www.talkcyprus.org

[s300]

The accepted genocide of Kurds in Turkey
Publié le : 30-10-2006


Thursday, October 26, 2006

KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Rebwar Fatah

Since the Armenian genocide, Turkey has done very well to hide and disguise its dark history from the international community. But a shady past rarely dawns a bright future.

Instead, Turkey is re-branding itself with Europe-friendly terms to essentially get rid of what it has always wanted to be rid of. Turkey’s tidy up of its language: words with a distinct Kurdish origin wiped out and replaced. Indeed, anything that is not strictly Turkish has been linked to “terrorism” – a trigger word guaranteed to win the sympathies of the international community.

The Turkish constitution does not recognise Kurds in Turkey, and so often labels them as terrorists, providing a convenient scapegoat for military uprisings and other political issues. Thus, “terrorist” becomes a synonym for Kurds.

Turkey frequently argues that the PKK is a terrorist organisation; hence all Kurdish organisations are banned for what they may imply.

Turkey is desperately in need of an imaginary threat to its “national security”, “territorial integrity” and “sovereignty”, achieved by “separatist/terrorist” Kurds. The scale of the suffering Kurds and destruction of Kurdish homeland does not fit into any “terrorist” definition. In 1999, the death toll of Kurds killed in Turkish military operations increased to over 40,000. According to the figures published by Turkey’s own Parliament, 6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated of all inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced. This sounds like an elimination of a people, a culture and a homeland.

If Turkey is genuine in its elimination of terrorism, it must take brave steps, accepting Kurdish people and their homeland, Kurdistan, and ending its history of oppression.

Professor Noam Chomsky called the Turkish response to Kurds an “ethnic cleansing”, resulting in the death of thousands, the emigration of over two million people and the destruction of approximately 6000 villages.

In fact, these methods by which Turkey has sought to oppress the Kurdish people are similar to those used by Saddam Hussein in the recent past, including the destruction of Kurdish land, mass evacuation and deportation. In some other areas, Turkey has used more oppressive methods to achieve its “Final Solution” of the Kurdish Issue. Some have found this unsurprising, given Turkey’s Ottoman ancestry. During World War I, for example, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany, and in the conflict’s immediate aftermath conducted a programme aiming to exterminate the Armenians, Greeks, Yezidis and Alwis. To date, however, Turkey denies these genocidal campaigns.

The oppression of Kurdish people within Turkey can be defined as genocide in various ways; cultural, linguistic and physical all play a part in the cleansing of Kurdish ethnicity from Turkey itself, and are still embraced by the Turkish constitution.

The head of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, Lord Avebury, said of Turkish atrocities in 1996 that,

"Just as many people in western Europe turned a blind eye to Hitler's preparations for the Holocaust in the thirties, the democratic world ignores the evidence of incipient genocide against the Kurds in Turkey today."

As history has shown in Iraq, Turkey cannot attempt to solve the Kurdistan issue with violence and oppression; the days have well passed in which campaigns of genocide can be “successfully” conducted, and Turkey must look to the future, realising that modern Kurds are not as Kurds from the dark ages.

Examples of atrocities by Turks

The history of Turks from Ottoman Empire to the Turkish State is a continuous attempt to eliminate any ethnic and religious group that come in contact with them.

1821, April 22 - Execution of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregorios and loosing of Turkish mobs on the Greek inhabitants of the cities and towns of the Turkish mainland, as a reprisal for the Greek upraise in Peloponisos.

1822 - The Sultan takes new reprisals to terrify the Christians on the Island of Chios. 50,000 Greeks are murdered.

1850 – 12,000 Armenians and Nestorians are massacred by Turkish government.

1860, April 7 - The Sultan orders a massacre of the Maronite villagers in Lebanon.

1860, July 6 - Syrians are massacred under the direction of Ahmed Pasa in
Damascus. 11,000 killed.

1876 - Turkish authorities suppress an uprising in Bulgaria. 15,000 people are massacred in the area of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, among them are a number of Armenian members from the local colony. 58 villages and 5 monasteries are destroyed.

1877, June 28 – After the Russian retreat during the Russo-Turkish war, the Turkish army and Kurdish Guerrillas destroy Christian villages. Roughly 6,000 Armenians die.

