About your post/reblog about turkish cypriot, but arent the vast majority actual indigenous greeks who converted to islam and adopted the turkish identity centuries ago (atleast the ones before 1974) ? Why would you even say that they deserve to be treated like second zone citizens if they have been in cyprus of thousands of years but just changed their language and religion ?
For the same reason that they
keep demanding the de-militarization of the Greek islands
keep invading the Greek aerial and sea space
don't recognize the Greek and Armenian genocides
keep buying property to N. Greece (esp. Thrace) for the sole purpose of then "integrating" it into Turkey
continue to deny that what TRULY happened in Cyprus in 1974
keep making a god out of Ataturk, who inspired Hitler for the Holocaust.
The fact that their DNA is Greek doesn't really mean anything if they continue to NOT acknowledge Cyprus as a sovereign state and keep on pushing for the recognition of a non-entity (the "TRNC").
Plus, this claim of yours: "if they have been in cyprus of thousands of years" is wrong. Greek presence started on the island when the Mycenaeans arrived around 1200 B.C. - the Ottomans wouldn't arrive on the island until 1571 A.D.. That's a good 2.700 years later. So, since the Greeks of Cyprus are direct descendants of those Myceneans, then Greek presence on the island is 3.225 years old, whereas the Turkish presence on the island is 454 years old.
In-between those 2.700 years, Cyprus has had many settlers - from the ancient Greeks we then became part of the Byzantine Empire, and then Richard the Lionheart came (and he wedded Queen Berengaria on the island), and then came the French (Lusignan period), then the Venetians (Catarina Cornaro as the last Queen of Cyprus) and then came the Ottomans.
But, when the Ottomans arrived in 1571, they did not arrive peacefully:
In 1570 Ottoman troops attacked Cyprus, captured Nicosia, slaughtered 20.000 of the population and laid siege to Famagusta for a year. After a brave defence by Venetian commander Marc Antonio Bragadin, Famagusta fell to the Ottoman commander Lala Mustafa who at first allowed the besieged a peaceful exodus, but later ordered the flaying of Bragadin and put all others to death. On annexation to the Ottoman Empire, Lala Mustafa Pasha became the first Governor. The Ottoman Turks, whose descendants are today´s Turkish Cypriots, were to rule Cyprus until 1878. The Muslim minority during the Ottoman period eventually acquired a Cypriot identity. Initially, the Greek Orthodox Church was granted a certain amount of autonomy, the feudal system was abolished and the freed serfs were allowed to acquire land, though heavily taxed. As the power of the Ottoman Turks declined, their rule became brutal and corrupt and there were many instances when Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike struggled together against the oppression of Ottoman Rule. It was with a certain amount of optimism - sadly misplaced - that Cyprus would be united with Greece, that British rule was welcomed. (SOURCE)
So what happened in 1571 basically, it's then that the Turkish presence started on the island. For 300 years they created this 'Turkish Cypriot' identity (which they now exploit), but they never became the majority in the island. In 1960, when Cyprus became independent and after being on the island for over 400 years, the Turks made up only 18% of the total population, overshadowed by the Greeks and the various other populations. Post-1974, after after bringing in hundreds of thousands of settlers from Turkey to change the demographics, they still remain only 36% of the total population.
Now, there's a huge difference between that 18% and the current 36%. The 18% of these Turkish Cypriots were assimilated by the Greek Cypriot population. They spoke Greek, lived alongside Greek Cypriots, and their only difference was their religion and their Turkish names. But the other 18% of that 36% aren't truly these Turkish Cypriots. After the 1974 invasion, Turkey brought in almost 100.000 settlers on the island to inhabit the abandoned homes of the Greek Cypriots and thus change the demographics of the island. Over the years (and we're talking 50 years now), these settlers got married, had babies, their children are born in Cyprus, and they keep demanding independence and formal recognition as the "TRNC", even though the Republic of Cyprus has been very generous with them. They provide them with the following:
Republic of Cyprus passports (Ersin Tatar travelled with an RoC passport and kept it hidden until President Anastasiades exposed him)
Water and electricity (as of April 2024, T.C. owe the RoC 250 million for the electricity we provide them alone)
Not to mention the fact that they can shop and live in the RoC areas and enjoy equal status as the other RoC residents (regardless of whether Greeks, Greek Cypriots, Armenians, British, French etc). I don't live in Nicosia, yet I see their cars (with their distinct pseudo-EU CY car signs) in parking lots quite a lot.
How does Turkey thank us back? Like this:
Wiping away our religious symbols
Demanding 'recognition' for the 'TRNC' but at the same time refuse to acknowledge that they invaded the island
Painting their 'flag' on Pentadaktylos and even lighting it up at night for the world to see:
I am not going to include the Turkish Cypriots who somehow fled the northern part of the island and live on the Free Areas. Hadice Kerlo, one such case, said in an interview that they were treated as 2nd class citizens in the northern part of the island, because they lived in a mostly Greek Cypriot village anyway, and she and her family fled for a better life and thus settled on the free areas.
