[MGSA-L] KARAOLIS AND BRITISH COLONIALISM IN CYPRUS

[George Gedeon]

It is all speculation George whether Turkey would or not have invaded in the 50s if GB had agreed to Enosis.

If I am not mistaken, GB, Turkey and Greece had signed an agreement to guarantee Cyprus' independence and all or any of the three parties had the right to intervene in case either party or anyone else threatened the island's independence. 

As for honouring our heroes, I have no problems with honouring Karaolis but we should remember that he was executed for assassinating a law and order officer and not for belonging to a Greek nationalist organization or wanting Cyprus to unite with Greece.

G

On 2014-05-22, at 2:30 AM, George Baloglou wrote:

> 
> 
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> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 4:47 PM, George Gedeon <g.gedeon at sympatico.ca> wrote:
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> Also imagine what Turkey would have done if Britain had agreed to Enosis? Have we forgotten what happened when people like Karaolis staged a coup in 1974?
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> 
> ​Karaolis' main goal was union with Greece, whereas the people who staged the coup in 1974 mainly targeted Makarios and his 'non-allied' politics, catering -- whether directly or indirectly, deliberately or not -- to US/UK/Israel/Turkey interests.​ As for Turkey, thirty or even twenty years before 1974 had neither the interest nor the strength to intervene in Cyprus: had the British agreed to Enosis back then, Turkey would not have reacted at all, just think of the Dodecanese.   
> 
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> I have no objections to any people trying to liberate themselves from oppressors, occupiers, etc, but there is a price to pay and Karaolis paid this price, not because he wanted Enosis or to be Greek. He was executed for killing a policeman. If that was the Nazis, Karaolis' village would also have been burned down, if not worse...
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> 
> ​Last sentence fully agreed, but the rest of the paragraph, although factually correct of course, raises broader issues: just because "there is a price to pay" ... should we not honor ​our heroes of the past? (This has not been stated but it could be perceived as a logical implication.) Further, every uprising inevitably involves acts of 'terror', blind violence, and so on. (One might even cynically state that a hero is a successful terrorist!)
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> 
> -- 
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> Γιώργος Μπαλόγλου -- Θεσσαλονίκη
> 
> http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou (1988 - 2008)
> 
> http://crystallomath.wordpress.com (2009 - )

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