some photos about the turks being massacred in ottoman times by armenian murderers...
Reply With Quote[quote=MidtownGuy;125590] Of course people died on both sides, and I'm sure Greek Cypriots, the true Cypriots,
quote]
my aim is to show you and other people that you started with a wrong date to island history and this caused a misleading idea that greeks are the true cypriotors. Greek came to the island after The Mycenæan civilization. After around 400 years greeks started to come to the island with Trojan war...... IT MEANS THAT TODAY'S GREEK ON THE ISLAND HAD MADE AN INVASION AT THOSE TIMES......... Today they see themselves as the only boss of the island and try to assimilate and destroy step by step the second society, namely turks ,on the island....... This is the bitter truth related to the island....
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus
Prehistoric and ancient Cyprus
Main articles: Cyprus (Prehistory) and Ancient history of Cyprus
There are only small traces of the Stone Age, but the Bronze Age was characterized by a well-developed and clearly marked civilization. The people quickly learned to work the rich copper mines of the island. The Mycenæan civilization seems to have reached Cyprus at around 1600 B.C. and several Greek and Phœnician settlements that belong to the Iron Age can be found on the island. Cyprus came into contact with Egypt about 1500 B.C. and became an important trade partner for them.
Around 1200 B.C., the Sea people began to arrive as settlers to Cyprus, a process that lasted for more than a century. This migration is remembered in many sagas concerning how some of the Greek heroes that participated in the Trojan War came to settle in Cyprus. The newcomers brought with them their language, new technology and introduced a new outlook for visual arts. The Phœnicians arrived at the island in the early first Millennium BC. In those times, Cyprus supplied the Greeks with timber for their fleets.
In the 6th century B.C., Amasis of Egypt conquered Cyprus, which soon fell under the rule of the Persians when Cambyses conquered Egypt. In the Persian Empire, Cyprus formed part of the fifth satrapy and in addition to tribute it had to supply the Persians with ships and crews. In their new fate, the Greeks of Cyprus had as companions the Greeks of Ionia (west coast of Anatolia) with whom they forged closer ties. When the Ionian Greeks revolted against Persia (499 BC), the Cypriots, except for the city of Amathus, joined in led by Onesilos who dethroned his brother, the king of Salamis, for not wanting to fight for independence. The Persians reacted quickly, sending a considerable force against Onesilos. The Persians finally won despite Ionian help.
After their defeat, the Greeks mounted various expeditions in order to liberate Cyprus from Persian rule, but all their efforts bore only temporary results. Eventually, Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) took the island from the Persians. Later, the Ptolemies of Egypt controlled it; finally Rome annexed it in 58-57 BC. No doubt the most important event that occurred in Roman Cyprus was the visit by Apostles Paul and Barnabas accompanied by St Mark who came to the island at the outset of their first missionary journey in AD 45. After their arrival at Salamis they proceeded to Paphos where they converted the Roman Governor Sergius Paulus to Christianity making Cyprus the first country in the world governed by a Christian ruler.
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Cyprus in ancient myth
Cyprus is the legendary birthplace of the goddess of beauty and love the beautiful Aphrodite (also known as Kypris or the Cyprian). According to Hesiod's Theogony, the goddess emerged fully grown from the sea where the severed genitals of the god Uranus were cast by his son, Kronos, causing the sea to foam (Greek: Aphros). Her birth was famously depicted by the artist Botticelli in The Birth of Venus. The legendary site of Aphrodite's birth is at 'Petra tou Romiou' (or 'Aphrodite's Rock'), a large sea stack close to the coastal cliffs near Paphos. Throughout ancient history, Cyprus was a flourishing centre for the cultic worship of Aphrodite.
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Post-classical and modern Cyprus
Cyprus became part of the Byzantine Empire after the partitioning of the Roman Empire in AD 395, and remained so for almost 800 years, though with brief period of Arab domination and influence.