Now, I mentioned the British. During the British Rule, the Turks / Turkish Cypriots worked closely with the British imperialists, because the Greek Cypriots kept demanding 'Enosis' with Greece. It wasn't something that had started out of the blue. As back as 1821, the Greek Cypriots wanted to unite their island with Greece, to regain this Byzantine connection and because they were the same ethnicity. Added to that are the Greek Cypriots who fought in the Greek Army during the 1821 Revolution, then the Balkan Wars, then WW2. Enosis became such a hot topic for Greek and British diplomatic relations that two major instances come to mind:
In 1941, when the Greek Royal Family were fleeing Greece due to the German invasion, King George II of the Hellenes (Greeks) had asked the British to settle in Cyprus for the duration of the war. However, fearing the reaction of the Greek Cypriots (who'd consider the presence of the Greek King a good foreshadowing for Enosis), the British refused and he settled in London instead.
In 1964 (23 years later, 4 years after Cypriot independence, and while guerillas were going on in Cyprus between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot populations), King Paul and Queen Frederica refused to cancel their state visit to the UK and then-PM Constantinos Karamanlis resigned and went on self-exile in Paris. Ten years later, in 1974, Karamanlis would return to Greece on a hero's welcome on 24 July 1974, four days after the 1st Turkish invasion, and he'd go on to say that "Cyprus is located too far from Greece" as an "excuse" to not assist Cyprus militarily, despite being obliged to from the 1959 Zurich-London Agreements (signed while he was still PM), which named Greece, Turkey, and Great Britain as the three guarantors of peace and stability on the Island
King Paul himself, although he also supported Enosis, never visited Cyprus as King (though he did visit Turkey) and he had even advised his son, Crown Prince Constantine to "stay away from Cyprus otherwise you'll pay a hefty price" (mentioned in Constantine's autobiography), precisely because it was such a hot topic politically that he didn't want to put Greece and/or his government/politicians in an awkward position vis-a-vis the other NATO allies (the UK and Turkey included).
Now, as for the British, they supported the Turks / T.C. precisely because they were the perfect fit for their divide-and-rule policies. By promoting TNT (the Turkish Cypriot terrorist/paramilitary organization) as the counter-part of EOKA, they then had the opportunity to excuse their presence on the island as the sole means of stability in the area. If you have time, read this and you'll find that mindset still prevailing 23 years after British Rule ended on the island.
To this day, Turkey continues to sabotage the reunification of the island. Not sticking to the U.N. Treaties, asking to be treated as 'equals' although they never truly were, demanding recognition of the "TRNC" and thus the legalization of the Turkish invasion and forced settlement on the northern part of the island... Foreigners are too stupid/lazy to study/comprehend the dynamics of the area and they think that the Cyprus issue is "the bad Greeks who don't let the Turkish minority gain independence" (yes, I actually heard that) even though it is them, like the Neoturks in Anatolia, who keep demanding land that they aren't natives of.
It has been mentioned on many posts already, but I should probably say that again, because you did so first, anon. Turkey is not an ethnicity! It's a Staatsangehoerigkeit, the "belonging to a state", a bunch of people belonging to a country, yes, but not a nation. A nation needs three things to become one: 1) DNA, 2) history, 3) home ground. Turkey only has 2) but even that is bloody.
Turks have been trying to make a nation and an ethnicity out of them for centuries, which is why they keep wanting to invade foreign land which they think belongs to them. They go as far as the time after the Fall of Constantinople as the 'start' of their national history, now they wish to revive their 'Ottoman Rule' and at the same time they try to employ the methods used by the Neoturks of 1923. Hence why they make a god out of Sultan Mehmed II and Kemal Ataturk (and Erdogan keeps trying to join that duo). Hence why they refuse to acknowledge their own doings when they slap them in the face. It's almost a joke now that, if someone mentions something that Turkey did and Turkey continues to deny it, then surely Turkey did it. Another funny story - when the Turks kept doing those ancestry.com test and didn't like the fact that they had Greek origins, Turkey then went on and created one that made everyone seem Turkish. I don't know how else to tell you this, but if your own country straight up lies to you about your roots and history, then your country is the problem.
The point is that the Turkish Cypriots are treated like 2nd class citizens first and foremost from Turkey. Those brave few who dare speak the truth are treated no better than how they'd have been treated in Turkey. Suppose that they do manage to get the recognition for the "TRNC" they so badly want. It'll be a matter of time before Turkey invades them for the sole purpose of annexing them before getting to the rest of Cyprus as a means to then attack Greece. Turkey wants Greece, they have been wanting Greece for decades (the Neo-Ottomanism we've been talking about), and - in their view - if Cyprus falls, Greece will follow.