1892, Summer – 8,000 Yezidis, near Mosul, are massacred and their villages are burned by orders of Ferik pasha for refusing to accept Mohammed.

1894, September to 1896, August - Sultan Hamit applies the policy of genocide to Armenians.

1894, August and September – 12,000 Armenians are killed in Sassun.

1895, October - The first organised genocide takes place in Constantinople and Trebizond.

1895, November and December - The Turkish authorities organize a large massacre throughout the country.

1896, June - Massacre of Armenians at the city of Van.

1896 – 300,000 Armenians are massacred in Constantinople.

1896, May 12 – 55,000 Greeks are murdered in the island of Crete, while
the conflicts between Greeks and Turks in the island continue.

1909, March – 30,000 Armenians and some American missionaries are massacred in Adana, Tarsus and other towns of Cilicia by the Young-Turks.

1909 – Revolt of the Arabs in Yemen is suppressed by the Young-Turks.

1911, October 1 - Emilianos, Bishop of Grevena, is assassinated by the Turks.

1912 - The Turkish army retreat from East Thrace and loot the villages of the Didimoticho and Andrianopole districts. Villages in the Malgara district are burnt. The same happens in Kessani. Assassinations and massacres accompany the destruction and looting in this predominantly Greek region.

1913 - The re-occupation of Eastern Thrace by the Turkish army leads to atrocities against Greeks. 15,690 are massacred.

1913, February - The Greek inhabitants of Crithea are compelled to leave their village in East Thrace by the Turkish authorities. A brutal looting follows.

1914, January to December - More than 250,000 Greeks are exiled from East Thrace and the region of Smyrna. Their properties are confiscated.

1914, May 27 - The Christian population of Pergamum is ordered to leave the town within two hours by the Turkish authorities. The terrorized inhabitants take refuge in the Greek island of Mytilini.

1914, May and June - The Turkish authorities enact all kind of persecutions in the Greek region of west Asia Minor. The coast of Asia Minor is devastated. In Erithrea and Fokea Greeks are massacred.

1914, July and August - The Turkish government creates "the forced labour battalions". It is a new scheme for the extermination of the Greek-Ottoman citizens drafted in the Turkish army. By this method 400,000 Greeks are exterminated through hunger, hardship, maltreatment and deprivation.

1914, August – 12,000 Assyrians are murdered by Djevdet Khalil Bey. The number of Assyrians of all faiths, massacred by the Turks since 1895 is up to 424,000

1914, September - Greeks of the Makri region are killed by the Turks.

1914, November - By orders of the Turkish government many villages of Eastern Thrace are forcibly evacuated (Neochorio, Galatas, Callipoli etc.). Thousands flee from their ancestral homes to Greece.

1914, November and December - By order of the Turkish government, the region of Visii and part of the Saranda Eklisiae is evacuated. 19,000 Greeks are exiled in Anatolia and their properties looted. According to the Ecumenical Patriarchate records, 119,940 Greeks were expelled from East Thrace.

1915, April - Organized arrests of a large number of Armenian intellectuals and prominent national leaders in Constantinople and the provinces. They are deported to Anatolia and are killed on the way. The Armenian soldiers of the Turkish army are disarmed and massacred by the thousands. The Armenian population is exiled to the Syrian Desert and massacred.

1915 - The Turks initiate a fierce persecution campaign against the Syrian Orthodox and Nestorian inhabitants of Hakkari, Mardin and Midyat regions. One of the first victims was Adai Ser, Archbishop of Sert. This annihilation campaign which included large scale massacres and destruction continued till the end of World War I.

1915, August 20 to 1916, May 6 - The Ottomans hang 35 Lebanese and Syrian national leaders in Al Burj square in Lebanon and Al Marja square in Syria, with the charge of "struggling for freedom". Under Ottoman rule, a total of 130,000 Lebanese and Syrians are killed.

1916 - The Turks force the inhabitants of different regions of Pontus to immigrate to Sivas. Only 550 survived out of 16,750 inhabitants of the Elevi and Tripoli regions. Of the 49,520 inhabitants of Trebizond only 20,300 remained alive.

1916 - Destruction of the region Riseou-Platanou of Pontus.

1917, Spring – 23,000 Greeks, inhabitants of Cydoniae, are deported.

1917, November - 400 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia Minor. Their properties are looted.

1918, April - Another 8,000 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia Minor.

