Antagonism between Turks and Greeks

This paper examines in truncated the problems that have existed historically between Greece and Turkey, using the island of Cyprus as both metaphor and examples of those problem, and suggests some ways that the countries might find a more peaceful future as equal members of the world-wide community.

The Greco-Turkish animosity has deep historical roots and each stead points to age-old grievances to justify its hostility toward the other. However, it can be argued that at least(prenominal) during the last several centuries that peace was at least conceivable. Or rather it was that at least until 1974 in that location were no irreconcilable tensions in the Aegean for the simple reason that there was a climate of mutual and cordial co-operation within NATO (Moustakis, 1999, p. 8).

historically the Aegean has attracted many conquerors and invaders but the presence of Greeks in the Aegean has been consistent. The present dispute between Greece and Turkey is a short-circuit with write up in that both countries are members of the NATO alliance and logically are supposed to be allies.

Greeks have formed the absolute majority of the inhabitants on the Aegean islands for some 3,000 years and despite the chronological succession of foreign occupiers, they maintained this status quo into the present century. After they won their independence from the Ottoman Turks during the 1820s, the Greeks managed to estab

possibly the terrifying power of nature - and dark warnings from experts of further quakes in the region - have brought home to Greeks and Turks

Ford, P. (1999, November 17). Next Big weigh for Peace: Cyprus. Christian Science Monitor, 91 (246), p. 1.

That Cyprus should prove to be an ongoing site of contention between Turkey and Greece should not be surprising, for the island's past is littered with stories of conflicting loyalties. The recorded history of Cyprus begins with the occupation of part of the island by Egypt to the highest degree or just before 1450 bc, during the reign of Thutmose III.

In subsequent centuries seafaring and work peoples from the Mediterranean countries set up scattered settlements along the coasts and the original Greek colony is believed to have been founded by traders from Arcadia about 1400 bc. The Phoenicians began to colonise the island about 800 bc (Wernick, 1999, p. 96).

Despite Turkish apprehension about these foreign controlled islands lying closely off their coast, there was a relatively peaceful co-existence between these two countries until 1974. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 triggered a series of other disputes in the Aegean, which created the jeopardy of an armed conflict between Greece and Turkey. Crises occurred in 1976, 1987 and most tardily in 1996, a level of discord that is now all of a sudden and unexpectedly receding, as is discussed later (Wernick, 1999, pp. 96-7).

the complex ways in which their fate, as well as their history, is intertwined. Certainly, some deep emotions were stirred by the sight of rescue workers from both countries working together in the rubble left by two disasters: the unreasonable quake on August 17th which claimed at least 14,000 Turkish lives, and the lesser, but still frightening, tremor that struck north of Athens on September 7th, flattening factories and killing over great hundred people.

Cretans and Assyrians, Phoenicians and Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, Arabs and cr
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