The Cyprus Problem, A Story of Salvific Apocrypha
19 November 2022 (Originally posted on Cyprium News. See the original article here.)
Mustafa Niyazi
MPhil International Relations
Founder & Chief Editor of Cyprus Profile
Collage of Political Cartoons About Cyprus from 1955-1964. Among them are Makarios III presenting "The Ten Commandments" with the very first reading "Thou Shalt Not Kill", while the "1960 Constitution" has been torn and tossed in a dustbin behind them symbolising how he said "Cyprus Constitution is Dead and Buried" (bottom left), with another showing an unfazed Makarios III sitting upon a throne amid a plain littered with dead bodies (sixth down from third column), and another showing Makarios III firing a rifle from the shoulder of a rather dim looking UN "peacekeeping officer" (fifth right on bottom) as a Turkish Cypriot lays in a stream of blood while Makarios III says to the UN officer "Do stop sighing - you might risk spoiling my aim."
The Cyprus Problem, also known as the Cyprus Dispute, Cyprus Issue, Cyprus Question or Cyprus Conflict, is an ongoing dispute between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.
Initially, with the occupation of the island by the British Empire from the Ottoman Turks in 1878 and subsequent annexation in 1914, Greece, ever in the pursuit of aggressive expansion, banked that cheque and tried to ethnically cleanse and annex the island.
First it pumped thousands of people into the island as a first step to tacitly undermine its Turkish character, presence and influence. It then began an island-wide programme of indoctrination, ensuring the newly enhanced Greek population would fervently strive towards political unity with the Greek political whole.
Then came the societies, organisations, educators trained with the enosis ethos, diplomats and counsels and of course armaments, to ensure that hostility, agitation and violence would characterise an environment of fear, designed of course – and I’ll have to humbly ask you to forgive me for not washing over this – to persuade the Turks to either self-displace or keel over and die as the “pollutant” and “shilli” they are, because after all, “like dogs, they should be killed with impunity”.
Thus the Cyprus Problem was born and quickly flared into a conflict between the Turkish and Greek islanders, with the latter calling for an undemocratic and forced union of the island with Greece, an exchange of one distant colonial master for the other, while the former strived towards a diplomatic yet bold counterthrust to all the forced demographic changes, agitation and violence.
Bottom Right: A Greek demonstration in the 1930s in favour of enosis. These protests were typically to the backdrop of strong anti-Turkish sentiment and resentment and ethnic agitation and violence directed towards the Turks. These demonstrations were very provocative and typically raised already existing tensions on the island between the Greek settlers and the Turkish Cypriots, as well as between British colonial authorities and the general populace, and the Greek government on the one side and the Republic of Türkiye and Great Britain on the other. Left and Top Right: A magnificent Cyprus Rally organized by Turkish youth in Istanbul Beyazıt Square on 8 June 1958. The day before the rally, the square was so full that a pin could not be dropped. The demonstration was sparked by the murder of 54 Turkish Cypriots being brutally murdered by Greek terrorists pushing for enosis.
The social and political position of each side is supported to varying extents by different countries and their governments, in particular, many use racial and ethnic ideologies together with the known history of the island, typically that of the Greek Cypriot propaganda machine, as an ad hominem justification for fervently holding onto those deep reservations towards one side based on their cultural, linguistic, ethnic and national heritage.
However, while these discriminatory trappings are propagated about one side, the Turkish Cypriots, they are not afforded to the other, the Greek Cypriots, who rely not on international law but illegal doctrine, not on impartiality but partiality, unconstitutionality, illegitimacy, checks and balances traded for monolithic despotism, Treaties and Laws and history traded for historical negationism, denialist strategies, degradations to a majority-minority dichotomy along ethnic discriminatory lines…
And unfortunately, much of the island’s history has been dictated by the oral tradition, one of the least reliable methods of information retention and transmission. Critical pieces of information have been lost, on both sides, and it is not until one escapes these imprisoned confines of pigeon-hole theories, claims and “research” that diagnoses to the Cyprus Problem can truly be made.
In short we have the Greek Cypriots on one side, who say they were forced to flee to the south by a tyrannical Turkish invasion which created hundreds of thousands of innocent refugees, thousands of massacre victims, over a thousand missing persons and prisoners of war, and continues to occupy the northern half of the island.
According to them, the “true” Turkish Cypriots are “dying” because… the evil Turks are doing “something”… and that means the Turkish Cypriots will become extinct because of… something “reasons”…
So I’ll say I’m not the biggest fan of this theory, for obvious reasons, but mostly as I’m pretty sure this is careening to the Turkish Cypriots needing to “save their lives” under the protective umbrella of the “true owners” of the island, the Greek Cypriots, and a federal solution dominated by their monolithic Greek occupied state, the very same entity which tried to exterminate the Turkish Cypriots, rather than it being a result of the Greek hubris in wanting a way to make a glorious ethnically homogenous island cleansed of the “pollution” in the image of the Morea in Greece itself.
In short, this whole story to me feels like over thinking.
