The day all shall be sorted out

On the day Turkish Cypriots can genuinely recommend to Turks and Kurds of Turkey a just way forward for sorting out their 90-year long differences they will have attained the level of understanding necessary to effectively address the issues that have plagued them since the 1950s. All that is needed is a bit of history, honesty, fairness, self-reflection and courage.

A tragedy unfolding

Breaking news... "Police" and occupying Turkish army beating up Turkish Cypriot strikers in the illegally occupied area of Cyprus, where illegal Turkish settlers outnumber original Turkish Cypriots ten to one. The illegally occupied northern Cyprus was over 90% Greek before the Turkish invasion and ethnic cleansing of 1974, and 100% Greek for millennia before then. Who are these people really fighting in our towns over property they do not own and rights they do not have?

The Cypriots and the Kurds - Opinion - International Herald Tribune

The Cypriots and the Kurds - Opinion - International Herald Tribune
Kirsty Hughes
Published: Tuesday, November 14, 2006

LONDON — Turkey complains vociferously about the European Union's unfair treatment of the politically and economically isolated Turkish Cypriots. Why then shouldn't Turkey grant a big chunk of its own citizens - the Kurds - the same rights it demands for people who are not even Turkish nationals?

Cyprus is no Alexandretta, fools!

Charalambos Constantinides: "Turkey's plan relating to the fate of Cyprus does not differ an iota from that applied in the case of the plan on the basis of which Alexandretta had been annexed in 1939, save for the names of the people involved. Following the disintegration of the Ottoman empire, the French wanted to administer the province as part of their mandate for Syria because the majority of the population were Syrians who wished UNION (Enosis) with Syria.

Inform them, so that they can't pretend

Minister,

I propose periodic entries in the Turkish Cypriot press, via an authorized representative, in Turkish, targeting the settlers, informing them in detail about their illegal status, that the responsibility for their illegal presence on Republic of Cyprus soil lies exclusively with Turkey, and alerting them to the fact that with the advent of a solution, whenever it is achieved, their repatriation/relocation along with their children and grandchildren to the Turkish Republic, must be considered an absolute certainty.

If not Kurds, who? If not now, when?

In 1960, ethnic Turks of Turkey, in the name of both Turks and Kurds, maintained that a balanced constitution for a neighboring country hosting a major ethnic minority circa 15-20%, is a Presidential Republic with a majority President and a minority Vice-President, both with the right of final veto, with equal political status for the minority community, where all aspects of the Republic are bilingual (including the currency, passports, IDs, etc.), where the minority is constitutionally guaranteed representation in government structures far exceeding its population strength, with ethnically divided parliamentary chambers, municipalities, courts, etc.