Greeks and Turks
Sir: There is a number of factual errors and misleading statements on points of history in Mr Richard West's 'The cycle of ter- rorism' (30 October), to rectify which one would need at least as much space as that taken by the article in question. I do not propose to take up all the points here. However, his recurring assumption that the `real opponents' of the Greek Cypriots dur- ing the last three decades were the Turkish Cypriots and therefore 'civil hatred' is the ultimate cause of the situation prevailing in Cyprus today, must be met head-on.
This historically simplistic assumption is not only false but its acceptance by anyone, as something which throws light on the re- cent tragic history of the island indicates a grave ignorance of what went on during the last few centuries in Cyprus in the sphere of intercommunal relations and of the real causes that led to the creation of the present problem. To say that throughout this period the Greeks and Turks of Cyprus lived peacefully with each other is not enough. History shows it. Even demographic statistics demonstrate it. Until the Turkish invasion the Turkish Cypriots were not con- fined to one area but spread out over the whole of the island. There were numerous mixed villages where Greeks and Turks liv- ed together on amicable terms.
The suggestion that the present realities of occupation and partition in Cyprus are the result of some kind of curious biological civil hatred which the Cypriot Greeks have towards their compatriot Cypriot Turks and which mysteriously sprang into being in the Fifties, is not simply meaningless but ludicrous. The invasion of Cyprus by Turkey was a premeditated act; the fact that the 'Attila line' was proposed by Turkey itself to the UN mediator ten years before the invasion in 1974 should not be forgotten.
What is curious, however, is the absence in Mr West's article of any reference to the designs and involvement of Turkey in Cyprus. Your readers should be reminded that, no matter what the aspirations of the Cypriot Greeks were before the 1960 In- dependence, ironically it is Turkey which today occupies 36.8 per cent of the territory of Cyprus and it is her 35,000 troops in Cyprus that prevent the ordinary Greeks and Turks on the island from living together peacefully as in the past.
Soteris Georgallis
Cyprus High Commission, 93 Park Street, London WI
Previous page
