We demand Recognition of our Sovereignty and Equality  "Peace At Home, Peace With the World" 27 Old Gloucester St.London WC1 3XX

The proximity talks, which began in New York on December 3, with the aim of preparing the ground for comprehensive talks on the Cyprus issue, ended on December 14 and are said to continue next year in January.

During the talks, TRNC President Rauf Denktas and the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides held talks with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Secretary General's Special Representative for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto.

Because of a  media blackout it is not known exactly what has been discussed during these meetings but it was reported that all the issues deemed important for the sides were put on the table.

Also the usual tactic of breaching the media blackout by the Greek Cypriot leadership, provided extra information about the content of the talks.

Greek Cypriot media revealed that the Greek Cypriot side proposed that no more than 24% of the island's territory should come under the Turkish Cypriot control in a bi-zonal , bi-communal federation.

On the other hand President Denktas insisted that the TRNC should be recognised as an equal state to that of the Greek Cypriot state in South Cyprus and argued that only a confederal solution would safe-guard both communities’ future on the island.

The EU Helsinki summit, which took place around the same time, while accepting Turkey as a candidate state for the EU membership, reiterated that the talks with the Greek Cypriot side in the name of whole Cyprus would carry on. Decision taken with the insistence of Greece, in order to lift its opposition to Turkey’s candidacy, threatened to stop the proximity talks.

The EU summit at Luxembourg which took place in December 1997, where a decision was taken to start the accession negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side, which ignored the equal status of the Turkish Cypriot side,  caused the President Denktas to walk out of the UN sponsored negotiations at that time.

On the last day of the proximity talks, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan invited President Denktas and the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides to attend the second round of talks in Geneva at the end of January next year.

Responding to a question asked about the invitation and if he would return to negotiations next month, President Denktas said, I think that will depend on how we are treated at the UNFICYP extension resolution.

In response to a question regarding why he was now objecting so strongly to a resolution that he had accepted in the past, President Denktas said, “enough is enough.” He carried on saying, “for 36 years UNFICYP’s mandate has been extended under a resolution which refers to the government of Cyprus. We have always said we do not recognise this resolution, while nonetheless treating the UN forces as our guests.”

Stressing that, he came to New York for the proximity talks under a new invitation that referred only to the parties as equals, President Denktas stated that, he found the term ‘the government of Cyprus’ still exists in the UNFICYP resolution and he added, “we are told that further things will be added to it, because the Greek Cypriot side wants it.”

President Denktas continued by saying, “this shows that the UN is not taking us seriously.” He also added that, he was not threatening the Security Council, but said that the leader of the Greek Cypriot Administration, Glafcos Clerides had done so, and reminded the reporters of the letter sent to the Council by Clerides, in which he expressed unhappiness over an early version of the resolution that omitted some of the language that the Turkish Cypriots objected to.

According to the latest news, the final version of the UN resolution to renew the UNFICYP’s mandate, which was announced on December 16, was to the satisfaction of the Turkish side. For the first time the UN Security Council acknowledged the existence of the TRNC, albeit in a roundabout way.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister said, "Turkey's stand concerning the TRNC has not changed", and he repeated this declaration once more during the meeting of his party's parliamentary group. "If the truth of the TRNC is not ignored or if the EU desists from deceiving itself, then reaching an agreement over Cyprus will be easier. Denktas came back from New York with some very positive impressions of the talks. There must not be the slightest doubt that we will maintain our determined position." Furthermore, the President of the TRNC, Rauf Denktas, suggested that if Turkey becomes an EU member, then Turkey's rights as guarantor over Cyprus should be approved by the EU. He further added that if the EU does this, then he will knock on the doors of the EU for admittance.

Turkey welcomes U.N. Cyprus peace force wording.

Turkey expressed satisfaction on the U.N. document  issued concerning the renewal of the UNFICYP’s mandate in Cyprus.

The statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry stressed that the UN document showed that the international community was gradually nearing the Turkish side’s  position that the international community should deal directly with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The U.N. Security Council, in a carefully worded resolution on 15 December 1999, unanimously approved a six months renewal of the U.N. peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in Cyprus for the past 36 years.

The resolution was phrased carefully to help build a bridge between the two sides ahead of a second round of U.N. sponsored proximity talks at the end of January next year.

Turkish Foreign Ministry statement also said that the Security Council had also issued an additional document to a 29 November 1999 report by Secretary General Kofi Annan, in which he recommended the renewal of UNFICYP's mandate.

