31 December 2024

 

​Mustafa Niyazi​​​

MPhil International Relations

Founder & Chief Editor of Cyprus Profile

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Pencil-drawn postcard celebrating the realisation of enosis on Crete - the union of Crete and Greece, 1 December 1913. The figure is the female personification of Greece shown standing on the sea-wall at Hanya (Greek: Chania, Canea), the then capital of Crete, while holding up the flag of the Kingdom of Greece with a stern left hand and lowering the Ottoman Turkish flag with the right hand.​

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Well, seeing as we've already gotten to this point, we may as well note how confused and complicated this has all become. In order to say "Enosis Was a Stupid Idea" look at what we've had to go through.

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If you need a quick recap, here are parts one and two.

 

We should have just purely been talking about Enosis as this ancient and archaic ideology that no longer exists, but this is also testament to how this octopus of terror gripped its tentacles on so much on the island and in the region at large and evolved through the years to make Enosis mean much more than just a simple but long abandoned aspiration, which I'd also argue should have been calculated to have been unachievable to begin with and necessarily inhumane to even try and implement, it should have been measured and juxtaposed with what was achieved in the Morea, Rumelia, Epirus, Thessaly, Western Thrace, Macedonia, the Ionian Islands, the Dodecanese Islands and Crete, and seen that it was not possible to achieve on Cyprus, and therefore should have been shelved from the get-go.

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But we are where we are.

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And despite reading everything above I predict one might still also ask, surely there is at least some legitimacy to calls for Enosis when the majority of the population on Cyprus is Greek? Surely they have a right to self determination? After all their history on the island goes back thousands of years, does it not? 

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Well, none of that is true.

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This is not to say I am trying to de-legitimise the right of the Greek Cypriots to the island of Cyprus. About whether they have a right to be there now is unquestionable. Now that the Greeks are there they are there. They have been on Cyprus for well over a hundred years now already.

 

I'm also not going to start comparing or say who has more rights or who has a longer history or heritage on the island thus justifying anyone's claim over the other. If I did that anyway they will lose that argument, and on every front, but I'm not out to do that.

 

And I'm proud to say I have no problem with any of them being there. I'm even prouder to say no one on the island has any problem with them being there. Nobody ever did. And actually that's something I feel very proud of as a Turkish Cypriot. Our hearts are geniş (Turkish: open). We have room for everyone. They should take a look at us, and history, and learn a lesson.

 

Because despite all that we as a people have been through, if we're still alive today it's because we've been consistent. Even when they haven't been. And we simply won't stoop to their lows and say they don't exist either. But we will demand we are treated equally by them, just as we try to treat them equally.

 

That I think takes alot to be able to do.

 

For us it's just who we are, though, and I've never even thought about this before. I'm just shooting from the hip of hindsight right now.

 

And bringing this back to the subject of nations and states for a moment, there are many states and peoples founded on injustices or foolishness and bad ideas. That doesn't mean that anyone can just come and evict or destroy them. And I'm not saying that. And I'll never say that.

 

But I think I'll have to say that I've always thought everything they represent, it's a stupid, extremist, hardline and innately strangled idea, it's an ultra-nationalist idea, a religiously and theocratically strangled idea, it's imperialistic, settler-colonialist, and it's their society, sadly, it's their culture, not just a fringe or the people in power, and it's a waste of what it could mean to be Greek, and it guaranteed a quarrel with the Turks because it meant they're going to take away what's most precious to the Turks, their lives, their livelihoods, their dignity, their rights, their freedom, their land, their possessions, their island, by trying to make the Greeks "native" to a land and dispossess the Turks of their land.

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And need we mention this is in the context of them also trying to culturally reappropriate - or steal, to use a simpler term, other intangible traditional Turkish heritage and culture, by the way. Basically to argue legitimacy to their actions no matter how barbaric or inexcusable or impossible to actually legitimise, by slapping the word "Greek" on top and saying it's theirs "anyway".

 

Now I don't know about you, but that to me is a very stupid idea.

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It was even more stupid that they did this all out in the open, and it was even more stupid than that, that they decided to attempt a genocide in order to achieve this, and even even more stupid that they did that pursuant to a written plan, the Akritas Plan, that I'm sorry to say to all the deniers out there but yes, it did exist, and the fact I even have to say that is very telling of the leaps and bounds people will go to in order to make themselves and others believe the obvious is not true, as if the light from the sun does not exist and we're all being bathed in some magisterial incomprehensible light, like denying the earth is round... the mental gymnastics one must go through is incredible.

 

And it was even more stupid yet that in this plan they recognised the Turks would resist and still, even more stupid than that, they actually counted on it. It was a most crucial if not the most crucial part of their plan, in-fact.

 

In my opinion that's not the way to enhance the Greeks.

 

Stealing others rights, heritage and culture and slapping the word "Greek" on top.

 

Making themselves into "natives" on an island they are not natives to, and with a "right to self-determination" not afforded to the actual natives of the island, the Turks, guaranteeing further injustice to the Turks which now anyone can see and even going the extra mile and committing acts so barbaric that no rhetoric of the Hellenes or statues of Plato could ever help them.