1920 - Chrisanthos, Bishop of Trebizond, is condemned to death in Adsentia by the Court Martial of Ankara. The Bishop of Zilon dies in jail.

1920 – 30,000 Armenians are massacred in the areas of Kars and
Alexandropole by Kemalists.

1920, September - Kemalist Turkey attacks Armenia. The Armenians fight against the Turkish army, but finally they succumb on the 2nd of December 1920. The Turkish victory is followed by a massacre of the Armenians and the annexation of one half of the Armenia's Independent Republic of May 28, 1918, to Turkey.

1920 to 1921 - Another 50,000 Armenians are executed by Kemalists.

1921, June 3 – 1,320 Greeks, inhabitants of Samsus, are arrested by Kemalists. The next day 701 of the detainees are killed. The victims are buried in mass graves behind the house of Bekir Pasha. The rest are exiled to the interior of Anatolia.

1922, September 9 - The Turks enter Smyrna and ignite it. Massacres of Greeks and Armenians are organized. The death count is around 150,000 persons.

1924, July 10 - The Turkish army suppresses the Kurdish revolt in Hakkari. After 79 days, 36 villages are vandalized and destroyed, and 12 others are erased.

1925, February – 30,000 Kurds are killed during a revolt against the Turkish authorities. It is estimated that the Kurds have suffered the loss of 500,000 people by massacres and displacements by the Turks over the years.

1925, March 3 - The great Kurdish revolution bursts out at Elazig under Seyh - Sait 10.000 Kurds seize Harput and attack Diyarbakir, the Capital of Kurdistan After the complete destruction of 48 villages. The revolution was suppressed at 7/10/1927 drowned in Kurdish blood.

1927, May 30 - 2,000 Kurdish fighters are killed in Amed (Diyarbakir) and Agri. For many days, the waters of the Murat river are turned red by blood.

1937, May 23 - The Turkish government forbids the edition of the newspaper of Constantinople "Son Telegraph", because it has referred to the Kurdish sufferings.

1938 - Turkey annexes the Sanjak of Antiohie-Hatay. Armenian and Arab population is exiled.

1942, November 11 - The law of taxation on property of the non-Muslims of Turkey (Varlik Vergisi) is voted. It is an attempt of economic extermination of the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities economic authorities.

1955, September 6 - The Turkish authorities organize a great pogrom against the Greeks of Constantinople. 29 churches are burnt and 46 are looted. The graves of the Ecumenical Patriarchs and Christian cemeteries are vandalized. Thousands of shops are destroyed. Hundred of women are raped.

1963 - 1967 - Turkey provokes the stability of the newborn Republic of Cyprus by using agents.

1964 - Turkey unilaterally denounces the Convention of Establishment of Commerce and Navigation of 1930 (between Venizelos and AtaTurk). The Greek citizens are forced to leave Turkey immediately. Their relatives are obliged to expedite their departure from the country. A secret law is issued denying Greek citizens all their property rights in Turkey.

1964 - The Turkish government expels 12,000 Greeks of Constantinople declaring them as spies. Their properties are confiscated.

1964 - All minority schools on the islands of Imvros and Tenedos are closed while Turkish jails are established. The properties of the Greek population are expropriated. The Greek minority flee the islands. It is noteworthy that both the Greek island Sof Imvros and Tenedos are ceded to Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne because they lay at the entrance to the Dardanelles. According to Article 14 of the aforementioned treaty the protection of person and property of the native non-Muslim population is guaranteed. However, the intransigent Turkish policy of uprooting and annihilation of non-Turkish ethnic groups, and the systematic efforts to Turkify the islands with mass settlings of Turks are the reasons that today, from the 12,000 Greek inhabitants only 300 elderly people remain, for whom emigration would be pointless.

1967 - Vandalism in St. Anna's church in the village of Agridia in Imvros, another example of the Turkish policy of "national purification".

1973 - 1974 - De facto questioning of Greece's sovereign rights over the Aegean continental shelf, through the granting of research licenses to the Turkish government petroleum company (TRAO) and the sending of the research vessel "CARDALI" to conduct research in the area.

1974 - De facto questioning of Greek air space of 10 n.m., for the first time since 1931. Continuous and massive violations of Greek air space (over 500 in 1995 alone). Over 80 percent of violations occur at less than 6 n.m. from the Greek coast and even over the Greek islands. De facto arbitrary rejection by Turkey of Athens F.I.R. (until 1980).