The statement said that the wording of the additional document made it clear that the U.N. accepted the validity of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

The new document issued by the Security Council said that “Turkey supports the position of the Turkish Cypriot party, namely that UNFICYP can operate on both sides of the island only on the basis of the consent of both parties and that the Turkish Cypriot authorities will accordingly request UNFICYP to work with them to develop modalities of UNFICYP's operation in northern Cyprus.”

Turkish Foreign Ministry welcomed the wording of the new resolution saying, “With this official Security Council document, it is recognised and established that there are two equal sides on the island, that these sides have equal authority and that from now on the activities of the U.N. Peace Force must be determined separately by authorities on each side.”

The statement also said the document “for the first time put on the official record that Turkish Cypriot authorities will ask the U.N. Peace Force to work with them to define the modalities of the force's activities in northern Cyprus.”

Cyprus has been divided since 1963 with the attack of the Greek Cypriot police and terrorists on the Turkish Cypriot community. The United Nations soldiers have been patrolling Cyprus since 1964 and had not been able to stop the Greek-Greek Cypriot attacks until 1974, where the Turkish Army intervened to protect the Turkish Cypriots after a Greek coup. Since then Cyprus have had the most peaceful time in its recent history.

Above quotation from The Washington Post, 17-02-1964, describes clearly the atrocities and the genocide that the Turkish Cypriots were subjected to 36 years ago by the Greek-Greek Cypriot soldiers and EOKA terrorists.

When Polykarpos Yorkadjis, Minister of Interior, declared in 1962 that

"There is no place in Cyprus for anyone who is not Greek, who does not think Greek and who does not constantly feel Greek"  it was an indication of the evil awaiting the Turkish Cypriots.
 
 

Atrocities that started on 21 December 1963, lasted for eleven years. Half the Turkish Cypriot population became refugees twice in this period. Rape was a common occurrence. Hundreds of men, women, children were massacred. Entire population of villages were put in mass graves, including a 16 day old baby. Many were buried alive.

The extracts from the world press during this period explain why Turkey had to intervene, using her right derived from international agreements, to save the Turkish Cypriot population from total annihilation.

Looking at the pictures of the massacred Turkish Cypriots and the mass graves, one must remember that these atrocities took place under the watchful eyes of the United Nations soldiers.

At the present time, the international community is putting pressure on Turkish Cypriots, to live together with the Greek Cypriots under a federal republic. These scenes are the exact reason why the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus should be recognised. Only then our future in Cyprus can be guaranteed.
 
 

WORLD PRESS ON GREEK ATROCITIES IN CYPRUS
 
 

From: HERALD TRIBUNE, NEW YORK, 16 SEPTEMBER 1964

".....degrading, sub-human standard of life in Cyprus for Turks...", "....economic restrictions being imposed upon the Turkish community in Cyprus were in some instances so severe as to be a siege..."

From: LE FIGARO (PARIS) 15-16.02.1964 REPORT BY MAX CLOS

"...It is a military operation that the Greeks launched against the six thousand inhabitants of the Turkish quarter yesterday morning. A spokesman of the Greek Cypriot Government has recognized this officially... It is hard to conceive, how Greeks and Turks may seriously contemplate working together after all that has happened.."
 

In an interview with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, Makarios said how Ioannides (a Greek officer in the Greek contingent on Cyprus) and Nikos Sampson, a bloody EOKA terrorist leader responsible from the "execution squads" of EOKA, came to him one day in 1964 and told:

"Your Beatitude, here is my project. To attack the Turkish Cypriots on the island, and eliminate them to the last one."
 
 

Architects of the AKRITAS Plan, Archbishop  Makarios, Leader of the EOKA terrorists General Grivas and Glafcos Clerides, the present Greek Cypriot leader, are seen in this picture saluting the Greek invasion forces landing on the island, with the purpose of annihilating the Turkish Cypriot population and achieving ENOSIS (Union of Cyprus with Greece).
 

From: IL GIORNO, 14.1.1964 REPORTED BY GIORGIO BOCCO

"In Cyprus the terror continues. Right now we are witnessing the exodus of
Turks from villages. Thousands of people are abandoning their homes, lands, herds: Greek terrorism is relentless. This time, the rhetoric of the Hellens and the busts of Plato do not suffice to cover up their barbaric and ferocious behaviour. At four o'clock in the afternoon curfew is imposed on the Turkish villages. Threats, shootings, and attempts of arson start as soon as it becomes dark. After the massacre during the past Christmas that spared neither women, nor children, it is difficult to put up any resistance..."

