Eric, I have already told you when "Greekness" begun in Cyprus. But as you know I don't mind repeating the truth every time you are trying to deny it. So here we go:
Cyprus has been a Hellenic island for 3500 years, about as long as any other Greek island and just a few centuries later than the Greek mainland. Cyprus was Hellenic long before the Greek Alphabet was discovered and before the Greek civilization became the great civilization everybody knows today. Cyprus was an integral part of Hellinism since then. One of 12 Gods of Olympus was Cypriot. Cypriots spoke the earliest known dialect of Greek, Mycenaean Greek, which later became the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek.
Cyprus was Hellenic so long ago, that at that time the concept of a country did not exist. There was no such thing as a "Greek country" back then for Cyprus to belong to. What we had where Hellenic city kingdoms, and Cyprus had several of them. However Cyprus did belong for many centuries to the Hellenic Byzantine Empire and the people of this island, like the rest of the Hellenic world, became Greek Orthodox Christians and abandoned the Olympus Gods.
People on this island dear Dayi speak Greek and follow the Greek religion (either the Olympus Gods or later Orthodox Christianity) and culture,
uninterrupted for 3500 years.
So if you want to know when the "notion of Greekness begun in Cyprus" the answer is 3500 years ago.
I believe that our examination of History should start with the Ottoman rule of Cyprus. That is when Cyprus, like most other Hellenic territories and islands, fall under the Ottoman rule. It was in this period that a Muslim (later called TC) minority was created, it was during this time that this Muslim minority was divided and given privilages over the rest of Cypriots, and it was at this time when Cypriots along with the other Greeks first attempted to rid of themselves of their Ottoman rulers and create an independent Greek state.
During the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the Ottoman authorities feared that Greek Cypriots would rebel again. Archbishop Kyprianos, a powerful leader who worked to improve the education of Greek Cypriot children, was accused of plotting against the government. Kyprianos, his bishops, and hundreds of priests and important laymen were arrested and summarily hanged or decapitated on July 9, 1821.
Cypriots had right to fight for their freedom just like Cretans, Athenians, Peloponisians and every other Greek under the Turkish rule.
Cyprus was
no different from those other Greek parts. Cyprus was not the only Greek territory where a Muslim minority had been formed, and it was not the only one where the Turks ruled against our will. In fact the Turks where ruling Athens, the Greek mainland and most other Greek islands for
longer than what they ruled Cyprus. Those that claim that Cyprus had no right to be part of the newly formed Greek state should also claim that for the same reasons no Greek state should have been created.
While our revolts where oppressed by the Turks this didn't mean we should have given up our struggle for freedom, and we didn't. We continued to demand our rights and freedom when the British took over.
Even the UN resolution about Decolonization confirms that not only people had the right to rid themselves of the colonialists, but also that "integration into an independent State" was a
legitimate option for the people being decolonized if this was their democratic choice.
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/decolonizat ... ration.htm
The British denied to us our rights and we were forced to fight a war against them.
The TC minority in Cyprus was used by the British as the means to deny to the Cypriot people their self-determination and their rights so they could maintain their control over our island.
Personally I forgive those Turkish Cypriots that fought on the side of the British because I understand their fears. Although liberation and integration to the Greek state was with no doubt our right, at the same time I accept that the TC minority had valid objections to such development. At the same time I expect from TCs to recognize our right to finally get rid of the foreign rulers and be part of a Greek state like all the other Greek territories and islands.
However taking advantage of the TC fears to stop Cyprus from joining the rest of Greece was not the only thing the British did. They subsequently exploited the TC greed, by promising to them and later giving to them with the 1960 "agreements" that where forced on the Cypriot people, significant gains on the loss of all other Cypriots. In this way they ensured that there would never be a united Cypriot people, but instead two conflicting sides, one of which would be loyal to them and Turkey and serve their interests, instead of the interests of Cyprus as a whole.
Independence, the other one of the legitimate options for decolonization, was something proposed by Makarios as a compromise. Personally I believe that was a good promise since it would give to the Cypriot people their freedom and self determination without integrating Cyprus into the Greek state which TCs believed would be harmful for them. However what Makarios proposed was a
true independence, that would create in Cyprus a normal democratic country, not something that would be created by foreigners to serve their own interests and then imposed on the Cypriot people.
If I didn't know what was coming next in this story then I would not be able to make sense of any of this but alas I do know and it's not a pretty story.
