I would just like to add the Turkish failure to honour the Ankara protocol is an utter disgrace and I consider that the EU should meet out to the Turks the same as they apply to any EU country or its citizens, namely banning their aircraft from EU air space, their ships from EU waters and trucks from EU Roads.

These comments are a farce. Various people slagging each other off and no responses from the GC propaganda dept to any comment that doesn't agree with their point of view. I thought that these comment sections were for people to debate sensibly and intelligently but obviously I was deluded.

I am still waiting to find out why the person who shot a Turkish border guard has not yet been brought to Justice but as usual there is a deathly hush! They obviously don't know about it so perhaps they should open the following link and enlighten themselves.

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9609/08/cyprus/index.html

While not in anyway condoning the killing of Solomou, he had the choice about his actions, the Turkish border guard did not. He was a conscript who had to be where he was because he was ordered to.

Your doomsday scenario is wishful thinking, J.A.
It is not Cyprus that is in the way of Turkey's EU membership. Firstly, this possibility is years away, and secondly it will be scuppered by referenda in France, Germany and others. By that time Cyprus will have been divided for good.
Turkey is not dependent on EU membership.

Yep - one day the Kurds will unite and then Allah had better help Ankara.

Fevzi from London & Kyrenia (Sun, July 25th 2010 at 09:36) Very soon there will be no real Turkish Cypriots to negotiate with for as you would be aware Turkey has 40,000 troops and 180,000 illegal settlers thus changing the demographics.

I have said it before and I will say it again, “the so called talks are a bloody waste of time and should be halted immediately”.

It is quite clear that Ankara plans to remain in occupation of the Northern area indefinitely.

Christofas should call the bluff of the gutless UN and EU, stop talking and veto any further progress for Turkey in the EU or anywhere else until his governments rights over the whole republic have been restored.

In the meantime he should also close the crossings along the greenline and withdraw privileges from any person who wants to have his cake and eat it.

In other words any person who wants to be first and foremost a Turk and yet enjoy the privileges of being a Cypriot and an EU citizen.

Andreas.. you are of course correct. I'm sure though both sides have their extremists who will not hesitate to use violence to forward their view. This is not just a 'right-wing thing'. How many did Stalin murder? Extremism at either end of the scale is equally distasteful but since most of the media is under socialist control a rather distorted picture gets painted. In the UK for example racist attacks by nonwhites on whites hardly ever reach the press as it is not good to have to admit this actually happens, yet every attack by a white on another is automatically 'racially motivated' and receives unlimited press coverage. The politicians who perpetrate this corruption will only ever achieve one thing :- free votes for the extremists yet they make the loudest noise when that actually happens!

It is not free speech at all and an utter disgrace to call it so. The point of freedom is that you can do what you like as long as it doesn't infringe the basic rights of others. Chasing people down and attacking them is nothing of the sort.

you guys r such kids, dont make this island suffer from all this crap from both sides, its such a lovely place, you guys were living together before you can live together again, show some tolerance, there is a solution to everything, both sides committed blunders and they should be sorry, this is a game played by politicians, most of the turkish cypriots politicians hold greek cypriots passports so they can travel freely around the world and then they speak about a separate state what a load of crap, show some common sense, turkish cypriots are lonely and they need greek cypriots to support them to be good economically and greek cypriots need the whole country reunited as it is important for the future of the island, so cut this crap and learn to live together, make cyprus a better place to live, i am not european or turkish or greek cypriot but i love this island i call it my 2nd home and i feel sad to see it divided. you people have potential and it would be good to use it for good purpose.

Hello Christoph,

Every nation goes through a bad period and Turkey is going through that period now.

Do you remember the colonels in Greece. Hundreds of students were butchered by Gizikis and his followers and look at Greece now ?

Member of an elite club.

I think given time it will settle down and common sense will prevail. Same will happen to North Korea and all the other countries that are on this path.

One day Turkey will realise that it is time to move out of Cyprus.

However, I can't see this in the very near future as almost all of the current Turkish Cypriot elected leaders!!!! are arse lickers

As a Cypriot I would like to see my country united and free of all foreign troops.