From: WASHINGTON POST, 16.02.1964 ARTICLE BY ROBERT H. ESTABROOK

"...Archbishop Makarios, robed and bearded cleric who serves as President of Cyprus, has a Byzantine talent for equitation....his Government deliberately provoked the clashes and is bent upon the extermination of the Turkish population..."
 

From: DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON) 15.02.1964 EDITORIAL

"...If the Turkish Army has not already landed reinforcements to its Treaty Force in Cyprus, that is simply proof of the patience of Turkey. Its right to do so cannot be denied. If international treaties mean anything, Turkey can protect the Turkish Cypriot minority from further massacre. It is radical discrimination in its most bestial form. Although there have been efforts to cloud the issue by suggesting that both Cypriot communities are to blame, by far the heaviest guilt is that of the Greek Cypriot force known as EOKA or EDMA..."

From: UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL USA, 23.07.1974

"...the Greeks killed many women and children in Limassol. I have seen the bodies of 20 children lying on the road...some were wounded and crying...the Greek soldiers are waiting for their turn to enter in the Turkish homes and kill the women..."
 

From: THE UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL USA, 20.08.1974

"...Every hour new ditches and numerous corpses are being discovered. It is very difficult to endure the job..."

Greek Cypriot newspapers, while giving the news as a victory for the Turkish Cypriot side, put the responsibility of this “nightmarish” development on the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides. They also accused USA and Britain of promoting confederation on the island.

Politis said that with the help of Britain and the US, and with the ludicrous excuse of protecting the good climate of the proximity talks, President Denktas imposed his condition on the UN Security Council.

Through the use of blackmail, he forced the Security Council to remove the most important and substantial paragraph 11 of the resolution, which said that the federal state would have single sovereignty, one nationality and one international personality.

This negative development angered Clerides, who later consented to the removal of the paragraph from the resolution. While President Rauf Denktas had agreed to return for a second round of proximity talks, Clerides said that he would give his answer to the UN only after he saw the Security Council resolution. Diplomatic sources said the response would be positive.

Simerini described the goings on in New York as a diplomatic thriller in which the sovereignty of Cyprus was the victim.  While the resolution made reference to previous resolutions on Cyprus, paragraph 11, which spoke of a single sovereignty, had been removed. Under the circumstances, not only was there a danger of the Cyprus state being called into question, but also of a change to the basis of the negotiations.

There had been no mention in the resolution about the parameters of a Cyprus settlement, which were based on a unitary state. The fact that President Denktas had said he would return for the second round of talks, was proof that the UN had adopted his conditions, regarding the context of the resolution, the paper said.

Phileleftheros said that Clerides was clearly annoyed by the fact that President Denktas's demands about the content of the resolution had been satisfied by the UN, and, consequently, avoided saying whether he would attend a second round of talks. Although, in the end, he would attend, he wanted to send a message to the mediators that he was unhappy with their actions.  Clerides had recently written to the five permanent members of the Security Council, saying that if there was no direct reference to a single sovereignty in the resolution for Unficyp, he would not accept it. Using strong language, he had made his participation in the second round of talks dependent on the wording of the resolution.

Alithia reported that the second round of talks would be held on January 26 and would last 10 days.  During the second round, there would be an in-depth analysis of the positions of the two sides and an effort would be made to find common ground or bridge differences on certain issues.

Haravghi continued to express its disapproval of the Helsinki summit decision, which had led to the burial of the Cyprus problem. It cited an announcement by the Communist Party of Greece, which claimed that Cyprus is heading for formal partition. The EU saw the Cyprus problem as an issue that should be settled by the two sides and promoted the new imperialist order.

Machi said that the Turkish side was preparing to return Famagusta to the Greek Cypriot side in an effort to gain acceptance of its proposal for a confederation. Apart from Famagusta, President Denktas has also offered to return Lefka, Kokkina and Louroudjina. The US was behind these efforts, the paper said.

In a letter she wrote to Prime Minister, Green said she has been appointed chief executive of the Co-operative Union, and therefore will resign as a North London MEP, at the end of the year.

Pauline Green, who gave unconditional biased support to the Greek Cypriot cause for years, is one of the most disliked politicians by the Turkish community in the UK.

Greek Cypriot media gave the news under the heading  “Pauline heading for pastures greener?” and quoted Pauline Green as saying "It is with great sadness not yet to have seen the day on which the division of Cyprus, imposed by the Turkish invasion in 1974, is finally ended."

