From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.history,soc.culture.yugoslavia
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Re: Scopjian Flag
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 19:54:36 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Nov16.231942.7736@wuecl.wustl.edu> ls1@cec1.wustl.edu (Lambros Skartsis) writes:

>- that the turkish invasion of the island was justified because:
>- the greeks were ready to massacre the turkish population.

One point stands out clear. The Greeks started massacring the 
Turkish population on Cyprus in 1974. In 1974, Turkiye stepped 
into Cyprus to preserve the lives of the Turkish population there. 
This is nothing but a simple historical fact. Unfortunately, the 
intervention was too late at least for some of the victims. Mass 
graves containing numerous bodies of women and children already 
showed what fate had been planned for a peaceful minority.

The present administration of the Turkish sector on the
island is run by men who were democratically elected. To
suggest that Rauf Denktash and his co-workers are anything
but honorable men doing a very hard job is McCarthyism
in a different form.

They are simply seeking guarantees that will preclude a
repeat performance by the fanatical cadres of the Greeks'
EOKA. If such assurances are not perfectly implemented,
there is every reason to expect that the local Greeks
will be misguided enough to perpetrate their past mistakes.

On such an occasion, the Turkish side may not find it
satisfactory to act with reluctance to go any further
than before, for it is unacceptable to remain always
defensive against cyclical vicious attacks.

Therefore it would be better to have a true federation
of two separate sections living in obligatory peace,
rather than another armed confrontation that would be
started by the Greeks and obligatorily but decisively
terminated by the Turks. 

Any folly that may be said to exist in the general
picture rests with Athens. In 1974, it was the despotic
colonels of the junta there who sponsored EOKA's belligerence.
They lost in Cyprus and eventually they lost at home
also.

The present Greek government is trying to tyrannize the
Turkish population in western Thrace by forbidding it
its ethnic and religious rights, which were established
through international treaties. One might be better
advised to remember that misadventures against Turkiye
do not serve Greece well.

An offer of membership in the European Common Market
as bait for concessions that may doom the Turks in
Cyprus to extinction is not a viable course for Greece
or her friends.

Neither Turkish lives nor Turkish honor has been placed
on the bidding block to be sold for commercial gain.

It is true that the Turkish sector in Cyprus is recognized
as a state by Turkiye only. Such recognition is ample
for the time being. The preferable hope for the future 
is the formation of a bona fide federation that will
afford equal and guaranteed chances of survival to both
sides.

Serdar Argic

                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)