Turkey objected to Enosis expressing fears about the fate of the Turkish minority living in the province. Instead Turkey "preferred" the province as an independent state. Turkey invaded the province and started transferring Turkish settlers across the border. Syrians, who were against the presence of the Turkish army on their land, were either expelled or forced , by usual Turkish methods of intimidation, to leave "of their own accord", seeking refuge in the rest of Syria.
The "democratic" elections in the newly proclaimed Republic of Hatay, not surprisingly, yielded a pro-Turkish parliament, which overwhemlingly decided UNION with Turkey. Thus the ex-Syrian province, ex-Republic of Hatay, was annexed by Turkey as the district of Iskenderun.
With the passing of 73 years since then Turkey considers the matter closed, given that today's population of the area are Turkish nationals. However, Turks must still have nightmares about the province, otherwise their continued insistence that Syria recognised the annexation cannot be explained.
Coming now to the Anatolian settlers in Cyprus we should ask ourselves: "What was the lure to attract them to the Island?". The answer is "Free housing as well as promises of fertile land", all belonging to the Greek Cypriots of course! If therefore these two factors are removed from the equation, most of the settlers will leave of their own accord. That is the reason why Turkey doesn't budge an inch on the question of Greek Cypriot property in the occupied area, and this is the reason why our side should insist on the full restitution of properties irrespective of the nature of the final solution for Cyprus."
