Cyprus-Forum.com

[boulio]

how have the images and beliefs of ordinary people changed since the opening of the gates last year to the north?

do g/c see t/c and vice versa in a differnet light?has one groups perception of the other group changed to a positve or negative view?does each groups belief of partion or unity(bi-zonal)changed?do g/c have any interaction with settlers and is it positive?

[Piratis]

Everybody is looking at his own interests, and everybody will continue to do so no matter how good friends we can become.

It is all a matter of interests and balance of power. Everything else is just details unfortunately.

[cannedmoose]

how have the images and beliefs of ordinary people changed since the opening of the gates last year to the north?

do g/c see t/c and vice versa in a differnet light?has one groups perception of the other group changed to a positve or negative view?does each groups belief of partion or unity(bi-zonal)changed?do g/c have any interaction with settlers and is it positive?

I think there's a little less mutual fear and suspicion. But this doesn't extend to politicians of either ilk. From the GC side, it also certainly does not extend to settlers. Many of the GC folk I know who have visited the north, particularly the areas outside the main cities have returned disgusted by the conditions they've seen in their old villages now populated by Turkish settlers.

One home video I saw of a village in Mesaoria showed how the church was now being used as a pig shed and the conditions I saw in this person's former house (now occupied by some Turkish people originally from Erzincan) were pretty squalid. This may be unrepresentative so I wouldn't claim carte blanche on this, but it was more akin to life on the margins of eastern Anatolia than Cyprus. I don't see any willingness amongst GC's to reach any sort of understanding or acceptance of the settlers.