Quite right, Michael A, bringing up the issue of the lynching of Solomou and the murder of Isaac at Dherynia in 1996. Here, we have an example of real fascist, racist violence. Were any charges brought against the cowards who committed these atrocities? Was there any soul-searching by the Turkish side regarding the barbarism they sank to? Have any apologies ever been issued to the families? Any reassurances offered that in a united Cyprus, GCs won't be subject to this kind of barbaric violence? Or were these killers held up as paragons of Turkish virtue, proclaimed heroes for defending the 'TRNC? The killer of Isaac, wanted by interpol, was in fact made a minister in the occupation administration and recently stood for 'election' for the pseudo-parliament. And then Turks have the audacity to accuse GCs of racism. What a funny world we live in.

Yes, that's right, Loriot: the Cyprus problem has got nothing to do with 200,000 refugees, 180,00 settlers, 40,000 Turkish occupation troops, the forcible partition of the island and all the rest.

And I wonder what a 'mutual racist' is? Not heard that one before; there's always some new nonsense to glean from comments on the CM. And, who exactly, was going to exterminate the Turkish Cypriots, or was this just some paranoid delusion the TCs have come to believe in order to justify the ethnic cleansing of GCs and the partition of the island? In fact, you call me a racist while you justify and celebrate ethnic cleansing. Just another example of the perverse, Orwellian use of language the Turkish side is prone to – 'peace operation', 'exchange of populations', and all the rest.

And to answer expat observer's question directly? Of course, I want an end to the illegal occupation of the north; but I don't think this will come about through reconciliation between GCs and TCs, which is desirable, but meaningless until Turkey (like Britain did in Northern Ireland) declares it has no vital strategic interests in Cyprus and acts accordingly.

Many of the comments here confirm my view that this emphasis on an utterly irrelevant organisation like ELAM is to denigrate and undermine legitimate expressions of resistance to the Turkish occupation, so that GCs will be obliged to accept Annan-type solutions.

But there's a deeper issue too; which is that those who bang on about ELAM believe that Greek nationalism is the root of the Cyprus problem and that the way to solve the Cyprus problem is for Cypriots – especially GCs, it seems – to renounce their ethnic identities and engage in reconciliation – mutual apologies and all the rest.

Except that the root of the Cyprus problem is not Greek nationalism or the breakdown in relations between TCs and GCs, who could apologise to each other till their blue in their face, and not one Turkish soldier or settler will leave the island and not one refugee will return to their homes; which reveals what? That the Cyprus problem consists of Turkey's invasion and occupation of the island. Every thing else is just day-dreaming or hot air.

Great article.

I hope that you soon write about KISA and EDON who all support ILLEGAL immigrants and thus indirectly all the settlers in Cyprus. But I'm pretty we won't get such an article.

Do people like John Alexender and the members of ELAM want an end to the illegal occupation of the North? If so I think they are going the wrong way about it since every hate filled message against the Turks gives the occupying forces all the justifification they think they need maintan a presence to protect thir people from the Likes of ELAM.

As CeNK of Famagusta comments, some what indelicately, The real Cypriots are more likley to have Levantine or Anatolian ancestors than any From what is now Greece. The Greekness of Greek Cypriots is relatively recent in terms of 10,000 years of Cypriot History. Rhe Acheans only came about 3000 yeas ago. I wonder if the indigeoneos Cypriots thought of them as invaders? Up to 2400 years so ago Cyprus had its own written language. The language probably became predominant beacuse of Cultural domination, just as the religeon was imposed by a Roman Emporer. As I understand it, most indigeonous Turkish Cypriots are descended from Cypriots who found it expedient in the 350 years or so of Turkish domination to speak Turkish and adopt Islam.

That is the whole pity of Cyprus, that rather than recognise the reality, and celebrate being Cypriot, (not Greek or Turkish) both cultures look to places that were most unlikey to be ancestral homelands.

In Response to Trendy;

Two states is exactly what ELAM and Grey Wolves want if they cannot get their way e.g. the extermination of either side.