After the rule of the rebellious Byzantine Emperor Isaac Comnenus, King Richard I of England captured the island in 1191 during the Third Crusade. On May 6, 1191, Richard's fleet arrived in the port of Lemesos and took the city. When Isaac arrived to stop the Crusaders he discovered he was too late and retired to Kolossi. Richard called Isaac to negotiations but Isaac broke his oath of hospitality and started demanding Richard's departure. Richard ordered his cavalry to follow him in a battle against Isaac's army in Tremetusia. The few Roman Catholics of the island joined Richard's army and so did the island's nobles who were dissatisfied with Isaac's seven years of tyrannical rule. Though Isaac and his men fought bravely, Richard's army was bigger and better equipped, assuring his victory. Isaac continued to resist from the castles of Pentadactylos but after the siege of his castle of Kantara he finally surrendered. In a fit of sardonic irony, Richard had Isaac confined with silver chains, scrupulously abiding by a previous promise that he would not place Isaac in irons should he be taken prisoner. Richard became the new ruler of Cyprus, gaining for the Crusade a major supply base that was not under immediate threat from the Turks as was Tyre. Richard looted the island and massacred those trying to resist him. He and most of his army left Cyprus for the Holy Land early in June. In his absence Cyprus would be governed by Richard Camville.
Guy of Lusignan purchased the island from Richard in 1192 compensated for the loss of his kingdom by purchasing Cyprus from the Templars. The Republic of Venice took control in 1489 after the death of the last Lusignan Queen, after which the Ottoman Empire conquered the Island in 1571.
Ottoman rule brought about two radical results in the history of the island. For the first time since the Phoenicians in the 9th century BC, a new population group appeared, the Turks. The Ottoman Empire gave timars--land grants--to soldiers under the condition that they and their families would stay there permanently. During the 17th century the Turkish population grew rapidly. Most of the Turks who had settled on the island during the three centuries of Ottoman rule remained when control of Cyprus--although not sovereignty--was ceded to Britain in 1878. Many, however, left for Turkey during the 1920s. By 1970, ethnic Turks represented 18% of the total population of the island, with ethnic Greeks representing the remainder. The distinction between the two groups was by religion and language.
The second important result of the Ottoman conquest benefited the Greek peasants who no longer remained serfs of the land they were cultivating. Now they could acquire it against payment, thus becoming owners of it. The Ottomans also applied the millet system to Cyprus, which allowed religious authorities to govern their own non-Muslim minorities. This system reinforced the position of the Orthodox Church and the cohesion of the ethnic Greek population. Gradually the Archbishop of Cyprus became not only religious but ethnic leader as well. In this way the Church undertook the task of the guardian of Greek cultural legacy which is partly carried on even now, although diminished after independence.
The heavy taxes and the abuses against the population on the part of the Ottoman rulers in the early years after the Ottoman conquest gave rise to opposition, following which the Sultan ordered the Governor (the "Kadi") and the Treasurer to govern with justice. While the Sultan's orders indicated his goodwill towards the local population, the local administration proved indifferent, arbitrary and often corrupt, along with imposing a heavy burden of taxes. The inhabitants of Cyprus, disappointed at the mismanagement of Ottoman governors, soon turned to Western Europe in search for help for liberation.
Between 1572 and 1668 AD about 28 bloody uprisings took place on the island and in many of these both Greeks and Turk peasants took part. But all of them ended in failure.
About 1660 AD, in order to eliminate the mismanagement of the Ottoman administration, the Sultan recognised the Archbishop and the Bishops as "the protectors of people" and the representatives of the Sultan. In 1670 AD, Cyprus ceased to be a "pasaliki" for the Ottoman Empire and came under the jurisdiction of the Admiral of the Ottoman fleet. In his turn, the Admiral sent an officer to govern in his place.
In 1703 AD Cyprus came under the jurisdiction of the Grand Vizier (Anthony Petane) who sent to the island a military and civil administrator. The title and function of this officer were awarded to the person who could raise the highest revenues in exchange. As a result, even heavier taxation was imposed. About 1760 AD the situation in Cyprus was intolerable. A terrible epidemic of plague, bad crops and earthquakes, drove many Cypriots to emigrate. In addition, what was worse for the Greeks and Turks of the island, the newly- appointed Pasha, doubled the taxes in 1764 AD. In the end Chil Osman and 18 of his friends were killed by Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike but the two ethnic elements had to pay a huge sum of money to the Sultan and the families of the victims. The latter did not accept this judgement and broke into an open rebellion, having Khalil Agha, the commander of the guard of the castle of Kyrenia, as their leader. Finally the uprising was crushed and Khalil Agha was beheaded.
Cyprus was placed under British control on 4 June 1878 as a result of the Cyprus Convention, which granted control of the island to Britain in return for British support of the Ottoman Empire in the Russian-Turkish War.
