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THEY ARE ASTONISHED WHEN THEY SEE A TURKISH CYPRIOT - (Greek Cypriot Press, 30.07.2006)

The Greek Cypriot daily, Fileleftheros, reported that a research was conducted in a primary school in South Cyprus among the children of 11-12 years old, who are mainly the children of those families migrated from North Cyprus to the Greek Cypriot side, in order to find out their thoughts about the Turkish Cypriots.

It was stated in the daily that the results of the research showed that the children are skeptical about the Turkish Cypriots, they described them as a foreigner, bad and persona non grata and saw them as the responsible party for the Cyprus problem.

According to the research, the children did not have much knowledge about the Turkish Cypriots and 62 percent of children said that they astonished when they see a Turkish Cypriot for the first time, because they had a different Turkish Cypriot image in their minds.

During the research, it was asked: “What do you know about Turkish and Greek Cypriots and how do you feel about them?” and children said that the positive side of the Turkish Cypriots was their hospitality. On the contrary, they described the Greek Cypriots as being positive in several sections.

While 36 percent of children expressed negative opinion about the Turkish Cypriots, 25 percent of them expressed negative thoughts about the Greek Cypriots. According to the children, Turkish Cypriots are “generally bad” and the Greek Cypriots are “villagers…”

The daily noted that children expressed different views with regard to the life styles of the two peoples. Accordingly, people living in the Turkish Cypriot community are “poor, greedy, dirty/sinful.” The Turkish Cypriots have “communal problems like casino, bird flu and illegal commerce.”

The daily stated that children drew a better image about the Greek Cypriots then the Turkish Cypriots.

According to the report, in the history section, children gave importance 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation and its consequences.

Besides, children dwelled upon Greek Cypriot nationalist elements like Greece, Greeks, Cyprus, flag, EOKA, 1821 (Ohi) and country.

Greek Cypriot children considered 1974 as a starting point and believed that the Turkish Cypriots are responsible from the Cyprus question. In their answers, children used the following words: “occupation, occupiers, idealists, barricades, I do not forget, slave country, barbed wires, area under occupation”.

Furthermore, children stated that words of “collected from any other subject/ nationalities, Constantinople, janissary (yeniçeri)” are associated with the Turkish Cypriots.

According to the majority of children, Turkish Cypriots and Turks are the same people, Turkish Cypriots are ugly and they have black skin.

It was also reported that the majority of children hate from the Turkish Cypriots.

As to the research, while 31 percent of children did not know the communities living in Cyprus, 28 percent knew.

8 out of 10 children met with the Turkish Cypriots. While 62 percent of children had positive feelings when they met with the Turkish Cypriots, 8.5 percent had negative feelings. 21 percent of children felt nothing when they met, while on the other hand 8.5 percent felt affliction and desperate.

Upon asking the question of “are you talking about the Turkish Cypriots in your school?” while 75.4 percent of children answered “no”, 23 percent of them said that they mentioned little about the Turkish Cypriots in the history and geography courses.

While 51 percent of children said their families did not talk about the Turkish Cypriots, 31.5 percent of them said they talked little about them and 12 percent of children stated that they talked about the Turkish Cypriots.

On the other hand, while 52 percent of children said they received some information about the Turkish Cypriots from the mass media, 41 percent said they did not and 7 percent of them said they received information from the mass media.

According to the report, those who said they received some information from the mass media about the Turkish Cypriots stated that they remembered that the words of “casino, bird flu, pseudo state, Talat, fugitive emigration” were particularly mentioned in the news.