Apples and Oranges

Submitted by Stephen Connor (United States), Jul 20, 2010 at 13:07

It is really misleading to compare Northern Cyprus with Gaza. In fact, it would be more appropriate to compare Northern Cyprus to Kiryat Arba, a walled community within a hostile zone. There is no blockade of Northern Cyprus because the Northern Cypriots are Turkish. They are not a threat to Turkey. No doubt Turkey would benefit from a blockade of Southern Cyprus in the same way that Israel benefits from the Gaza Blockade. There are Greek Cypriot resistance groups that have committed acts of either terrorism or resistance, depending on which party describes them. The entire situation is not done justice ...

The intense Greek/Turkish rivalry initiated by the Ottoman conquest complicated life on Cyprus irreparably but that is not justification for the Greek Cypriot nationalists evicting all inhabitants of Turkish descent as many would have done had it not been for Turkish intervention and yet Turkish intervention was not well done. Similar situations have occurred when the ANC took over the rule of South Africa. Many wanted to evict all of the beneficiaries of the vile apartheid system. In Poland after WWII Germans were evicted and deported regardless of their role in the Reich. These are more appropriate comparisons to the circumstances in Cyprus. Gaza has almost nothing in common.

Stephen Connor

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".