I am not a patriot, nor am I a refugee. Still sometimes it bothers me looking at the unfair mistreatment of my country. Today, 20th of July, marks the 43rd anniversary of the Turkish invasion. So I would like to make an article to talk about the history of this place in the hopes that people will learn of our tragedies.
"Your pseudo-state, half our country"
It all started in ancient history. Cyprus was located in the best strategical and merchant-wise location. Thus all nations would come and capture it, one after the other. Greeks, Phoenicians, Francs, Venetians, Turks, Spanish, Brits. Every nation in the Mediterranean conquered us. Either through war or through purchase. No breaks in between. Just slavery and foreign masters. The biggest conqueror was Turks. They were our captors up to 1878 when they SOLD Cyprus to the Brits for 100 thousand gold pieces. The Brits had us occupied up to 1955 when Cypriots rebelled and up to 1959 they left, thus granting us independence for the first time in 1960. Yet the Turks return at 1974 to "protect the Turkish-Cypriots" still living there.
Indeed there were cases of fanaticism against these Turkish-Cypriots, as in all countries patriotism equals fanaticism. On 15th of July some fanatic groups started a coup d'état giving Turks an opportunity to attack. So they came. They pillaged, killed, raped and destroyed. They even took captives, whom when the UN forced them to return them, simply had no records off. So now families have members still missing since the war. Now they are holding about half of the whole island as their own. They formed a nation which we consider false and plead that all other countries treat it as such. If you want to come to Cyprus for vacation, please come to the Southern side. Do not help them financially, they don't need it. We are obligated to give them money anyway so you don't need to give them anything.
If you didn't know, Turkey wants to be part of the European Union. They dare to ask to enter a Union while they hold captive one of the countries already in that union. Thankfully the EU still rejects them and hopefully will still do that until we reach a solution to our problem. To them a solution would be to give us back their non profitable areas and for us to give them some other areas. Our people will of course never agree to that. Yes many people believe the solution is for them to leave. I strongly disagree. We can't kick them out of the country. It's been 43 years. That is three generations of innocent people, that were actually born and raised there. We can't kick them out of their houses. That's what their country does. And we can't merge due to the hatred that exists between our country and theirs. I don't know why Turks hate Greeks and Cypriots. They were the ones that attacked our countries. And yet they hate us. I even came close to death in the army. We are actually forced to join the army because we need someone to protect the separation line between the two sides. I was at an outpost 25 meters away from a turkish one. The difference was theirs was on a hill. They would keep throwing rocks at us and we couldn't do anything about it. We would record it and send it to the UN with hopes of them stopping. One night I was bored so I started walking across the ruins, about 6-7 meters above ground. I liked to do some acrobatics since I had nothing better to do. And then a rock hit right beside my boots. If it had hit me I would have fallen. The height was not that much but it is enough to kill you if you fall on your head. Even the rock could have killed me, by the distance and force it traveled. Thankfully they missed and I got down from there.
So as you see I want things to change. One step at a time. Now for me the most important thing is the taunt. They say they came to save their people, yet they have a need to taunt us by having huge flags on our mountain so we can see them day and night. Which other "country" has their flags on the mountain. FACING OUR SIDE.
Imagine our parents and grandparents having to see that everyday. Anywhere they go in Nicosia. Being reminded that their sons, husbands and fathers where brutally murdered in the war. And that their daughters, wives and mothers where raped and slaughtered in cold blood. Imagine the pain these people feel. Imagine being reminded everyday that you were forced to watch as your 12 year old daughter was being raped by multiple men. So my step one in a solution is TAKE DOWN THOSE GODDAMN FLAGS!
I am not a patriot and I am no refugee. But some of my people are. They lost their homes and their relatives. This is to raise awareness about the problem in Cyprus. 43 years and counting. We might be the younger generation but we still care. We still love this country and we want everyone to know of our pain. Resteem it, share it, do whatever you want. But know our history. It is a history full of slavery. Full of pain. Full of nightmares. We are still strong and will never stop believing in a better tomorrow. We owe it to our fallen heroes!
Grigoris Afxentiou - Inspirational leader and martyr in the rebellion against the Brits.
Solomos Solomou - Shot in the head for trying to take down a falsely put turkish flag.