1974, July 20 - The Turkish army invades the independent and unarmed island of Cyprus, a sovereign member of the U.N. and seizes the 40% of its territory, on the pretext that is necessary for the security of Turkish-Cypriot minority, which comprises the 18% of the whole population. In this campaign called "operation peace" by Ankara, 5,000 Cypriots are killed, 1,619 are kidnapped, hundreds are tortured, raped and exiled to Turkey.

1978, December 25 - Turkish fascists massacre hundreds of Kurds in Marash.

1978, December 28 - Proclamation of Martial Law in 15 provinces of Northern Kurdistan prohibiting for years any information about the suffering of the Kurdish people.

1978, December - 110 Kurds are massacred in the Northern Kurdistan, city of Kahramanmaras.

1979, December to 1980, September - Conflicts between the PKK and the Turkish state provided a distinctively ethnic source of violence. Few thousands Kurds were killed (mostly civilians) in different incidents.

1980, July - An outbreak of violence erupts in Corum, central Anatolia, causing 30 deaths and a mass exodus of terrified Alevis from the region.

1983 - A law banned the use, either in speech or in uniting, of any language not recognized as the official language of another country (in effect, Kurdish).

1984 - Turkey shuts off the supply of water from the Alkuwik river which originates from Turkey and reaches the south of Allepo, Syria, leading to the desertification of the area after its plains dried out.

1988, February - A pogrom night is organized to Armenian population in Baku and Sumgait regions with a replica organization of the terror night of Constantinople in 1955.

1989 - Passage of arbitrary Turkish law establishing Turkish "Search and Rescue" rights over half of the Aegean, in direct violation of ICAO rules.

1991, August to December - The Turkish Air Force and Army attacks the PKK groups in Southern Kurdistan with continuous bombing of Kurdish villages. More than 100 Kurds, including women and children, perished and 150 were injured.

1992 - Ankara builds the "Ataturk" dam on the river Euphrates and severely decreases its flow to Iraq and Syria, thus threatening the agriculture and economic survival of both nations.

1992, January to 1993, October - Turkish bombing of Kurdish villages. 4,800 are injured among which 2,000 eventually perish.

1994, May to August - Renewed Turkish raids on Kurds claim the lives of 400 Kurdish villagers and injure more than 200.

1995 - A pogrom night is organized by the Turkish government at Gari Osman Pascha district in Istanbul against the Alewi, a religious population.

1995, March 20 – 35,000 Turkish soldiers enter Southern Kurdistan under the pretext of fighting the PKK groups that, according to Ankara, had taken refuge there. Through indiscriminate bombing, torture and forced marches on PKK minefields, 200 Kurds are killed, most of whom were non-combatants. More than 50,000 Turkish troops moved into Southern Kurdistan. Along four routes, a 335 kilometres long border was breached and eyewitnesses noted that advanced Turkish teams were sent some 40 kilometres inside South Kurdistan. Civilian Kurds have been killed and refugee camps have been bombarded from the air.
1996, January 31 - The Turkish army lands some of its men on the smaller of the Imia islets which constitutes an integral part of Greek territory according to international treaties and agreements dating back to 1923. It is the first time that Turkey openly lays claims over actual Greek territory.

1996, May 6 - After a renewed, intensive six-week military campaign, Turkey withdraws its last soldiers from southern Kurdistan. The final number of the Kurdish casualties is more than 400. The injured are even more.

1996, August - During a week of peaceful demonstrations on the borders of occupied Nicosia, the Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators killing two people and injuring forty.

1997, February - Ankara responds to the Cypriot government's plans to purchase air-defence systems by threatening to invade and occupy the free areas. A threat often adopted since 1974.

1999 - The death toll of Kurds killed in Turkish military operations rises to over 40,000 and according to the figures published by Turkeys own parliament, 6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated of all inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced.