It was also reported that she expressed regrets that she will not be able to             Pauline Green speaking to Greeks in a meeting
finish work on the accession of Cyprus to the European Union and despite no longer holding an EU Parliamentary brief for Cyprus, she would "continue to support a just and lasting solution to one of the unresolved injustices in the world".

Almost a decade in European politics but unfortunately Pauline Green is still making the same mistake on her last few days as a politician by referring to the 1974 Turkish intervention in Cyprus as “invasion.”

We cannot say that we are going to miss someone who never had the ability to understand that she and others like her are the main cause of the continued division of Cyprus, which had been divided since 21 December 1963.

So it is without sadness we say good riddance and wish her a very very long successful career as the chief executive of the Co-operative Union.

Turkish deputy Bülent Akarcali from the Motherland Party explains the meaning of the statements in the final communiqué of the Helsinki Summit.

A summary of his column in the Turkish daily Milliyet is as follows:

"The main gist of the Helsinki document is that the candidate status of Turkey, which will lead the country to EU full-membership, has been accepted unconditionally.

When compared with the Luxembourg Summit which attached certain impossible provisos to our candidacy, this is a great achievement for Turkey.

The Helsinki document is formed mainly of three parts: the evaluation of 13 candidate countries on an equal footing, the disputes between candidate countries or a member country and the Cyprus problem, and thirdly the preparations of a candidate country to become a member and the responsibilities and obligations entailed in this.

The document does not talk about the Cyprus Republic. It does not even mention the Cyprus Government. It defines the issue as the "Cyprus problem". It is important to note that in the statement, in which every word is carefully chosen, the Greek-Cypriot Administration does not come to the fore.

There is no mention that the Greek-Cypriot Administration will become a member if negotiations on the subject fail. On the contrary, it is stated that Europe will reassess the situation if no agreement is reached on the issue by the end of 2004.

Disputes between Turkey and Greece will not automatically be taken to the Court of Justice at the Hague either.

In the past Turkey had proposed a solution package which covered recourse to the Hague. In fact, these proposals made at the party leaders' meeting of the European Democratic Union, which constituted a significant diplomatic success put Greece in a tight spot.

For years, Turkey has been calling on Greece to solve these problems between the two countries and, if no agreement is reached, to take them to the Court of Justice.

For years, Greece did not regard the issues we saw as "disputes" between the two countries but as "a domestic problem" such as the continental shelf and Flight Information Region(FIR). Therefore, the Helsinki Document is closer to Turkish views on the subject.
In short, the Helsinki Document will not automatically grant membership to the Greek-Cypriot Administration. Greece will not veto Turkey any more. A new period of cooperation is beginning; Turkey has been recognized as a respected and strong player on a field where everyone is playing according to the same rules."

"Pointless and excessive outrage in electronic mail is so common that it has a name of its own: flaming." (1)

In March 1997, a couple of Turkish Cypriot Network (TCN) members pretending to be web page designers managed to lay the foundations for the organisation’s Internet site.  The resulting site was a rather crude and amateurish collection of pages containing issues of our TCN Newsletter. Nevertheless we would grab hold of anyone showing the slightest bit of interest in the Internet, rush to the nearest computer boasting a modem, go online, type in our address and sit back and wait for praises while admiring the result of many sleepless nights.

In August, same year, our web site design genius friend fitted a little clock to the front page of our site.  Every time a surfer would hit on our site the clock would register the visit.  Mother of all inventions!  This, of course, gave us an additional incentive to log on and check out our website fifteen times a day.  Discovering that the reading on the clock moved up a couple of points we would start phoning each other to discuss the marvels of modern technology.

The fact that our newsletters were now available to everyone on the planet wishing to learn about our cause was such an exciting concept…

After the honeymoon we had to start learning the tricks of the trade.  We found out that the major consideration was how to increase the traffic to our site.  In order to encourage hits we began registering our site with search engines and posting our web address on newsgroups.  Within a short period the reading on our little clock began moving up.  Then the e-mail messages from surfers started flowing in.  That’s when we discovered what ‘flaming’ is…
 

Grateful Souls and Flaming Greeks

Apart from enquiries about cheap flights to Limasol or Turkish football teams, the bulk of the e-mail messages we have been getting contain comments on the content of our newsletters regarding aspects of the Cyprus question.  The bulk of the senders can be crudely categorised into two as ‘Grateful Souls’ and ‘Flaming Greeks’.

