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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (56543)	11/11/2002 4:44:29 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

What I mean, obviously, is that Turks have NOT crossed the line into Greek territory and financed settlements there. I have missed a word - it should read "... no settlements in Greek Cyprus...", as you can see from the first sentence. Yeah, but the division of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish territories came about after the Turkish invasion. That's a true statement whether or not the invasion was provoked by the enosis movement and intended at least partially to protect ethnic Turks from Greek oppression - which it was. 200K Greeks fled the area Turkey occupied - at the time there were only 116K ethnic Turks on the island. I cannot see anyone objecting to Turks coming and settling in the Turkish side of Cyprus, just as Greeks can and do come and settle in the Greek side. Except, possibly, "ekeka", the Federation of Cypriot Refugees, who left the island after 1974. As near as I can tell a lot of the ethnic Greek Cypriots so object. I don't think too many of the ethnic Greeks have yet accepted the permanent division of their country and the permanent loss of much of their land. New immigrants from the mainland upset the historic population balance and bring in new people adamantly opposed to reunification. (Over 80K mainland Turks have settled in the area the 200K ethnic Greeks were drive out of.) I can understand how the ethnic Greeks feel. But I think in time they'll have to accept the inevitable. It seems reasonable that ethnic Greeks attitudes to Turkish mainland colonists would be similar to Palestinian attitudes to Jewish settlers from abroad. And I think that's accurate. There certainly is a strong parallel there. But I will give the Greek Cypriots credit. They have done the humanitarian thing and resettled the refugees created by the Turkish invasion. And as far as I know they haven't engaged in a campaign of terrorism against Turkish civilians. (Surprisingly, there is not a worldwide emotional outpouring of humanitarian concern for the ethnic Greek refugees as there seemingly is for the Palestinians, although the ethnic Greek Cypriots seem more deserving of that to me. ) All in all, I see strong parallels between the Israeli and Turkish actions (except for the fact that the Israelis didn't push out all the Arabs from the territories occupied in 1967 as the Turks did). However, the Greek Cypriot and Palestinians have responded to their problem in very very different ways.