Reference

Chomsky, Noam, ‘Alpaslan Isikli to Noam Chomsky – Email Conversations’ archived at: http://www.universite-toplum.org/text.php3?id=61 (22nd October 2006)

Levene, Mark, Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923, Holocaust Genocide Studies 12: 393-433. Archived at: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/393 (22nd October 2006)

Koivunen, Kristiina, ‘The Invisible War in North Kurdistan’, p.27 archived: http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/val/sospo/vk/koivunen/theinvis.pdf (22nd October 2006)

Lord Avebury, House of Lords, 22nd January 1996

occidentalis.com, The Turkish crime of our century, 22 October 2006, http://www.occidentalis.com/article.php?sid=1939&thold=0

The chronology of the events is taken from a number of sources.

My thanks to Michelle Johnson and Chris Lacey.

[cypezokyli]

not again .... :roll:

[zan]

cypezokyli wrote: not again .... :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Xenos 2Fan]

...and your point is? :roll:

[Lewis Gerolemou]

I think the point is when Greek Cypriots complain about what happened to them in 1974 and the Turkish Cypriots respond by saying "look what they did to us after independence, we need to be secure" they, the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, ignore what went on before and why the Greek Cypriots did not trust Turkey or want Turkish domination on the island. Some wanted the security that they felt Enosis would bring. By granting disproportionate powers to the descendents of the Ottoman empire Britain was leaving a time-bomb in Cyprus that many Greek Cypriots, with the past in mind, found difficult to accept.
Bearing this in mind I have never been able to understand what makes Turkish Cypriots so special that their votes were worth more than those of Greek Cypriots (1960 Constitution) and why they should bleat on about "isolation" when they are living a state that was created by force - or could it be something to do with the fact that Bush and Blair are desperate to keep Turkey onside as a bulwark against the threat that they perceive from the east. Ah yes that's it - if you are a friend of the US you can get away with murder, ask the Palestinians and the Kurds (but not the ones in Northern Iraq because they are good ones, the ones across the border in Turkey are the bad ones)

[Khan]

yawn.

[erolz]

Lewis Gerolemou wrote: Some wanted the security that they felt Enosis would bring.

And there was me thinking that enosis was (especially for the Greek Cypriot leadership like makarios and Grivas) an ideological ideal - based on the mengali idea and the creation of a greater Hellenic empire that harked back to the ancient one, when in fact it was just about 'security' for Cypriots. So just how was enosis supposed to protect Cyprus from Turkish aggression then ? The fact was Greece had neither the will or more importantly the ability to physically protect Cyprus from such potential Turkish aggression is I guess irrelavant to such historical revisionism ?

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
By granting disproportionate powers to the descendents of the Ottoman empire Britain was leaving a time-bomb in Cyprus that many Greek Cypriots, with the past in mind, found difficult to accept.

They did not only find it difficult to accept, they (Greek Cypriot leadership) accepted it knowing that they would then use whatever means necessary including illegality and the use of violence to remove these rights they agreed to.

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
Bearing this in mind I have never been able to understand what makes Turkish Cypriots so special that their votes were worth more than those of Greek Cypriots (1960 Constitution)

Try asking yourself what makes a Republic of Cyprus citizens 'so special' that their vote is worth so much more than a UK or German citizens vote and why such disproportionate representation is considered necessary, democratic and fair within the EU and you might find the answer to your original question as well.

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
Ah yes that's it - if you are a friend of the US you can get away with murder,

Just as the Republic of Cyprus administration of the 60-74 not only got away with countless illegal acts and the murder of it's own citizens but was rewarded for such action with recognition as the sole legitimate government of Cyprus - because such was in the interests of the US and other world powers. Is this the kind of thing you mean ?

[Lewis Gerolemou]

Erol you are as predictable as your replies, I think you deserve Khan's yawn.

Do you really think that Cyprus would have been less secure from Turkey if it had joined Greece, have you never heard of NATO?

Are you talking about the illegality and use of violence of 1960 - 1974 or the centuries of illegality and violence as set out in the original post on this thread?

The disproportionate representations within the EU have been agreed by the members of that club, to the best of my knowledge they were not imposed by another party and they certainly were not agreed in anticipation or for the benefit of Greek Cypriot membership.

Quote: Just as the Republic of Cyprus administration of the 60-74 not only got away with countless illegal acts and the murder of it's own citizens but was rewarded for such action with recognition as the sole legitimate government of Cyprus - because such was in the interests of the US and other world powers. Is this the kind of thing you mean ?
_________________

Again you ignore the centuries of illegalities posted above and what some Greek Cypriots saw as "justification" for the events of 64-70. With regard to recognising the Republic of Cyprus - who would you suggest has the right to be recognised, 80% of the population or 18% who have illegaly created a state that forced more people from their homes than were "saved" by the invaders?

