Harry Scott Gibbons - The Genocide Files, 1997
"..the extermination of the Turks of Cyprus had begun..."
This book was written to give the facts of the recent past of Cyprus. I have done that, and it only remains for me to give my ideas for the Final Solution.
After Turkey had consolidated its physical presence in the north of the island, there was an exchange of populations, and north Cyprus became the Turkish Federal State of Cyprus. There were talks, of course, to see how the two peoples — two different races with two different religions - could live together in peace. No amount of talking has yet discovered this. So eventually, inl983, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus was formally declared. But the south part of Cyprus is recognised internationally as the legitimate republic, and the Turkish third is not recognised at all, except by Turkey and some of the newly independent Turkic states. But that is not the real problem for the North. It has survived as a separate entity for over 20 years, its people can travel abroad — except to the South — there is a growing tourist trade. It is a happy land, with a happy, easygoing people. The women are noticeable for their good looks. When I lived in Cyprus in the 1960s, unmarried women were seldom seen by outsiders. Now, perhaps because of having their own country where they are safe, they have blossomed into real beauties. And there is almost no crime.
The real problem is that Greek Cyprus wants it, and it wages an unremitting war of propaganda in the hope of persuading the rest of the world to get it for them. It was this propaganda, invariably bullying, even threatening, but ever constant, that brought me back to find out why there is no response from the North. I discovered that the new Republic of North Cyprus has no conception of propaganda, or in this case, counter propaganda. Naively, it believes that the world knows all the facts about the so-called Cyprus "problem". The world doesn't, of course, and so far Greek disinformation - deliberate misinformation -- has sufficed to fill that knowledge gap.
This book has been written to show the problem from a Turkish viewpoint. I have also come to the conclusion, due to my research, that Cyprus Greeks cannot live happily, even peacefully, side by side with Turkish Cypriots. Otherwise, why the Greek obsession with getting rid of the Turks, even to the point of mass murder, as this book has shown. In my opinion, there is no "problem" to be solved. It was solved in 1974 by the Turkish intervention at a time when Greeks were massacring each other. Since then, in North Cyprus, there has been no intercommunal strife, no shootings, no mass murders. That seems a good solution to me. If the Greek Cypriots cannot accept an independent part of Cyprus for the Turks, then they are the only ones who have a problem.
Glafkos Clerides, the recognised head of the Cyprus republic, has written his memoirs in four volumes. The contents are too puerile for good reading, but they do show the Greek Cypriot thinking about the Turks. According to Clerides, every problem the island has is due to the Turks. There is no mention of any Greek murders or massacres. These are always committed by irresponsible people on both sides. This is a typical disinformation ploy leading to the description "atrocities by both sides", a manoeuvre by which the guilty party's sins are expunged. The Turks of Cyprus are blacklisted by most of the world. The European Union has placed an embargo on its exports. But what are the Turks of Cyprus guilty of? Unlike Saddam Hussein they have not dropped poison gas on anyone, they have not invaded any oilrich country, they do not blow up people and buildings, like the Irish Republican Army. They don't even bother to reply to the insults showered on them by South Cyprus. All they want is to be left in peace. But Greek Cyprus is the tail that wags the EU dog, and foreign "mediators" shuttle in and out, trying to pressurise the Turks of Cyprus to surrender, to hand over the north to the south, to be officially downgraded to a minority — to be "protected", of course, by the majority Greeks. And this book shows just what that sort of protection is worth.
Life is not always fair. Take Andreas Papandreou, for instance. He was the Greek who wouldn't fight for his country but who nevertheless managed, after the end of military rule, to run the country as a socialist prime minister for many years, grinding it into poverty through well publicised corruption and other scandals. And the only future the Western world wants to offer the Cyprus Turks is life as second class citizens in their own country. In his memoirs, Clerides lays down his terms for a Cyprus solution. They are the same that Papandreou made years ago — Turkish troops must leave the North, Greeks must have freedom of movement in the North and be given back all their lands and property in the North, and the North must come under the jurisdiction of the South. What does he offer the Turks in return. In truth, nothing.
So there it is. Clerides and his people are utterly inflexible on the subject of Turkish rights in Cyprus. They have none. Their message to Turkish Cypriots seems to be, "What's yours is ours, and what's ours is our own!" I have a better solution. Let North Cyprus retain its independence, with no union with Turkey, Greece or the European Union. Let Turkey contract to look after the North's foreign and defence affairs. In that way it will have a voice throughout the world without the expense of a single embassy, This was the arrangement between Britain and Kuwait for many successful years, so there is an excellent and well-tried precedent. And South Cyprus, Greek Cyprus, can have its own dreams come true. Entry into the European Union, and union with Greece, which appears to be the heart's desire of every Greek Cypriot. I am aware this solution will be sneered at. But I am being realistic. I have been to Turkey often in the course of writing this book. I know how the politicians and military think. And I can say this without fear of contradiction from them.
Neither Greece nor Greek Cyprus will ever get control of Turkish North Cyprus.
Not without going to war with Turkey.
And winning it!