Part of what I love about Cyprus is its history, and I’m perfectly fine with some things being left a mystery, and I think I would’ve been okay if the Greek Cypriots just believed the Turks to have the same rights as they do regardless of any other factors.
Top Left: A Turkish property in Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita), burnt in the barbaric Greek attacks on the Turkish Cypriot suburb of Lefkoşa (Nicosia), who resisted, resulting in fierce fighting. Image Credits: Military Histories. Published by Malcolm Brooke on his website Military Histories with the “kind permission of Christopher Meynell”. Top Centre: Greek forces taking up positions near the Turkish Cypriot sector of Lefkoşa (Nicosia). Image Credits: Published by Malcolm Brooke on his website Military Histories with courtesy of the Pachyammos Village Museum. Top Right: A burnt out Turkish Cypriot property with the Turkish street name painted over. Image Credits: Published by Malcolm Brooke on his website Military Histories with the “kind permission of Christopher Meynell”. Bottom Left: A bulldozer converted to a tank by Greeks and used in "mopping up" operations in Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita). Bottom Right: A leader of the Greek community on Cyprus and EOKA (terrorist) fighter, Nikos Sampson, displaying a captured Turkish flag following their massacres of Turks in Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita), behind him a large group of Turkish Cypriot hostages, mostly women & children. Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita) was once a separate village, as shown on Kitchener's 1885 survey, before it became a satellite suburb of Lefkoşa (Nicosia).
It’s just my opinion, but that would’ve been enough for me rather than them coming up with a complicated explanation for how the island was separated without tying the events to their own controversial history: the Greek Coup, Invasion & Massacres of Turks in 1974, the first Greek Coup, Ethnic Cleansing Campaign and Massacres of Turks from 1963-1974, the Constitutional Crisis of 1960-1963, the Cyprus Talks Dilemma of 1959-1960, the Greek Terrorist Campaign & Cyprus Emergency of 1955-1959, the Forced Demographic Changes, the attempted Reappropriation & Erasure of Turkish Cultural Assets & Heritage on the island, all the Ethnic Agitation, Violence & Troubles of 1878-1955…
Add to that the fact that the current political realities of the island are actually quite simple:
Their occupation of the Republic of Cyprus government? Illegal.
Their occupation of the Armed Forces, Civil Services and Judiciary? Illegal.
Their invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity? Illegal.
Their courts and all their rulings? Illegal.
Their not honouring the Cyprus Constitution? Illegal.
Their amendments to the Cyprus Constitution? Illegal.
Their claims to sovereign jurisdiction over the entire island? Illegal.
Now, I’ve spoken before of a hope that their story is one day seen for what it is: false. The Turkish Cypriots, Turkey, UN, EU, UK, US and scores of other international actors and observers, even a token few Greek Cypriots themselves, have already stuck their necks out and said the story is an apocyphal tale – widely circulated but untrue.
Add to this an interesting quote from 19 October 1996 from Greek Cypriot politician, Georgios Lanitis, regarding what is perhaps one of the most emotional and contentious issues on the island, that is, of course, the subject of missing persons:
“I was serving with the Foreign Information Service of the (Greek Cypriot administration) of (south) Cyprus in London… I deeply apologise to all those I told that there are 1,619 missing persons. I misled them. I was made a liar, deliberately, by the government of (south) Cyprus… Now it seems that the credibility of (our regime) is nil.”
Could all of this, the “decaying” of Turkish Cypriot culture, the Greek Cypriots suffering with cases of missing persons and refugees – the work of the “terrible Turk” – being some salvivic material for them, indeed just be a lie sewn in the ultranationalist mind by a certain fair visage, which they’ve yet to be able to come to terms with, and passed to other unwitting peoples of the world.
Even that though would diminish the role of Georgios Lanitis and Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis of acknowledging their own hubris, though I suppose the loophole could be they haven’t passed this as a legally supported motion yet, nor would they have the guts to do so.
Either way I will say that the representatives of the Greek Cypriots who have gotten so far are politically motivated liars and self-centred jerks. You’d think they were the ones raised through suffering rather than the Turkish Cypriots the way they’re acting, not to mention controlling the Greek Cypriots’ lives and not allowing them the freedom of speech, movement, recourse, or to actually go out there and learn the truth.
