at gunpoint to leave their houses, shops, church,
school and clubs to make room for more Turks.
This forced population transfer continues in occupied Cyprus today. Since
1974, Turkey has relocated over 125,000 mainland Turks to northern Cyprus.
In this clearly illegal, Soviet-style effort to alter the demographics of
northern Cyprus, one which the UN has condemned, Turkey has displaced not
only the few remaining Greek Cypriots but also Turkish Cypriots, who are
often treated as second-class citizens and denied the rights and privileges
of the alien settlers from Turkey.
As a result, a diminishing number of Cyprus' indigenous Turks remain.
Turkey has made it easy for them to obtain visas to emigrate, and they have
left en masse, mostly for Britain and Turkey as well as other Mideast
countries; some have even escaped through the Green Line and returned to the
Greek south.
Apologists for Turkey's invasion disingenuously omit the imperative fact
that it is the Greek Cypriot community that bore the overwhelming brunt of
violence on Cyprus. As a result of Turkey's 1974 invasion, fittingly
codenamed "Operation Attila", Turkish troops perpetrated more than 6,000
killings, widespread rape, torture, the systematic obliteration of cultural
property including the destruction of churches, and the ethnic cleansing of
200,000 Greek Cypriots--making them refugees in their own country and
bringing twenty-six years of heartbreak for the families of more than 1,500
missing persons.
Placing Turkey's invasion of neighboring Cyprus in a contemporary context,
four times as many Greek Cypriots were killed by Turkish troops as Albanians
were killed in Kosovo prior to NATO's intervention--and in one-sixth the
time frame. Yet Serbia was bombed back to the Stone Age, while Turkey's
occupation of Cyprus continues to enjoy tacit US support.
In numerous applications to the European Human Rights Commission, Turkey was
found guilty of widespread violations of human rights in Cyprus. Although
the European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Turkish government to
compensate Greek Cypriot Titina Loizidou for the loss of her property seized
during its invasion, Turkey remains the only member of the 40-nation Council
of Europe to refuse compliance with a compensation order from its human
rights court -- a breach that could lead to Turkey's expulsion from the
Council.
The 1963 constitution forced on the Cypriots by the British in a
take-it-or-leave-it standoff--with the alternative being partition--was
known as "the most rigid, inflexible, and probably the most complicated in
the world" (S.A. DeSmith, The New Commonwealth and Its Constituents). The
president, a Greek Cypriot, and the vice president, a Turkish Cypriot, could
each veto legislation. Despite comprising only 18% of the population,
Turkish Cypriots were granted three of the ten seats in the Council of
Ministers and thirty percent of the deputy positions in the House of
Representatives. A Turkish Cypriot was to be made minister of defense,
foreign affairs and finance. Turkish Cypriots were allotted 30% of the
civil service jobs and 40% of the command positions in the Army. Any change
to the constitution required a two-thirds majority of representatives from
both communities. Even the most rudimentary of governmental functions
became impracticable--for example the Turkish Cypriot leadership's voting
against income and other taxes had placed the government in danger of
bankruptcy. In short, the government was hog-tied; Cyprus' very undoing was
written into its own constitution.
Other assertions by the Turkish government, that "President Makarios craved
union with Greece and the subjugation of Turkish Cypriots . and proposed
amendments to the constitution to achieve these objectives" (Insight
Magazine, Feb. 7), are patently false. By the time this ill-conceived
marriage of a government and its unworkable constitution was imposed on
Cyprus, Makarios was opposed to union with Greece. He sought complete
independence for Cyprus and a unified sovereign state that protected the
rights of all Cypriots, both Greek and Turkish.
It was precisely because Makarios opposed union with Greece that Greek
extremists shelled the presidential palace and twice attempted to
assassinate him. The amendments he proposed to the constitution were
designed to make the government (which has been described by legal experts
as "the first in the world to be denied majority rule by its own
constitution") somewhat workable and to reflect a closer approximation of
the true ratio of Greeks to Turks in Cyprus. Makarios submitted these
proposals to the Vice President, a Turkish Cypriot, who did not respond.