Being one of the first few Internet sites dedicated to promoting the just cause of Turkish Cypriots; TCN Website is generally acknowledged as a useful source and can be found on the links pages of many Turkish and foreign websites.  Hence we have been receiving praises from surfers who sympathise with the Turkish Cypriot cause.  Usually we are told that it was about time Turkish Cypriots began putting forward their points of view for the entire world to see in argument for their just cause.  They usually also thank us for our efforts.  These are the ‘Grateful Souls’…

‘Flaming Greeks’ are an end product of years of state and church sponsored anti-Turkish propaganda and brainwashing inflicted on the Greek people.  They regularly write to us after viewing our web pages and subject us to a good ‘flaming’.  Contents of their e-mail messages range from rude to downright offensive and hateful, from denial of facts to threats of violence.  That is why we named this category ‘Flaming Greeks’.

Denial

One common trait in their messages is objection to historical facts and denial of the ‘possibility’ that their people ‘could have made mistakes and even carried out atrocities on the Turkish Cypriots’.
For example, we received the following work of art written in capital letters from N. Nearchou (LAW8NN@leeds.ac.uk) on 22/11/99:

"I read your web pages.  You are just very very very big liers!  These are all bullshits!  I cannot believe you!  You have very good imagination!  Congratulations!  May Allach help you!  I think you have mind disease!  Do not be afraid by time you would feel better!  Only with war we can find our freedom!  You are just lier!"

We thanked him for his ‘valuable input’ and reminded him that the evidence displayed in our web pages are a little more than product of our ‘active imagination’ and that he should refer to a few books on the history of Cyprus before commenting on our mental health.

Denial can be taken to extremes sometimes.  Elias Tilavgis (eliast@philiki.com) writing from Greece on 24/11/98 gives us a good performance of this.  Here is his opening line:

"Yea sure, If you are turkish-cypriots I'm Chinise.He he he!"

He seems convinced that Turkish Cypriots would not demand their sovereignty and human rights and therefore we at TCN must be members of some other nation.  Japanese perhaps?

We wonder what the reason behind his presumption is and read on:

"Turkish –Cypriots, notice the capital letters here, are and have the right to participate to the One and Only Republic of Cyprus."

Thank you for the explanation and the capital letters your highness.

We understand now.  What he is saying is that because Turkish Cypriots are ‘partners’ to the so-called Republic of Cyprus they would not speak against it.  This, of course, is a common fallacy promoted by Greek propagandists i.e. harmonious co-existence of the peoples of Cyprus spoilt by ‘Turkish invasion of 1974.’

But then he springs the following on to us and spoils the beginning of a wonderful relationship:

"One State One Nation ---> the Greek Nation. As far it concerns you, you might as well believe whatever you say.  Thank you for your time.  Enjoy it while you CAN assholes."

Oh well you can’t win them all.

Stathis (ee0u70f4@liverpool.ac.uk) on 15/7/99 referring to our articles on the subject of the Greek violations of human rights of the Turkish population in Western Thrace, wrote:

"I must admit guys that you are very effective and you know very well how to mislead people. And I can't do anything else other than laugh when I read those things you say.  For instance, I have been many times in Thrace and none of the muslims has any problems, none has even complained!  However, if you remember you ignorant people, there were thousands of Greeks in Konstantinoupoli and in general the whole Turkey… Where are all of these Greeks?"

Let’s get this straight now.  You refer to the Turkish minority in Western Thrace as just "muslims", yet do not refer to the "Greeks" in Turkey as "Christians."  Double standards?  Beyond doubt; especially when you compare the two minorities’ lifestyles in their respective countries.

Stathis, then, begins sounding more and more arrogant and finishes off his speech with an insult:

"We would really like Turkey to be a modern and not an old fashioned country as it is now, because a good relationship can only be established with civilised people.  But people like you do not differ a lot from Homo-sapiens and therefore we cannot have a serious conversation. Try to differentiate from animals guys, you are so pathetic!"

At least he admits we are homosapiens.