Press conference with Drosoulla Demetriadou, Greek Cypriot, girlfriend of murdered Edward Bonici, sitting at the table with her Colonial Office protectors giving a statement. Source: Cypriot Girl Denounces E.O.K.A. (1956). British Pathé. Background: Drosoulla Demetriadou went to London and told the press why she, a Greek Cypriot girl, hates the EOKA terrorists, and why she denounced them on Cyprus Radio at the risk of her own life. A fortnight prior a murdered man lay in Hippocrates Street in Lefkoşa (Nicosia). Special Constable Edward Bonici, Drosoulla's 26-year old fiance. His sweetheart stood at the roadside numbed by the tragedy while police officers secured the area and bystanders tried to comfort her. At that moment she resolved to speak out against the nameless murderers - cowards, and traitors to the island - who were terrorising the island. Safe in London with her family she gave us her reasons. From a written statement she read: "Unfortunately with the present terrorism in the island no reasons or explanations are given and it is sufficient that someone does not agree with the terrorist movement for him to be subject to murder. My mother was badly bitten by two young boys who knocked at the door and asked for a certain address. My mother started talking to them when suddenly they bit her on the head. They bit her so hard that it is obvious they intended to kill her. This is a tragic situation in Cyprus today by a small gang of terrorists who succeeded getting a few thugs to follow them are murdering everybody who does not agree with them and holding half a million people in terror and fear. I'm not exaggerating if I say that the people in Cyprus do not want these terrorists and that are fed up with it. The reason why they are unable to say so is the terror which is hanging over their heads every day." There was still a veneer of ideologism in her words. Where she said: "...someone does not agree with the terrorist movement... to be subject of murder." She talks about EOKA terrorising people, and describes them as a "small gang" that "the people of Cyprus do not want... and... are fed up with", but actually, the overwhelming majority of Greeks on the island were either members of, or supportive of, or directly involved with, or at the minimum consciously complicit in the terrorist organisation and what it was doing.
The danger here is reasonable, for more than 2000 brave Greek Cypriots resisted the enosis movement and lost their lives over it, some cleverly abandoned the island and told the world about the horrors and atrocities committed by the EOKA terrorists, because they knew then that it was the beginning of the end.
But there is not a single monument commemorating their bravery, not least perhaps because it would reveal to the world the propaganda and lies they have been telling about the 1000s of Greek Cypriots purportedly killed by Turks and buried in mass graves on army land in the TRNC, when we all know they killed their own and put them in mass graves in the south. They could not pass off the blame to Turkey then.
Instead, they’d rather send their approval to the Butcher of Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita), Nicos Sampson, through – count them – 15,000 telegrams of support within just one week of his sudden, violent and brutal seizure of power.
They’d rather erect statues in honour of the Terrorist Leader, Murderer, and well-known Pedophile, Makarios III, as well as use public money to fund building Museums for the EOKA Terrorist Organisation and its ground leader, Giorgios Grivas.
That being said, I’m open to the idea of the Greek Cypriots being represented by such interpretations to their national and social cause, not least because it erodes the credibility behind any evil-minded intentions they might like to impose unto the Turkish Cypriots and the Cyprus Problem.
But by the time of the Peace Treaty which they will inevitably have to agree to and sign with the Turkish Cypriots, much to their humility, and which will only amplify ever-increasingly with the passages time, we’ve got to be fully rooting for them.
Now as for the lives of the Greek Cypriots being tied to some ambiguous “invasion”, “occupation” and “stealing” of their lands, I expect people will be pretty divided on this. It’s very similar to how they say the Turkish Cypriots are “dying” because of the “evil of Turkey”.
While it provided some extra motivation for some, it’s totally made up for that purpose. For a lot of people, the way you feel about that addition to the Greek Cypriot narrative on the island will probably be similar to this.
The Girne (Kyrenia) Beşparmak mountain range, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), daubed with the Turkish Cypriot flag and a quote by the Republic of Turkey's late founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, "Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene" (English: How happy is the one who says he is a Turk).
But the joke is, the fate of the island is in the Turks’ hands. All the Greeks and Greek Cypriots can do is grunt, puff and forestall, and write as many apocrypha as they can on the history of Cyprus.
Peace has won.
The Turkish Cypriots are free.
People wave Turkish Cypriot (R) and Turkish flags during a military parade on the anniversary of Türkiye's Peace Operation, celebrated as Peace and Freedom Day, Lefkoşa (Nicosia), Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), 20 July 2024. Image Credits: (AFP Photo) Parliament speaker vows fight for ‘Turkish Cypriot state’ | Daily Sabah
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
*The featured image is a collage of political cartoons about Cyprus from 1955-1964. Among them are Makarios III presenting “The Ten Commandments” with the very first reading “Thou Shalt Not Kill”, while the “1960 Constitution” has been torn and tossed in a dustbin behind symbolising how he said the “Cyprus Constitution is Dead and Buried” (bottom left), with another showing an unfazed Makarios III sitting upon a throne amid a plain littered with dead bodies (sixth down from third column), and another showing Makarios III firing a rifle from the shoulder of a rather dim looking UN “peacekeeping officer” (fifth right on bottom) as a Turkish Cypriot lays in a stream of blood while Makarios III says to the UN officer “Do stop sighing – you might risk spoiling my aim.”
* As the highly respectable Prof. Paul Sant Cassia aptly noted: “… in modern Greek Cypriot culture there is a double connection of dogs and carrion… (they) referred to Turkish Cypriots… as shillii (dogs) – the implication being that, like dogs, they could be killed with impunity…” He continued to observe: “It is well known that taxonomic violence defined in ethnic terms (or what is now called ethnic cleansing) is accompanied, indeed justified, by attempts to render the other as an outsider and a source of pollution… TURKS = shillii/polluting, therefore legitimated killing: metaphorical likeness…” Cassia, Paul Sant (2005). Bodies of evidence burial, memory and the recovery of missing persons in Cyprus. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571816467.
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