Cyprus Today March 19-25, 2005
 

We’re Talking Cypriots Not Greeks

North V South: There’s still a war on, you know

BEWARE – there is still a war going on, because there is still hostility against Turkish-speaking Cypriots in the minds of a majority of the Greek-speaking Cypriots.

Please understand they never were Greeks. They are Cypriots. Archbishop Makarios III, later the first President [of the independent republic], lied when he repeatedly proclaimed: “Cyprus has always been Greek and shall always remain Greek.”

Cyprus was never Greek. The island was occupied or dominated by all countries and empires in the region throughout the centuries, but Cyprus was never ruled by Greece (or Hellas), a country of different “city-states” without any colonies. Alexander the Great was a Macedonian who introduced Hellenism complete with the Greek language, philosophy and a form of political “democracy”. Later on, the island became part of the Catholic East Roman Empire of Byzantium, later evolved into the Orthodox religion.

The DNA of Greek speaking Cypriots is closer to Turkish-speaking Cypriots than it is to people living in Greece, just as the DNA of Turkish-speaking Cypriots is less similar to mainland Turks than their neignbours in the South. In Greek-speaking families, they say you will always find a Turkish granny. Of course!

The Turkish-speaking minority on Cyprus has only been living here for the past 25 generations; therefore, many Greek-speaking Cypriots consider them as unwelcome foreigners, Muslims and lower class humans, next to animals; “Untermenschen” the Nazis would have called them. During the last century, Greek-speaking Cypriots fought fiercely against the British to achieve “Enosis”, that is, union with Greece. When the British relinquished control over Cyprus in 1960, the Greeks   were determined to remove the Turkish-speaking minority in order to achieve “Enosis” by means of homicide, exodus or a combination of both. They tried hard to achieve this goal, but did not succeed thanks to Turkey’s intervention in 1974.

Today most Southern Cypriots are not interested in “Enosis”. They are now wealthy due to a developed tourism industry and lucrative offshore banking enjoying better education and higher standard of living than mainland Greece. Now the Republic of Cyprus enjoys membership of the European Union while the TRNC is shut out, which is unbelievable if you consider the atrocities they committed against Turkish speaking Cypriots. The European Union doesn’t have an intelligence service, which partially explains why it makes so many mistakes.

On July 20, 1974, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRS), based in Geneva, asked me to serve as their chief international delegate   to Cyprus to assess needs among the   civilians (on both sides of the conflict) for humanitarian or medical aid. I accepted and was eventually flown in by the Turkish Air Force through the British base at Akrotiri and provided with an ADC and a jeep flying three huge colours: the blue of the UN, the Red Cross. As an ICRC delegate, I was able to demand a ceasefire to cross the lines of fighting.

Travelling in what is now North Cyprus, we observed no need for humanitarian or medical assistance from the Red Cross due to the professional military discipline and effectiveness of the Turkish army in taking care of all civilians. The men of Eoka-B had already fled south followed by their women and children who were transported across the “Green Line” into the South. During this population transition, the Turkish army mistreated no-one. Later, I visited several times, and again, no humanitarian intervention was necessary.

Greek propaganda against Turkey and the    Turkish army accused them of “brutal, raping and killing”, describing imaginary “terrible conditions behind the Atilla Line”. As a general of a Nato partner who had visited Turkey several times, I am witness to the truth: that the Turkish Army honourably fulfilled its duty as prescribed by the Geneva-London agreement, signed in 1959 between Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the UK. Then the Greek-speaking majority, supported by the fascistic “Colonels Junta” in Athens demolished the Constitution of 1960. Due to effective propaganda and political influence in the West, the world reacted in appropriately to those events.

As well-informed British and American friends explained, next to the Jewish lobby, the Greeks are the most influential in Whiteball and Washington and probably in the UN as well. As a result of the embargo that Greece was able to have imposed as a form of punishment because of the so-called “Turkish occupation of North Cyprus”, it became nearly impossible to travel from Norway to North Cyprus.

Of course, there are many intelligent and well-informed Greek-speaking Cypriots who want a solution for this divided island, for this divided island, but they were not the majority during the recent referendum vote for reunification.

Nevertheless, it is not too late for the EU to correct Greek-inspired untruths about the events in recent Cypriot history and respect its obligations by immediately recognizing North Cyprus – establishing the revised border according to the last Annan plan – as an independent state with all international rights. After all their unfair, suffering, Turkish-speaking Cypriots deserve peace and security as well as the right to take their place in the European community.

Carl Fr Tidemann, MBE, MD, MCh, FACS Major General ® No A, MC