Just Facts, Not Myths by Rachel Salomon

The article “Not a word of truth from Salomon” by Mr. Argyrou is very misinformed about what really is happening in Cyprus. For starter’s, Mr. Argyrou’s accusations against Harry Scott Gibbons are completely inaccurate. Harry Scott Gibbons earned his reputation as a journalist in Lebanon, where he would become one of London’s more prestigious Middle Eastern correspondents. It is true that he does have a military past. However, Harry Scott Gibbons’ military history is with the British Army, not the Turkish Army. He is not a paid propagandist. Harry Scott Gibbons is a highly professional journalist with a superb reputation. His book, “The Genocide Files,” received excellent reviews from Anne Robinson, a leading columnist from The Express, and Professor Norman Stone of Oxford University. As Anne Robinson wrote, “I urge you to read this book. It needed to be written. A compelling and entirely different account of the so-called Cyprus problem. The finely tuned skills of a distinguished foreign correspondent shine through in Harry Scott Gibbons reporting.” If his book was not historically accurate, I seriously doubt that he would have gotten these reviews.

It is very interesting that Mr. Argyrou neglects to address any of my news sources, choosing instead to call the Washington Post and other news publications, including Greek news sources, liars. As one commentator from the Guardian reported on December 18, 2006, “If you don’t believe me, take a look at the international press at the time.” As I proved in my last article, the genocide is historic fact. I gave countless credible sources to back this claim up.

One can not help but be fascinated by how Mr. Argyrou twists the event where the Greek Cypriots slaughtered two Turks, which was the first major event in the genocide period, into “a Turkish Cypriot who was stopped for driving suspiciously by a Greek Cypriot policeman pulled out a gun and shot the police man and was then shot himself.” I would be very interested to learn where Mr. Argyrou heard these myths from or whether he created them with his own imagination. As Harry Scott Gibbons recorded in the “Genocide Files,” “Zeki Halil Karabuluk, happy husband and father, and Jemaliye Emir, happy, good-looking divorcee with few cares, were standing together when the first burst came. They were only a few hundred yards from home. The bullets cut them nearly in two, flinging them into the road in a jumbled heap. Three onlookers rolled over on the pavement, wounded by a second hysterical outburst. The crowd, screaming, fled. The uniformed police, joined by the civilian gunmen, leapt into their cars and drove off.” The historical fact is that the victims of this incident were Turkish Cypriot civilians shot at by Greek Cypriots in cold blood, not the other way around, as Mr. Argyrou claims.

The Akritas Plan was any thing but an attempt to “peacefully reform the racist and unworkable constitution and to deal with Turkish state sponsored terrorism,” as Mr. Argyrou claims. According to the Greek Cypriot journalist Loucas Charalambous, “The Cyprus problem was brought into being by this idiotic and nationally catastrophic plan. A plan, which, in Demetris Christofias phraseology, would have been described as treasonous. It is a glowing monument of political stupidity and irresponsibility.” Mr. Charalambous describes the Akritas Plan really well when he states that its five main objectives were to convince the world that the Cyprus problem had not been solved and condemn the Treaty of Guarantee, seek amendment of the agreements by all means, make the Treaty of Guarantee unenforceable, Enosis, and lawful confrontation by the forces of the state against any kind of intervention. In other words, the Greek Cypriots wanted to create problems that would not have existed otherwise and get the world to falsely believe that they are just in doing so through deception and propaganda, deprive the Turks of all of their legal rights, prevent Turkey from intervening on behalf of the Turkish minority, violate the independence of the country by making Cyprus part of Greece, and have Cyprus be above the rules of international law, by not having to abide by the very agreements that made Cyprus a state to begin with.

Let me note that all of the amendments that the Greek Cypriots sought to make to the constitution were related to protecting the equal rights of the Turkish Cypriots. This is illustrated very clear in the Thirteen Points of Makarios. It is also important to take notice of the fact that the Akritas Plan states in part A section on Greek Cypriot external tactics, section E, “when this is achieved, no power, legal or moral can stop us.” If they were just pursuing national liberation, then why would they feel the need to hide stuff from the world and make it a priority to prevent external intervention at a time when none was being planned? In this same section, the Akritas Plan states, “it is judged that we have greater possibilities of succeeding in our efforts to influence international public opinion in our favor if we present our demand, as we did during the struggle, as a demand for exercising the right of self-determination, rather than as a demand for Enosis.” Again, the Greek Cypriot leadership is deceiving the world by making a war of genocide against the Turkish Cypriot people into a struggle for self-determination in the eyes of international world opinion. This is proven by what Makarios said in the Greek newspaper Bunte Illustrierte in 1972, “The union of Cyprus with Greece (Enosis) required the extermination of the Turkish Cypriot community.” Reading this, I don’t know how any one except a very ignorant person can interpret the Akritas Plan as any thing but a plan on how to deceive the world as the Greek Cypriots committed a genocide against the Turkish Cypriots. Any plan whose objective is to wipe out an entire group of people can easily be compared to Mein Kampt.

