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Here's an idea to reunite the two sides. Especially after all that childish bollocks about the Ledra crossing...

You know how the soldiers put down their guns on Christmas Day 1914, and played footy and popped crackers and ate pie and said Gor' blimey gov in the name of solidarity and brotherly love.

We should do this on the coming xmas! Except instead of snow and puddin', young kids could cross the green line by Dereynia carrying kebabs and tokens of Gyros love, and Sheftalia emotion.

It cant fail.

Then once everyone has had their fill, we can play football as an act of forgiveness, using the lazy UN soldiers to fulfil the role of linesmen and referees, and the striking potato farmers can be out to use in the car park, handing out flyers and cleaning windscreens. Everyone's a winner.

Old biddies from Paralimni can visit Famagusta in pick up trucks, meeting and greeting elderly Turks and swopping tales about their backgammon conquests over the decades.

Come one people. Make up this Christmas!

All we need is for the Turks to forget the fact it is a Christian celebration. Other than that the plan is flawless.

another romantic in the forum

and even better in cyprus .
stay fit pumpernickle bc we r gonna need you.

i dont think the tc will matter if its cristmass. in any case it can happen any other day. not to mention...santa claus which is also for us imported as coca-cola man, has also reached japan. i wouldnt be surprised if they have santaclauses and trees also in the north. gyros and donner are always unifying factors

the problem with such events is who organises it, who finances it, who is the good guy, who is the bad guy, whose fault it is that it will not happen etc etc...

(a piece of advise bc these things tend to matter here : greeks, turks, greekcypriots, turkishcypriots)

I don't know what happened in 1914, but in Cyprus football certainly doesn't bring peace. Not a good idea

Piratis wrote:I don't know what happened in 1914, but in Cyprus football certainly doesn't bring peace. Not a good idea

After Christmas day they all got back into their trenches and started shooting each other. They have just made a film about it. A rare moment of humanity. It seems stupid when you first hear it. Stop a WAR to play football and wish each other a happy Christmas? After a while it warms your heart and offers some hope but in between you keep asking your self which was the more stupid of the two. Going to war or playing football with your enemy?

the answer is simple : going to war.
it amazes me that u r still wandering !!!

zan wrote:

Piratis wrote:I don't know what happened in 1914, but in Cyprus football certainly doesn't bring peace. Not a good idea

After Christmas day they all got back into their trenches and started shooting each other. They have just made a film about it. A rare moment of humanity. It seems stupid when you first hear it. Stop a WAR to play football and wish each other a happy Christmas? After a while it warms your heart and offers some hope but in between you keep asking your self which was the more stupid of the two. Going to war or playing football with your enemy?

Are you talking about the Gallipoli battle? I know something similar happened there too.

Ataturk's attitude towards the soldiers who effectively were invadors of Turkey is really stunning:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...you
are now lying of the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest
in peace. There is
no difference between the Johnies and the Mehmets to
us where they lie side by side here in this country of
ours...You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far
away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are
now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having
lost their lives on this land they have become our sons
as well

cypezokyli wrote:the answer is simple : going to war.
it amazes me that u r still wandering !!!

You know what I meant. Playing football in the middle of a war. If you seperate them then there is no competition. War is of course the maddest.

Bg_Turk

"SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT"

During World War I, in the winter of 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, one of the most unusual events in all of human history took place. The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French. Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever.

All of a sudden, German troops began to put small Christmas trees, lit with candles, outside of their trenches. Then, they began to sing songs. Across the way, in the "no man's land" between them, came songs from the British and French troops. Incredibly, many of the Germans, who had worked in England before the war, were able to speak good enough English to propose a "Christmas" truce.

The British and French troops, all along the miles of trenches, accepted. In a few places, allied troops fired at the Germans as they climbed out of their trenches. But the Germans were persistent and Christmas would be celebrated even under the threat of impending death.

According to Stanley Weintraub, who wrote about this event in his book, Silent Night, "signboards arose up and down the trenches in a variety of shapes. They were usually in English, or - from the Germans - in fractured English. Rightly, the Germans assumed that the other side could not read traditional gothic lettering, and that few English understood spoken German. 'YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT' was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' banners and waited for a response. More placards on both sides popped up."

Does this make war, at some level and in some minds, a romantic prospect or at a much deeper level madness in madness. Note the ones who instigated it were the Germans. German kindness or cold hearted pragmatism. “Its Christmas zo ve don’t fight. Tomorrow back to verk”. It might have actually been a psychological war the Germans used to weaken the will of the enemy.
Since this story I have heard of a few other ones but I don’t know the details of any.

Ataturk was a very clever politician, a genius some might say. And very constructive and good for his people. Dragged you lot out of the dark ages and into some semblance of modernity and quasi civilisation.

Shame that muppet Erdogan is doing his best to undo his brilliant legacy.

PUMPERNICKLE, WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU GOING ON ABOUT ?

read and weep Lysi.

and do be aware that the distance between your pinkie on your left hand, and the capslock key, is a mere fraction of an inch.

SO STOP SHOUTING AT ME.