Cyprus’s Crusader Castles in the sky in North Cyprus
By Chris Elliott
Daily we read in the various media of an outpouring of comments and perhaps indications that the talks for a Cyprus settlement may take place, unless another excuse not to talk, is found.
Should we take heed of what we read and hope for a new sense of justice and progress being made on the Cyprus settlement, perhaps not whilst the historical nationalistic rhetoric of yesteryear keeps surfacing and calls for North Cyprus to be maintained in an embargoed status for perhaps another 40 years.
Many people read the news on the internet where they can make comments as to their views and desires. A prime case of this is in a recent posting by Michael Hodges in the Financial Times where he wrote about North Cyprus as a holiday destination and for daring to utter the words “Turkish Republic of North Cyprus” and “Ercan Airport” and this received an unprecedented outpouring
of criticism much of it rejecting the existence of the TRNC and anyone who should consider giving it any support. Why?
One of the mystifying facts is that the world has been led to believe that on 20th July 1974, there was witnessed, a crime of the century against human rights and yet history shows that the problems of Cyprus go back even further and perhaps if the world had taken action much earlier or when Archbishop Makarios requested help from the UN on 19th July 1974 claiming that the Republic of Cyprus had been already invaded, not by the Turkish Peace Intervention but by the Greek military Junta, then a solution to the problems may have been found. Read this link.
The depressing fact is many people live in the past and only remember what they want to, whereas if there was a general acceptance of the past history both bad and good by both sides, then a reconciliation is possible even if two communities decide to live separately and in harmony and share all of the country’s resources. to make what is Cyprus, both North and South, a jewel in the Mediterranean.
An unwillingness to agree to do this means an agreement can never be reached so a total separation is the only solution and the world should not insist on North Cyprus being held in limbo for perhaps another 40 years until both parties agree a settlement, which is unlikely to happen unless the truth and history of Cyprus is accepted and the communities move into a forward-thinking and progressive world.
To read more of an excellent article about the tourism potential of North Cyprus in the Financial Times article by Michael Hodges and the outpouring of damning comments, do please follow this link and perhaps make your own opinion known.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2d836c9c-ee05-11e2-816e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ZzOfrqdk
We are copying here a comment made about this article on LinkedIn:
Chris Green (Freelance Opinion & Debate Columnist and Essayist: Star Media Group (Star Kıbrıs Medya Grubu)) wrote:
“This is a very good article although I have yet to read the Michael Hodges piece. In fact, whilst the Greek National Guard did invade Cyprus after the May 15th Coup, this actually topped up the GNG who had been there in considerable numbers since 1964! In excess of 20,000 Greek National Guardsmen were on Cyprus at the point of the Turkish Intervention on 20 Temmuz (July 1974), a two-stage intervention which was to last for 30 days. A definitive account of the Intervention can be found in the book by the late and great Turkish writer, Mehmet Ali Birand the ’30 Hot Days’. Incidentally, 1317 Turkish sons fell during the Intervention: Greek losses exceeded 1500 + heavy civilian deaths.”
When one considers the total loss for the 2 communities the figures, though low by the standards of past wars is stupendous in percentage terms. According to the records at the national struggle museum (all the names are recorded on the museum walls, and I have the books with family details of at least 1500 victims) 1810 Turkish Cypriots lost their lives. When. one considers that the population of the TC in 1974 was only 115.000 then its more then 1.6%. if we were to equate that to the population of the UK it amounts to 960.000. According to P.R.I.O (Peace Research Institute of Oslo) 50% of all TCs were by 1974 refugees. The GC losses though vague for the same period of 1955-1974 were no less then 4000 plus one third refugees. Really heart breaking for such a small Island. Sadly the trauma suffered by all Cypriots seemed to have been the main reason in NOT finding a compromise. Education and indoctrination in particular on the Greek side seems to have made the situation worse.
Thank you Ismail for adding more facts to the overall picture which will help the many who know nothing of the Cyprus tragedy, understand more of how and why the Cyprus division exists and many will start to understand why no progress has been made in resolving this problem. Thank you again.
It wont help the many who only know and believe what they are being told by their fathers etc. They will always believe that the Turks are their enemy and the cause of all their troubles.. History is being repeated, in the past the Junta thought by taking Cyprus the Greek people would forget the mess they got Greece into and behold them as hero’s now the government thinks that solving the Cyprus problem will cause the Greek Cypriots to forget the financial mess they got them into and the fact that many had half their savings stolen. They think they will be held as hero’s…. maybe they will, humans are very fickle.
Thank you John for adding more facts to the case that many would like to ignor.