It is very insulting to the Jewish people that Mr. Argyrou was resentful of the home that Sultan Bayazid II provided to the Jewish people. Yet it should come as no surprise that someone who had his upbringing has such prejudices. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Report on “Anti-Semitism in Greece: Embedded in Society,” “Anti-Semitism occurs in Greece not only among extreme rightists and leftists, but is embedded in Greek mainstream society. It manifests itself in many ways: in a religious context, in education, in the application of the law, in the media, and through politically-motivated anti-Semitism in the major parties, as well.” According to Greek-born Moses Altsech of Edgewood College, “In view of the way most Greeks perceive their identity; they have difficulty understanding how someone who is not Christian can be truly Greek.” A 2000 Eurobarometer survey found that 38 percent of Greeks had issues with people from other nationalities living in their country. This is the highest in the entire European Union and thus, makes Greece the most xenophobic country in all of Europe.

Proof of such xenophobia was demonstrated on December 11, 2006, where it was reported that four Greek high school students raped a sixteen year old Bulgarian girl. During this incident, local community leaders decided to expel not only the boys who committed the crime but also the victim as well. Independent Media inquired, “One could think, would it be the same if the girl was Greek? Actually not, as a similar case involving a Greek girl proves. The people of the village were annoyed that the young Bulgarian accused the boys of such a crime. Thus, they forced the girl and her mother away from the village.” Evidently, according to these Greek villagers, foreign girls who are raped by Greeks should not be able to seek justice, for that is a privilege reserved only for Greek girls.

These xenophobic attitudes are also displayed in Greek Cypriot attitudes towards the Turkish Cypriots. As the 2004 referendum on the Annan Plan shows, 75.8 percent of Greek Cypriots opposed the Annan Plan, while 64.9 percent of Turkish Cypriots supported the Annan Plan, according to BBC World News. The Report of the UN Secretary General, dated May 28, 2004, stated that “the rejection of such a plan by the Greek Cypriot electorate is a major setback. What was rejected was the solution itself rather than a mere blueprint.” BBC reported that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that “A unique opportunity to bring about a solution to the long-lasting Cyprus issue has been missed” and called for the world to “seriously consider […] finding a way to end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots.” Unfortunately, at the moment, the international community is not doing enough to ease the suffering of the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot community is not showing any willingness change their minds regarding reconciliation. On September 20, 1992, Mr. Clerides summed up the Greek Cypriot position very well in the Greek Cypriot daily Fileleftheros when he stated, “The best solution is no solution. […] We, the Greek Cypriots, today have the government completely under our control. We do not have the Vice-president with his veto or the three Turkish ministers in it. All the ministers are Greeks. Our government is the only one internationally recognised. Why should we bring back the Turks?”

Given these facts, a continual policy of isolating the Turkish Cypriots is nothing short of a human rights abuse. Can readers imagine what it would be like to live on an island where there are no direct flights off the island and where you can not receive direct mail from the outside world? Do readers understand how a Turkish Cypriot businessman must feel to have his goods boycotted just because of his place of birth and ethnicity? Can readers comprehend the rage and humiliation felt by a Turkish Cypriot who is greatly disturbed by the fact that the only government that he or she had democratically elected is not represented at any international forum with the exception of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and is not recognized by any other state other than Turkey, for committing no other crime than existing? The TRNC is not being internationally recognized at the current moment, but that does not mean that this is not a grave mistake and that the world should at the very least re-evaluate their positions on the TRNC.

It is evident that as long as historical facts and present-day realities are denied by the Greek Cypriot side in favour of myths that there will never be peace. As British Parliamentarian Michael Stephen said, “Until influential Greek Cypriots come to terms with the appalling behaviour of their community toward the smaller Turkish Cypriot community and stop trying to persuade themselves and the world that each side was as much to blame as the other, there will be no reconciliation in Cyprus.” Instead of trying to change history and deny the persecution that the Turkish Cypriots suffered, Mr. Argyrou should come to terms with reality and accept what the world will eventually and is beginning to discover to be the truth regarding what happened and is happening in Cyprus. The days where the Greek and Greek Cypriot lobbyists could tell the world myths without a Turkish response are over.