ENTRY
[ESC]I'm Cypriot
I may or may not mention that a lot but i was born in Cyprus, I served for Cyprus, and both my parents are Cypriots. Granted, my mother was Half Cypriot born in the UK, but still.
But I'm not bringing it up for any pretentious, overthetop "look at me, I'm from cyprus!" narcissistic reason, no.
I'm bringing it up because one thing that has kept us so (literally) divided as a country is what Cypriots call themselves.
TLDR: Cypriots divide themselves as Turkish or Greek Cypriot due to 2 centuries of Religious and
Empirical conflict. Perhaps even further back when it were the Ancient Greeks vs The Persians, with
two whole different Religions and Empires. There are many reasons why it's all bullshit,
All it does is divide us, so I personally just go by "Cypriot." Not "Greek", not "Turkish".
"We're Greeks/Turkish. We have their culture, their language, their food, their music, their names."
First and foremost, with that argument you can argue that Cubans are Mexicans. Lithuanians are Russians, Jamaicans are English, India is a multi-country union, and the Senegalese are French. They have aspects of the culture, language, food, music and names. How many Serbs and Russians are called Ivan? How many Senegalese speak French? How many Goan Indians are Catholic? You wouldn't call an Brazilian Portuguese, would you? How many Calabrian Italians speak their own dialect of Greek like we do? They're not a Greek Island though, are they? Meanwhile, Cyprus has its own governments, its own flags, its own Dialects, we even have our own cheese. (@cheese where u at?) I'd argue we even have our own culture in some ways given that Greece and Turkey do not celebrate new years like we do.
"Our Country once belonged to the Ottoman Empire/The Ancient Greeks."
And Latin America belonged to the Spaniards and the Portuguese, North America belonged to the Brits and the French, Britain was colonized by the Saxons (Germans), the French and the Vikings. Scotland, Ireland, Wales, even fucking Australia and New Zealand still belong to the British to this day, but are still their own country. A part of Ireland is still British, and even parts of Cyprus are still British but we wont say we are English.
We won't say we're Italians even though the Venetians had us. We won't call ourselves Arabs even though we're in the middle east and the Persians had us and one of the 2 official religions is Muslim and we have our own endangered dialect of Arabic. We won't call ourselves French even though we had a few French kings + the Templars. The British had us more than once but we wont call ourselves British.
So what's the deal?
While we're making that argument, by the way, we should also mention that while yes we did belong to so many other empires, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, some Italian islands, and Half of Turkey, was also Ancient Greek. Meanwhile, The Roman Empire also took the entire Mediterranean sea and southern Europe, PLUS parts of the Atlantic, And we somehow had the Byzantine (east roman) empire influence the Slavic regions. But no, Romania isn't Greek. Likewise the Ottoman empire had the entire Middle East and Eastern Europe, PLUS the south mediterranean coast lines. But no, Algeria isn't Turkish.
So How the fuck are we still claiming that we are Turkish or Greek?
"In 1974 Cyprus had voted for Enosis, a merger between Greece and Cyprus."
Very true, and a compelling argument at that too. But what good did that bring us? We lost many Cypriots -- Turkish and Greek speaking Cypriots, because Greece sold us Security, and Turkey didn't like that we made a fair political vote.
"So that's it! Cyprus is Greek! By Democracy!!!"
- Because likewise if Greece hadn't proposed Enosis, Cyprus would be as it was: Independent.
"But if Greece didn't propose Enosis, Cyprus would be Turkish!"
If the Turks tried to Reclaim Cyprus since the Ottoman Empire while Cyprus was Independent, the Greeks would have intervened, and once again we would have been Divided in the same way. Perhaps more in the Favor of Greeks due to Geopolitics.
"Cyprus would be better off Greek/Turkish!"
And What? Be in crippling debt to various Western European Countries? Have a Terrible government that Keeps us in crippling debt? Or perhaps a massively corrupt government that has rigged its presidency in order to keep its unwanted provocative president in power? Either way, the end result would be a failing infrastructure, unfixed roads, decaying buildings, abandoned businesses, and a failing economy - one worse than the other.
The end result of the War in 1974 was Almost perfect. Independent Democratic Government, with wise economical decisions made to recover financially as fast and as effectively as possible after the war in 1974, after the 2008 Eurozone Crisis, and after Corona Virus Lockdowns in 2020, making the best out of the Fall of the Soviet Union, the European Union's Perks, Brexit, and our islands most firm and effectual form of income, Tourism.
The Imperfection? The Defacto State known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and both Greek and Turkish Ultranationalism. We've been fighting for centuries, Millenias even, trying to be Turkish, Or Greek. We forgot about ourselves. What about Armenian Cypriots? The Sanna Arabic Cypriot Dialect? What about all the abandoned ghost towns and villages? Shared Music, Shared foods, Shared Culture, and all we think about is Greece this and Turkey that. So much so the Israelis have now found the opportunity to buy off villages and make Jew Only Communities on our island, and all we want to do is fight 2 centuries, and we do not even remember why other than religion, power, and racial judgement.
And for these reasons, I don't classify myself as a Greek Cypriot. I identify myself as a Greek <u>Speaking</u> Cypriot, for that's all that undeniably seperates me and a Turkish Republic Cypriot.
Not Religion, for despite the initiation via birth, it is always his choice what he believes.
Not Culture, for we both have Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Balkan Cultural Practices.
Not Race, for we are of the same.
Just A border, A Nationality, and Language.
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