However it is down to the GC Govt to punish ELAM ruthlessly and for the TC regime to do likewise with the Grey Wolves.

It would be wrong for a 2 state solution to be the final agreement as it would mean extremists would have won.

John Alexander from London said:

"This is real mountain out of a molehill stuff… but with an ulterior motive, which is to assert that all expressions of patriotism and resistance to the Turkish occupation are somehow extremist ......."

So a gang beating up a black man is patriotic? A mob chasing after two Asians is patriotic? Damaging someones car is patriotic?
You really have crawled out of the woodwork now. If there are many more GC's like you there will NEVER be a settlement and there didn't ought to be. If thuggery against minorities is patriotic, Heaven help your banana republic!

And the Cratos is going to have Christofias as entertainer singing The Tender Trap!

@ Fevzi

your over-generalization is as dangerous as the tactics that elam members use to label all Turks as murderers, rapists etc. You imply that elam's behaviour is the norm amongst Greek Cypriots but you are simply turning a blind eye to the fact that a pro-reunification and pro-rapprochement government was elected by the majority; or the fact that when elam tried to march through the streets against illegal immigrants, their march was stopped by a larger anti-demonstration by antifascists and open-minded people (the journalist should have mentioned this I believe). You also claim that nothing alike exists in the north but I clearly remember a Greek Cypriot being beaten to death by members of the grey wolves in 1996 and they do still exist as organized groups in the north from what I hear from Turkish Cypriot friends who belong to the antifascist movement. It is exactly these type of people, extremists on both sides, that led to the 63 bi-communal clashes, the coup of 74 and the invasion. And these type of people today need to be contained and dealt with -not necessarily by democratic means, I am a firm believer of the notion that the enemies of freedom deserve no freedom themselves. Leaving emotional and moral reasons aside, partition would also not be beneficial on material terms: it would not be economically or politically stable and if you are interested I can email you political economy surveys and statistical models by non-Cypriot NGOs (in case you fear that a Cypriot one may be qualitatively or quantitatively biased). I agree with your statement "If the Greek Cypriots showed remorse, admitted their mistakes and the crimes they committed against the Turkish Cypriots between 1963-74, reconciliation might be possible and some sort of unification could be worked out" but I also turn it around towards Turkish Cypriots and Turks. We ALL need to acknowledge our mistakes and learn from them. I accept and I am ashamed of the criminal acts of extremists of the like of Eoka B' (who by the way had carried out atrocities against left-wing Greek Cypriots as well) and I do understand the way many Turkish Cypriots feel. Do YOU practice the self-criticism of which you speak about?

@ dave gurr

there is no place for any nazis in humanity, doesn't matter where they come from mate

@ hassan

everyone joins the army as it is mandatory, just like you do. Being courageous is not about shooting to kill, that's easy, especially in modern warfare where you don't have to experience the feelings of your blade slashing through flesh nor facing the eyes of the man you kill. Being courageous is to have the heart to forgive and the strength to accept and respect differences so you may live in peace. That's another lesson we must all learn.

@ joe

unfortunately some of them would attack in one-on-one situations, some of them we have faced numerous times in football related incidents. the good thing is, there is no man for whom another man exists who can defeat him ;) i like your rock-surrounded-by-water idea, perhaps we should do that and put there ultra-nationalists from both sides and let them take each other out, that way society gets rid of them and they get to die in the way they claim they are ready for :D

It only takes a few hundred to bring back the killings.

Patientia est a donum superum

Journalists shouldn't be above criticism. The days when the mass media printed it's opinions and didn't have to take criticism from the public are over with. If I read an opinion I strongly disagree with I'm going to speak up in the comments section. I've done it on several occasions in the Cyprus Mail with some of the commentators who frankly needed to hear some alternative viewpoints. Those that dispense their opinions to the thousands need to hear back from those of us who disagree-that way they don't take themselves too seriously. Journalists make mistakes and publish faulty and sometimes unfair analysis. The reading public is here to keep you honest.