Instead, the Turkish government, reflecting its dominant role in separatist
efforts, answered for him: Turkey rejected the proposals out of hand and
forbade the Turkish Cypriots from even discussing them. Shortly thereafter,
the Turkish Cypriots abandoned the government completely.
Turkey's 1974 assault on Cyprus is commonly referred to by many in the media
as a "landing", a "dispatch of troops" or as anything other than what it
was: a brutal invasion. Turkey also misleadingly argues that the invasion
was authorized by the Treaty of Guarantee. The Treaty of Guarantee provided
that one of the guarantor powers (England, Greece or Turkey) could intervene
in an emergency but only in order to restore the country to its original
(unified) state, and certainly not to partition, ethnically cleanse or
occupy it. And under the U.S.-Turkey Agreement of July 1947, American
consent was required for the use of military force by Turkey because
virtually all of Turkey's military equipment, weapons, tanks and fighter
jets, was supplied by the U.S. This consent was never given. On the very
day of the invasion, July 20, 1974, the United Nations Security Council
condemned Turkey for its aggression, demanding that Turkey withdraw all
troops and allow the displaced Greek Cypriots to return to their confiscated
homes.
There have been at least three further UN resolutions since 1974 demanding
the same, but Turkey has ignored them all. This is why the "Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus," the TRNC, is not recognized by any country in
the world except for Turkey and has no legitimate international standing.
The continuing insistence on partition by Turkey, using the protection of
the Turkish-Cypriot community as a pretext, is merely part of Turkey's
long-held expansionist plans for the island. According to Professor John L.
Scherer, in Blocking the Sun: The Cyprus Conflict, "Since the 1950s, [Turkey
's] plan had been to turn northern Cyprus into a Turkish-run province.
Ankara needed an excuse to intervene, and that was provided by George Grivas
and EOKA fighters. If there had been no EOKA, however, the Turks and
Turkish Cypriots would have found another pretext. They would have planted
their own bombs in Turkish-Cypriot areas and blamed the Greek Cypriots in
order to justify the Turkish invasion."
Attempts are also made to minimize the 80% Greek majority's cultural and
historical claim to the island through assertions like: "Turkish and Greek
Cypriots occupied the island for centuries under a succession of sovereigns
before the Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960" (Insight Magazine,
Feb. 7).
Because of its geo-strategic position in the Mediterranean and the bounty of
its natural resources, Cyprus has been invaded and intermittently ruled over
by many: Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Romans, English, Lusignans,
Genoese, Marmelukes, Venetians, Ottomans, and again the English. The
Ottomans invaded in 1571 and controlled Cyprus for three hundred years (its
longest period of cultural stagnation), but through all of its decidedly
civilized history it has remained a Greek nation in language, architecture,
art, music, culture and spirit.
As noted by Christopher Hitchens in Hostage to History, "the complexity and
variety of Cypriot history cannot efface, any more than could its numerous
owners and rulers, one striking fact. The island has been, since the Bronze
Age, unmistakably Greek." Out of 7,000 years of history, the Turks have
been in Cyprus a mere 300 years. Based on this and an 18% minority, Turkey'
s military establishment, with a seemingly truncated memory, believes that
Cyprus should be part of Turkey.
Most troubling for the future of Cyprus is the apartheid-like creed,
parroted by some journalists covering the issue, that Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots will never be able to live in harmony (although they did so
for three hundred years), therefore let's maintain the Attila Line that has
been imposed on both communities by the Turkish military and forget about
finding a solution. It is no accident that this is identical to the
argument used by Turkish extremists in the 1950s to promote the idea of
partition-one separate state for Turkish Cypriots, another for Greeks.
It is this very separatist objective-engineered by Turkey's ruling military
establishment to achieve its goal of taksim, or the partition of Cyprus (and
further exacerbated by Britain, America and the Greek junta's disastrous
intrigues in Cyprus)-that initiated the cycle of violence by extremists of
both communities in 1963 after centuries of peaceful coexistence.
While Turkey has refused to allow Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their
homes in the occupied north, the Cypriot Government has kept Turkish-Cypriot
homes in trust for them in the hope that they will one day return when
Cyprus is united.
