Unfortunately it is the nature of forums that detailed discussion of the history of what took place in Cyprus is impossible. However, if any observers of the Cyprus Problem wish to read “Love and Death in Cyprus” I would ask them to point out (apart from the fictional story of Leyla and Alexander) any part that is not fact. If they can, they are welcome to sue me.
Statements by Makarios and others are on the public record. The aim was to eliminate all Turkish Cypriots from the island - clearly stated on a number of occasions by Makarios. When many Greek Cypriots refer to their glorious history, I say this. About 500 BC there existed a number of city-states and Athens in particular there was a flowering of literature, politics and philosophy. These were Athenians and not Greeks in the sense that they belonged to a nation called Greece. Similarly Abraham Lincoln is not referred to as English because that was the language he spoke.
In the criticism I sent to Christopher Hitchens I pointed out his use of emotive language when detailing the deaths of Cypriots. He admitted that Greek Cypriots killed all the Turkish Cypriots in a number of villages but when he refers to Turks killing Greek Cypriots the word used is massacre. Now some Greek Cypriots & their supporters may not think this is important but massacre suggests an act much worse than killed. Greek speaking people in the Balkans never ever regained the heights of Athenian society. Fortunately for them, the English ‘romantic’ writers and poets brought the glory of ancient Athens to the Western World and the Greeks have been living off this since the end of the 19th century.
Words are very powerful tools in the hands of writers. We read that Alexander the Great ‘conquered’ vast lands. That is a euphemism for saying he invaded and slaughtered the inhabitants. Let me refer to one ‘incident’, Tyre, where after a seven-month siege of the island, 8,000 Tyrians were slain and 30,000 sold into slavery. What a nice man he was. Of course he was a Macedonian not a Greek. Is it possible that the children of those slaves are the Greeks of today who have no resemblance to the Greek images in statues and mosaics? I was born in Scotland with Scottish, Irish and I suspect Spanish ancestors but I am an Australian.
In a very interesting interview with a Greek journalist, Makarios said that he never told lies. So when he said in public that he ‘would rid Cyprus of the people of the hated Turkish race or the island will become a holocaust’ then we must believe that he spoke the truth.
Now, please don’t raise the subject of who is indigenous to Cyprus. The whole world is composed of migrants who have inter-married with people of different origins.