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Turkey in Cyprus vs. Israel in Gaza

(Jerusalem Post) Daniel Pipes - This week marks the anniversary of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus. Is Israel in Gaza really worse than Turkey in Cyprus? A comparison finds this hardly to be so. The Turkish occupation of 37% of Cyprus amounted to a "forced ethnic cleansing," according to William Mallinson in a just-published monograph from the University of Minnesota. In contrast, if one wishes to accuse the Israeli authorities of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, it was against their own people, the Jews, in 2005. The Turkish government has sponsored what Mallinson calls "a systematic policy of colonization" on formerly Greek lands in northern Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots in 1973 totaled about 120,000 persons; since then, more than 160,000 citizens of the Republic of Turkey have been settled in their lands. At the same time, not a single Israeli community remains in Gaza. And then there is the ghost town of Famagusta, where Turkish actions parallel those of Syria under the thuggish Assads. After the Turkish air force bombed the Cypriot port city, Turkish forces moved in to seize it, thereby prompting the entire Greek population (fearing a massacre) to flee. Turkish troops immediately fenced off the central part of the town, called Varosha, and prohibited anyone from living there.
2010-07-21 08:52:38
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