 

And it's now more than 120 years or 60 years or 50 years depending on where you want to start. It's generation after generation of Turkish Cypriot brought up either dispossessed of where their grandparents or great grandparents were born, or living in freedom in the TRNC or any other country in the world but also in perpetual international isolation and collective chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and racial trauma simply for being who they are, or if they remained in the Greek occupied areas still living under that religious ethnocratic occupation and humiliation, and now we know something has to be done to address what is now part of that original sin we could say of the Cyprus Problem and that is Greece, the Megali Idea, and Enosis.  

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On a personal note, I've been actively researching, writing, discussing, talking and working in favour of the Turkish Cypriots and their homeland all my post-university life, and I'm no more or less in favour of it than I was because of recent events where the UN invited the Turkish and Greek leaders to "talks".

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Then there's also the even more pitiful situation created by the position and involvement of the Greeks today in these so-called "talks" towards a "solution", which they do to the backdrop of continuing Enosist policies, including making continued threats, lies, provocations, increased armament and militarisation, diplomatic attacks, economic attacks, because they've been edging towards a "solution" before and I don't want it to look as if the Greeks will suddenly have no choice and need to do it as a concession, which they'd be too proud to admit or accept, as far as they're concerned they need the Turks to make concessions to them not visa versa, but they're going to have to come to terms with it one day, and that's part of the Cyprus Problem right there in a nutshell.

 

Intransigence is one term. Reluctance is the other.

 

Deliberate and calculated yet existentially necessary intransigence and reluctance.​

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But it's also a matter of principle to them.​

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And speaking of principles the following also needs to be said.

 

There were different periods where Greece and the Greek Cypriots were edging towards accepting Turkish rights and living in peace and harmony a people always striving to be their co-partners at an equal level, towards accepting peace, towards accepting a lasting and peaceful solution, to stop treating the Turks like s**t, to stop their illegal occupation of the "government of Cyprus" they purport to be, to stop their illegal, unjust and inhumane impositions on the platform of being that purported "government of Cyprus"...

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But that's also the issue here. They've been edging towards it but never really fully signed up to it. Just as they were reluctant to sign the 1959 London-Zurich Agreements, or how they have basically said "f**k you" to no less than 77 peace moves and potential solutions to the Cyprus Problem, which has now existed for almost 150 years and counting!

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Hooking this back to that point about principle though.

 

I submit to you, the reader, that if you believe Greeks born in Athens or Alexandria have a right to a state in Cyprus, then you must also accept Turkish Cypriots born in Cyprus have a right to a state in Cyprus. ​

 

Anyone who doesn't agree with that principle I think is suspect.

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If the Greeks relentlessly massacring the Turks being stopped by Turkey have a right to claim victimhood - which is absolutely ridiculous, then the Turkish Cypriots who were actually being massacred here, and who were the victims of an islandwide crusade if you will to destroy them in whole or in part and who had suffered for years with thousands of people dead and buried and who have been fighting the continuation of that oppressive regime for decades and still counting, then they also have the right to claim victimhood.

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If the children of Greeks born in Athens to one or two Greek parents and Russians born in Moscow to one or two Russian parents have the right to obtain so-called "Republic of Cyprus" citizenship, then the children of Turkish Cypriots born in Cyprus to one or two Turkish parents have the right to obtain that same citizenship.

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If Greek soldiers, settlers and migrants brought to the island to engage in war, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism have the right to stay in Cyprus, then Turkish migrant workers brought to the island to fill a massive labour shortage caused by that conflict, and Turkish soldiers brought to the island to defend the Turkish Cypriots and ensure their security from Greek aggression, they also have the right to stay in Cyprus.

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Now I know most people after reading this will feel like they have to say they do agree with this in practice. I know that. And actually I would say it's fine to agree with this or not. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion.

 

I also know that everyone regardless would still want to say they are humane, and their logic and reasoning just, especially when it's presented to them that they might not be.

 

And I know some will likely wrestle with this personally, they may truly wish to say the Turks deserve nothing, maybe they'll even go the extra mile and say the Greeks should have finished the job and exterminated them all and achieved Enosis - I know, happy times, right? - but they couldn't do it, and so the Greeks are the victims and the Turks are the aggressors.

 

But I submit to you that regardless of ones answer to the above, everyone with a heart and a brain will still want to say they agree the Turkish Cypriots are victims "too", the Turkish Cypriots have rights too, the Turkish Cypriots are people too, even those who say it but know deep down in their hearts that they truly don't mean it, and they won't, and that's also to be expected.

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And we all remember that in principle Enosis was born out of the Megali Idea, that is, the idea of establishing a Greater Greece, the belief that after the Morea they were destined to continue aggressively expanding into even more Ottoman Turkish lands, again at the expense of the people living there, and specifically because of that, because they're Greek, because being Greek meant you had that god given "right", it meant you were "superior", it meant you were "strong", and where any Greeks or Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians live, if they are not living in a Greek religious ethno-state that meant they were living under "oppression", or under an "inferior people", in this case "the sick man of Europe", "the terrible Turk", and to them it's as simple as that.