Situated in the UN-controlled buffer-zone, Pyla serves as an example of what
can be achieved when the divisive effect of Turkey's occupation regime is
removed. It is one of the few villages on the island where Greek and
Turkish Cypriots still live together peacefully as they had done for
centuries.
A recent mobilization by Turkish Cypriots to find a blood donor for a
6-year-old Greek Cypriot boy with leukemia further underscores the
speciousness of the myth, propagated for the very purpose of keeping Cyprus
divided, that both communities are somehow inherently incapable of living
together.
Another disinformation bite promoted by the Turkish government and its
spindoctors here is that the Turkish-occupied part of the island functions
as a democracy.
As confirmed by the State Department's most recent Human Rights Report and
by independent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch, Turkey is among the worst human rights violators on
earth, where torture and extra-judicial killings remain a part of its
political landscape. For the fifth consecutive year the Turkish state has
led the world in imprisoned journalists ahead of China and Syria, and has
recently admitted to using death squads to kill as many as 14,000 people
since the 1980's.
As the TRNC is in reality a puppet administration that answers directly to
the Turkish state, the same authoritarian repression that afflicts Turkey
also pervades occupied Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots critical of Denktash's
occupation regime have asked that their identities be kept confidential, as
one economics professor did, for example, when interviewed by the BBC ("the
fact that she didn't want to be identified was significant", BBC News,
9/1/98).
The assassination of prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali in
1996 is instructive--his assassination is widely attributed to extremists
working on behalf of the Turkish state. According to Professor Claire
Palley, a British constitutional law expert, Adali was murdered six days
after the European Human Rights Commission declared Cyprus' application
against Turkey admissible and "after it became obvious he would have been a
witness" in the case. Adali's writings had been extensively quoted in the
application, and Palley stated that Adali "proved Turkey's colonisation of
Cyprus . . . [and its] compelling Turkish Cypriots to emigrate"
Anyone who wants to believe that the TRNC is a democracy will soon be
disappointed upon visiting occupied Cyprus, and taking note of the
square-helmeted, goose-stepping soldiers wielding machine guns on every
corner. Cross the Green Line in Nicosia into the Turkish sector and try to
photograph any building or videotape any street scene and you will soon find
yourself camera-less, in jail, or both.
That apologists of the occupation regime are under the misperception that
this is how a democracy should function is indeed part of the problem. And,
much like the situation with the former Berlin Wall, now there are Turkish
Cypriots from the north escaping to the south to return to their old
neighborhoods among the Greeks; their homes, as guaranteed by Cypriot law,
still waiting for them.
As was recently reported by Gregory Copley of The International Strategic
Studies Association in Washington DC, "[t]he Turkish Cypriots' standard of
living has declined compared with that of their Greek Cypriot neighbors
since 1974. Turkish Cypriots, with 37 percent of the land and the best
agricultural and tourist areas of the island, earn only 30 percent of the
average wage of the Greek Cypriots."
European Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek protested that the
Turkish Cypriot community was being "victimized" and withheld from "a better
and more prosperous future" as a result of Turkey's insistence on an
occupied and divided Cyprus.
An increasing number of Turkish Cypriots have realized that the future of a
prosperous Cyprus is a united one without Turkish troops. Rejecting the
hard-line partitionist stand of the occupation regime, in October 1999 an
influential bloc of 23 Turkish-Cypriot trade unions and professional
organizations appealed directly to visiting U.S. envoy Alfred Moses to work
for the reunification of war-divided Cyprus on the basis of UN Security
Council resolutions that call for a unified Cyprus and a withdrawal of
occupation troops.
The TRNC's occupation regime has trapped Turkish Cypriots in a political and
economic black hole, all the while importing Turks from the depths of
Anatolia to wrest control from Cyprus' native Turkish population. As a
result, as many as half of all Turkish-Cypriots have fled their own homeland
in search of greater economic and political freedom elsewhere.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that there were extremists on both
sides of the Cyprus conflict, while power-brokering by colonial-minded
Britain and interventionist violence by junta-era Greece clearly added fuel
to the Cypriot powder keg. But insiders know that it was Turkish designs
for partition that ultimately caused the breakdown in government and the
terrible tragedy of 1974, the repercussions of which all indigenous
Cypriots, both Greek and Turk, are still suffering today.