Famagusta harbour was completed in June 1906; by this time the island was a strategic naval outpost for the British Empire, shoring up influence over the Eastern Mediterranean and Suez Canal, the crucial main route to India.
Cyprus was formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1913 in the run-up to the First World War. Many Cypriots, now British subjects, signed up to fight in the British Army, in this and in the Second World War.
During the 1900s and 1950s, Cypriots began to demand union with Greece. In 1950, over 95% of the population (including both Greek and Turkish Cypriots)(please provide proof of numbers) voted in a referendum in support of annexation, while the British sought to quell any movement which could threaten their possession of the island. In 1955 the struggle against British rule erupted with the foundation of EOKA, which lasted until 1959.
Independence was attained in 1960 after exhaustive negotiations between the United Kingdom, as the colonial power, and Greece and Turkey, the cultural 'motherlands' for two of the communities on Cyprus. The UK ceded the island under a constitution allocating government posts and public offices by ethnic quota, but retained two small Sovereign Base Areas.The constitution, that was signed by both sides was later reneiged on by the first Greek Cypriot President leader Archbishop Makarios III, his Vice President was the leading Turkish Cypriot politician Dr Fazıl Küçük.
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Post-independence
During the 1960s, Makarios and Küçük pursued a non-aligned foreign policy, cultivating good relations with Britain, Greece and Turkey, and taking a leading role in developing the Non-Aligned Movement.
Tension began in 1963 when Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots were opposed to the proposal since it removed some of the rights they received as part of the 1960 settlement. On 21 December 1963, clashes between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots erupted, with Greek Cypriot paramilitaries slaughtering hundreds of Turkish Cypriots.
Between 1963 and 1974 sporadic violence erupted with both Greek and Turkish Cypriots accusing the other of committing atrocities. By 1974 thousands of Turkish Cypriots were living in enclaves, enduring poor living conditions in exchange for security from violent attacks, while Greek Cypriots took over the properties that Turkish Cyrpiots had to leave behind.[citation needed]
By 1974, dissatisfaction among Greek nationalist right-wing elements in favour of the long-term goal of Enosis precipitated a coup d'etat against President Makarios which was sponsored by the military government of Greece and led by the Cypriot National Guard. The new regime replaced Makarios with Nikos Giorgiades Sampson as president, and Bishop Gennadios as head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. Seven days after these events, and after the coup d'etat had already failed, Turkey intervened militarilly in Cyprus by sea and air on 20 July 1974. At the time Turkey claimed it was invading to uphold its obligation under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Talks in Geneva involving Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the two Cypriot factions failed in mid-August, and Turkish forces subsequently moved from the previous cease-fire lines to gain control of 37% of the island's territory. During the invasion, over 160,000 Greek Cypriots were displaced from their home land, while Turkish forces killed several thousand Greek Cypriots captured in the occupied areas. While this was happening, several hundred Turkish Cypriots in the south were killed at the hands of Greek Cypriot paramilitaries. As of today, there are still thousands of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots unaccounted for. The events of the summer of 1974 have dominated Cypriot politics ever since and have been a major point of contention between Greece and Turkey.
Since 1974, there have been continual efforts to negotiate a settlement, which met with varying levels of hostility from either side. Since 18% of the population was left in control of 37% of the territory, including some of the most fertile and productive land, the Turkish government arranged an influx of settlers from Turkey whose exact numbers are disputed, but believed to be in the range of over 100,000. Turkey counters that the Turkish Cypriots - before 1963 - owned and farmed 33% of Cypriot land before being forced into enclaves, thus the take-over of one-third of Cyprus was seen as compensating the Turkish Cypriots for their lost land.
Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a separate state under Rauf Denktaş on November 15, 1983. The UN Security Council, in its Resolution 541 of November 18, 1983, declared the action illegal and called for withdrawal. Turkey is the only country to date that recognises the administration on the Northern third of Cyprus (known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus's authority over the whole island, and refers to it as the Greek Cypriot administration.
Cyprus joined the European Union as a full member in May 2004. Although it was the island as a whole which joined (theoretically including the northern areas) the Acquis communautaire applies only to those (Greek) areas under the control of the Republic of Cyprus.
Since the invasion, the south part of Cyprus has greatly grown economically, and enjoys a high standard of living. The north maintains a lower standard of living due to heavy dependence on Turkey on all aspects of economic activity as a result of a punitive embargo placed upon it by the Republic of Cyprus.
Originally Posted by milleniumcab
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