Offensive and Hateful

When immature and uncivilised people fail to come up with valid arguments during a discussion they almost always resort to insults and verbal violence.  The mildest form of offensive and hateful ‘flaming’ mail we get arrives in the form of a suggestion, or perhaps as a reflection of the sender’s wishful thinking.  Like the examples below:

"Turkey is a beautiful and more importantly a huge country, why don't you all piss off to Turkey if you love it so much?  How's that for hate?"
Marios (mario@athanasi.freeserve.co.uk) on 23/1/99

"You will never become recognized and have a tourkish country on Cyprus! We know that you are criminals...Leave Cyprus!  Go home to your miserable Mongolia!"
Rachel (bestrac@auden.webster.edu) on 26/2/99

We really do not mind being asked to emigrate to Mongolia but it really hurts when insults arrive in the form of a grammatical spaghetti junction and we have to make an effort to decipher the message.  The following one, for example, is a classic:

"well well what else do you expect from a turk you are a pigs talking about how your misstreated and poor cyprus turks boohoo and now you ask for equalty to be treated has humanbeings un likely yous only war is the option because you people have no soul or heart you are the same as sheep follow the leader what a shame of a nation but do me favour and die you in pure filth savages never change or learn moslem dogs"
gfile@hotmail.com on 30/4/99

Come on people, show the courtesy of running your hate mail through a spell check before you send it.  We are all Cypriots after all!

Either that or keep your insults and sentences short and tidy like the following:

"it is better to show understanding and love to a snake than to a turk(ey). It is a better animal"
N. Nearchou (law8nn@lucs02.novell.leeds.ac.uk) on 1/12/99

"Fuck you animals. your time is near. Filthy Turks.  Primitive Cannibals.  We don't even consider you humans.  You are a virus."
tsav_1@hotmail.com 12/12/99

Short sharp and to the point.  Well done.

Threats

The most boring type of ‘flaming’ mail usually contains threats.  The authors of such mail are usually of very limited intelligence, have an infertile imagination and a poor sense of humour.

Take our next fan, for instance; we believe it has taken Hermoine Markides (herma@spidernet.com.cy) of Cyprus a long time to compose himself and put together the following piece dated 8/9/98:
"THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU WILL CRY FOR MERCY.  THE TURKISH STATE AND NATION WILL CEASE TO EXIST."

It sends chills down your spine doesn’t it?  Yes indeed; a most frightfully boring piece.  So boring that he could well have been working for the department of agriculture.

Talking about ‘the department of agriculture’ the next threat is from an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture.  He/she/it has withheld his/her/its name and e-mailed us from whorn@whnrc.usda.gov on 20/1/99.

"It's a shame that all of you Turks, (the inbreeds of Asia) still exist.  You will be exterminated by Anthrax with-in the next year."

Only someone working at the department of agriculture could have thought of this or perhaps someone very familiar with cattle and sheep.  Someone very, very close to cattle and sheep…

Our Favourites

We at TCN make a point of promptly replying to all serious mail.  Sometimes even the most obnoxious messages get an acknowledgement from us.  However there is something that we do exercise religiously and that is we never delete our mail.  They are transferred to an ‘archive file’, ready to be referred to in some distant future.

The following two are not kept in the regular ‘archive file’, as they are our favourites.  They are kept in the ‘favourites archive file’.  Read on and you will agree with us.

Dimos Psorofillas (dipsorofillias@metronet.de) wrote to us on 18/7/99 altering our perception about ourselves as Turkish Cypriots:

"This so called EOKA you complain about liberated also you from the british colonialist, what was the turkish cypriot contribution to the guerillia war which forced the britts to leave the island?"

That’s right actually.  We must seem so ungrateful.  EOKA kicked the British colonialists out of Cyprus and the least we could have done to show them our appreciation would have been to let them exterminate us.  We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Last but not the least, as they say, is a real gem, a collector’s item…It came from Logos TV in South Cyprus.  For those of you who are not familiar with this establishment, let’s just say that it’s owned by bearded men who wear long black dresses.  The message received on 4/12/97 from logostv@logos.cy.net was short, misspelled yet divine in its simplicity and it just read: ‘fuck of’.

After two and a half years since the construction of our website and more than 20,000 hits on our clock, we got accustomed to getting ‘flamed’.  As you can see we even started enjoying getting ‘flamed’.  We also know that the more we emphasise the truth about the Cyprus conflict the more we will get ‘flamed’.

By the way, the definition of ‘flaming’ that appeared at the beginning of our article had a second part to it, which was:

"Don’t flame.  It makes you look like a jerk." (2)
 

Reference:
(1) & (2) The Internet for Dummies by J. R. Levine, C. Baroudi and M. L. Young
 

*Gercek Newspaper* is a publication of TCN published in Turkish and English 

© 1997, TURKISH CYPRIOT NETWORK. All rights reserved. For further information and comments please contact us.
Address: 27 Old Gloucester St. london WC1N 3XX  Tel: 0708 0810439 Fax: 0870 0631703 Email: tcn@tc-net.demon.co.uk