Cyprus is Berlin all over again, with one difference. Rather than taking
the side of civilian-controlled governments, pluralistic societies, and
democratic values, our own government has instead decided to ratify
invasion, occupation, and transnational aggression in order to sustain an
alliance of increasingly questionable value.
_______
About the author: Matthew J. Stowell is an Associate with the American
Hellenic Media Project (AHMP), a non-profit think-tank created to address
bias in the media and encourage independent, ethical and responsible
journalism. Commentaries, letters and opinion/editorials by AHMP have been
published in The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science
Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Detroit News, The Economist, The
Financial Times, Forbes Global, The Miami Herald, The New York Post, The New
York Times, The Toronto Sun, USA Today, The Village Voice, The Wall Street
Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and World Press Review.
A shorter version of this article was published in the form of a letter to
the editor of Insight Magazine.
_________________
American Hellenic Media Project
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New York, NY 10028-0008
ah...@hri.org
www.ahmp.org
The American Hellenic Media Project is a non-profit organization created to
address inaccuracy and bias in the media and encourage independent, ethical
and responsible journalism.
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From: Spirit of Truth
(using June's e-mail to communicate to you)!
defaultnot
cock-sucker "Jason K. Lambrou" cannot ignore the fact, which they
already know well, that Turks, just like Greeks, Arabs, Armanians,
Serbs, and others, were subjects of Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Empire was not a democratic representative of Turkish Nation
nor the Turks democratically elected or supported their Ottoman
rulers. On the contrary, Turks were kept out of Ottoman ranks,
administration, ruling class, deprived every possible human rights. As
a matter of fact, Turkey did not exist until October 29, 1923 when the
Republic of Turkey was founded.
Ottoman Empire was administred, rulled and benefitted from by its
non-Turkish, non-Moslem subjects, like Greeks, Armenians, Serbs,
Hunhgarians, Albanians, etc. Every single Ottoman sultan was a son of
a Christian woman concubine (Greek, Armenian, Serb, Hunhgarian,
Albanian, Russian, French, Spanish, etc). The standard policy of
Ottoman Empire for 600 plus years was to keep Turks the poorest,
uneducated, unemployed, socially, economically, politically powerless
and out of Ottoman ranks. Not a single Ottoman pasha, officer,
governor, mayor, officer, minister, ambassador, etc was a person of
Turkish heritage. So the Turks would not have a chance to revolt and
take over the empire.
So Ottoman Empire was not a Turkish Empire, it did not even claim to
be one. It did not even pursue Turkish nationalism, culture, language,
aspirations, welfare. Ottomans did not even speak Turkish language.
The Turks who attempted to pursuue Turkish nationalism, culture,
language, aspirations, welfare, were punished by death by the Ottoman
rulers. But, it was a multi-national Empire of Greeks, Armanians,
Serbs, Hunhgarians, Albanians, etc.; they were the Ottomans, they
benefitted from its conquests and loot.
But the Turk hating, Turk killing brain-washed, racist Greeks,
Armenians and other Turk haters attach the word "Turk" to Ottoman in
order to dehumanize and rape, torture, massacre Turks, drive them out
of their homes and confiscate their pocessions. This is their fucken
racist culture.
Jason K. Lambrou
Took an Arab lesbian up to his room,
And they argued all night
Over who had the right
To do what, and with which, and to whom
Agamemnon
"Jason K. Lambrou" <xbat...@nyc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4022CE08...@nyc.rr.com...
> Sean was aTurk who was not very kind,
> he used his penis instead of his mind,
> one day he bent over,
> and his dog took over,
> a gave him a bone from behind.
>
>
There once was a Gay Turk named Sean
Whose pants always kept getting torn
Each day he bent down
So his hands touched the ground
And a bull coped a feel with its horn
Jason K. Lambrou
vile and profane attacks you can't be nice to this faggot.
elen
Ο "Jason K. Lambrou" <xbat...@nyc.rr.com> έγραψε στο μήνυμα
news:4024EE07...@nyc.rr.com...