 

This is not too dissimilar to the creation of the state of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people and their own national dreams and ambitions, or to the expansion of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific.​ That's Manifest Destiny to those who don't know. And Zionism. That last one is just as contemporary as it gets, and just like with Enosis it is still ongoing, but this isn't what we're discussing.

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This is also about great power politics. This is about how empires fall. This is about soft power, hard power and sharp power. This is also about nationalism. This is also about states, territory, expansionism, imperialism and settler colonialism, those last ones "justifying" some ambiguous and mystical "divine ethno-religious right" and "supremacy" complex.​

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That is Enosis in a nutshell.​

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About that application of Pollice Verso earlier. I understand we really need to be very careful when talking about involvement and responsibility and who did what.

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We already briefly went through the cogs of the Enosis cause, as we put it in part one, and we know they all differed in their tactics and specific roles perhaps, or in how much they really agreed or disagreed with the methodology used or the extent, but every asset to this cause worked diligently, collectively and collaboratively to consciously demonise, terrorise and dislodge the native Turkish population, committing acts of barbarism, violence, terrorism and ethnic cleansing.

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​Of course not all take the same level of responsibility and there's certainly the role played by the leadership in this sense, but fundamentally speaking all the heavy lifting came from the mainly Greek migrants to the British-administered island who were indoctrinated with the extreme far-right Greek nationalist ethos, all with the aim of helping usher in the new era of Cyprus, a "Greek" Cyprus, which would achieve Enosis by any means necessary.

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And it didn't stop with them, even their children were fundamentally used, abused and forced to get involved.

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They routinely organised processions of their own schoolchildren, armed with blunt weapons, pistols, Greek flags and banners painted with slogans such as "Death to the Turks!", and they proudly marched them through the Turkish neighbourhoods, waving these banners and flags and chanting "Cyprus is Greek!", "Death to the Turks!", "Enosis!" while mobs of Greek thugs did the less dirty side work of simply attacking those vulnerable or susceptible to response.

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They committed provocation after provocation, act of violence after act of violence and terrorism against the Turks and also the Brits.

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They engaged in widespread bombings, executions and assassinations targeting the government and security apparatus to force them to give up control of the island, and to force the Turks to give up their place and rights to the island.

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They used unlawful violence and intimidation against not just servicemen but also civilians without distinction, in the pursuit of advancing their own political aims, and even targeted any dissenters amongst themselves, as few as they were.

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With an iron fist, they gripped the island in an environment of fear, terror and hopelessness, while waging a merciless campaign of wanton death and destruction against all who dared to oppose them.​

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They forced the Turkish populations in many villages to abandon their homes, their lands and their possessions which would then be occupied by the Greeks.
 

Road and place names were changed from Turkish to Greek.

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Mosques and other holy sites were razed and built over with Greek churches.​

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Back again to that point about children, and the EOKA terrorist organisation, they hid among the local population, embedded themselves, subjugated everyone to the status of slaves, forced or willfully coercing all men, women, even the elderly, even young boys and girls to support them.

 

Young boys and girls were made to transport weapons and other crucial materials, and when they were subjected to searches, arrests and interrogations by the police, or arrested for being found with weapons or for taking part in or supporting the terrorists during their operations, the fear these young children must have felt, and remember they were manipulated and used and thrusted into that position by the EOKA cowards and some of them even by their families, but they would never have understood or blamed them, yet their images continued to be used by their families and EOKA for propaganda purposes, even becoming the subject of poems and posters decrying the "horrible treatment of poor, innocent children by the British colonial government".

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All of this happened before 1960. Because after the ROC was officiated as a state, these groups were brought together to form the "Greek Cypriot community", the "Civil Services", and to create the "Cyprus National Guard", and the terrorist leaders would go on to form the Greek-side of the supposed bi-communal government, becoming politicians, ambassadors and presidents.

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Their dark history, which is still unashamedly celebrated by their descendants, is forgotten.​​​

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And after 1960 we all know what happened.

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Long story short, they labelled the Turks as the "terrible enemies of Hellenism", "dirt", "filth", "dogs", "animals", "scum", "cockroaches", "gypsies", "thieves", "s**t", a "pollutant", "carrion" (rotting flesh) - the implications being to justify their being massacred with impunity.

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Their slogan was the same as the Greek revolutionaries of the independence war, it was the same as the Hellenic Armed Forces that invaded Anatolia, and it was the same as the EOKA terrorist organisation.

 

"VICTORY OR DEATH"

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To strive for the death of my freedom.

 

Or die trying.

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And this, all of this, is what I think of Enosis.

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And as my final word on the matter, for now, atleast, let it also be read right here. No matter what happens, the world should know, I will always continue to stand by my Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters in our just cause.

 

God bless the Turkish Cypriot people.

 

God bless the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

 

God bless the Republic of Türkiye.

 

God bless the Turkish nation.

 

God bless our veterans.

 

God bless our martyrs.

 

God bless our struggle.

 

God bless our unity.

 

God bless our diversity.

 

God bless our tolerance.

 

God bless our heritage.

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