[erolz]

Lewis Gerolemou wrote: Do you really think that Cyprus would have been less secure from Turkey if it had joined Greece, have you never heard of NATO?

Your claim was that enosis would have made Cyprus more secure from Turkey and this was why some supported enosis over 'just' independence. I think neither of these are true - that enosis was supported over independence for reason of 'security' or that if enosis had been achieved Greece would have been any more physically able (or willing) to protect Cyprus from potenital Turkish aggresion.

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
Are you talking about the illegality and use of violence of 1960 - 1974 or the centuries of illegality and violence as set out in the original post on this thread?

Is this an argument that one wrong justifies another? Are you saying that the Greek Cypriot leadership had a valid right and reason to commit illegal acts, to murder their citizens because of previous wrongs done to Cyprus?

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
The disproportionate representations within the EU have been agreed by the members of that club, to the best of my knowledge they were not imposed by another party and they certainly were not agreed in anticipation or for the benefit of Greek Cypriot membership.

Whatever the way such disproportionate representation within the EU was established - it was established and does exist. You can not understand what makes Turkish Cypriot 'so special' to have disproportionate representation within a untied Cyprus or why such is necessary , but have no such problem understanding why Republic of Cyprus citizens are so special within the EU. The reasons why such exits within the EU are the same as why it needs to exists within a united Cyprus and it is as unfair or not and undemocratic or not in each.

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
Again you ignore the centuries of illegalities posted above and what some Greek Cypriots saw as "justification" for the events of 64-70. With regard toindependenceg the Republic of Cyprus - who would you suggest has the right to be recognised, 80% of the population or 18% who have illegaly created a state that forced more people from their homes than were "saved" by the invaders?

I suggest that if the world and world powers were interested in morality then they would not have granted recognition to an unconstitutional Greek Cypriot only Republic of Cyprus admin that have been involved in such illegal acts and violence as the Greek Cypriot admin of 60-74 were (and many years before a Turkish Cypriot declared state). However we know that the world does not work like this and powerful nations pursue their interests and not 'justice'. What is to me hypocritical is to ignore and forget this reality when one benefits from it and to cry and whine about it when one does not.

[zan]

Lewis Gerolemou wrote:
Are you talking about the illegality and use of violence of 1960 - 1974 or the centuries of illegality and violence as set out in the original post on this thread?

Centuries of illegalities against who?Cypriots? Are we not Cypriots as well. Were these illegalities not carried out against us all. One minute we are all Cypriots with the same blood and the next we are the ones that carried out all the wrongs. What is it to be?

The main difference between these eras is that there was no Republic of Cyprus before 1960. The first president of the Republic of Cyprus was Makarios and look what he did to a large part of his people. We elected him and he kicked us in the teeth. He could have made Cyprus a paradise and he chose to make it a hell.




Quote: The disproportionate representations within the EU have been agreed by the members of that club, to the best of my knowledge they were not imposed by another party and they certainly were not agreed in anticipation or for the benefit of Greek Cypriot membership.

So who were the two parties that signed the 1960 constitution then?:roll:

[s300]

Quote: I suggest that if the world and world powers were interested in morality then they would not have granted recognition to an unconstitutional Greek Cypriot only Republic of Cyprus admin that have been involved in such illegal acts and violence as the Greek Cypriot admin of 60-74 were (and many years before a Turkish Cypriot declared state). However we know that the world does not work like this and powerful nations pursue their interests and not 'justice'. What is to me hypocritical is to ignore and forget this reality when one benefits from it and to cry and whine about it when one does not.

The world powers were never impressed by the unilateral withdrawal from government by the Turkish Cypriots in the 1960's. The international community see this as a subtefuge and stepping stone to Cyprus' current division. This is the key to why your "isolation" is not taken seriously and only raised by a few countries with an interest in maintaining the division.

[zan]

s300 wrote: Quote: I suggest that if the world and world powers were interested in morality then they would not have granted recognition to an unconstitutional Greek Cypriot only Republic of Cyprus admin that have been involved in such illegal acts and violence as the Greek Cypriot admin of 60-74 were (and many years before a Turkish Cypriot declared state). However we know that the world does not work like this and powerful nations pursue their interests and not 'justice'. What is to me hypocritical is to ignore and forget this reality when one benefits from it and to cry and whine about it when one does not.

The world powers were never impressed by the unilateral withdrawal from government by the Turkish Cypriots in the 1960's. The international community see this as a subtefuge and stepping stone to Cyprus' current division. This is the key to why your "isolation" is not taken seriously and only raised by a few countries with an interest in maintaining the division.

O.F.: And is it true that you deprived them of many constitutional privileges,

Beatitude? M.: I deprived them of nothing. I simply complained about those privileges because they only served to hamper the functioning of the state. The Constitution provides that they be represented in the government at the ratio of thirty percent. And very often the Turkish Cypriots didn't have people capable of filling that thirty percent. There was, for example, a post that I could have been filled by an intelligent Greek and it had to be given to an illiterate Turk just because he was a Turk. Once they voted against taxes. I tried to explain to them that a state can't survive if the citizens don't pay taxes, and they refused anyway. So I forced them to pay all the same. Was that an abuse? Another time, when I was about to go to Belgrade for the conference of nonaligned countries, Mr. Denktash tried to stop me from going by exercising his veto power. I told him, "Exercise it all you like. I'm going just the same." Was that an abuse?'


Walked or pushed?????????????????

[erolz]

s300 wrote:
The world powers were never impressed by the unilateral withdrawal from government by the Turkish Cypriots in the 1960's. The international community see this as a subtefuge and stepping stone to Cyprus' current division. This is the key to why your "isolation" is not taken seriously and only raised by a few countries with an interest in maintaining the division.

The world powers at the time cared only for averting a dangerous confrontation within NATO between Turkey and Greece during the height of the cold war. Their solution to THEIR problem was to place UN troops in Cyprus and this required them to acknowledged the by then all Greek Cypriot admin as a legitimate government. The recognition that was by degrees extracted from this was every thing to do with political expediency and nothing to do with 'justice' or an assessment of who was 'wrong'. As a Greek Cypriot you have taken that benefit of that political expediency of states like the US and milked it for every benefit you can, and now you moan that it is unfair that the US sees political expediency in supporting Turkey (to a limited degree). That where I come from is just hypocrasy.
I may just as well argue that the reason the world has done so little in action against the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Turkey post 74 is because they were never impressed with how the Greek Cypriot community behaved towards the Turkish Cypriot community from 60-74. The world (powers like US) have done what is expedient for them to do so. It was expediency that led to Greek Cypriot recognition and if in the future those world powers give support to Turkey at the expense of Greek Cypriot it will be because it is expedient for them to do so.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Withdrawing from government is (and was) a valid and legal form of protest that has been and is used around the world. Withdrawing from government when ones continued attendance meant a real chance of being murdered is common sense. In 1965 the Turkish Cypriot community formally request via the UN that they be allowed to take up again their legal and constitutional positions in government with UN protection where necessary. They were told they could only do so if they agreed without negotiation all of Makarios 'proposed' amendments and that if they attempted to do so without such 'agreement' then 'their security could not be guaranteed' - meaning that once again their lives would be at risk.

[s300]

Quote: Walked or pushed?????????????????

CHILLAX! You skipped daintily into self imposed isolation.

what would happen if Turkish Cypriots tried to refill these government positions?-I think this would be a good step.

[zan]

s300 wrote: Quote: Walked or pushed?????????????????

CHILLAX! You skipped daintily into self imposed isolation.

what would happen if Turkish Cypriots tried to refill these government positions?-I think this would be a good step.


1964: Deaths follow Cyprus truce breach
Fighting between ethnic Turks and Greeks in the disputed island of Cyprus has left at least 16 people dead.
Shots started to be exchanged between the two sides' lines in the port town of Limassol late yesterday afternoon.

Four Greek Cypriots including a schoolgirl were reported to have been injured in the shooting before a ceasefire was negotiated.

Soon after ambulances driven by RAF personnel went into the area of fighting to bring out the wounded.

However, fighting resumed at around dawn on Wednesday morning.

By the time peace was restored the Greek Cypriots had succeeded in ousting the Turkish Cypriots from their last remaining strongholds in Limassol including Berengaria Castle.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/12/newsid_2745000/2745245.stm



I ask again walked or pushed?????????????????