Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 09:57:48 -0400
From: Wellen <cwellen-AT-pen.k12.va.us>
Subject: Re:  Cyprus and the Problem of Nationalism


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Greetings to all Comrades from Wei En Lin.


I want to thank Zeynep for her posting on Cyprus.  I agree
with her comments wholeheartedly.  When I resided in
Turkey, on the southern shore, just north of Cyprus, I 
had several opportunities to visit the island.  The split
between the Turkish controlled north and the Greek Cypriot
controlled south is one of the more troubling instances of division
according to national feeling in the post-WWII era.  I am glad
I was able to hear the viewpoint of the Turkish Cypriots, 
because most Leftist (in the world at large) tend to side
with Greece and the Greek Cypriots on this issue.  The issue
is extremely complex, but it is tied up with the fact that both
Greece and Turkey both use the issue to fan the nationalist flames
back home in Athens and Ankara, which serves mainly to
divide working peoples.   Just as the Serb elite  uses nationalism
to drive a wedge between Serb, Muslim and Croatian workers
(and this is a very conscious strategy in post-Tito Yugoslavia)
so the Turkish and Greek elites play on the historical antagonism
between Greeks and the Turks, who occupied their nation over
150 years ago.  I am afraid that nationalist sentiments are
extremely strong there.   It is much easier to convince the Turkish
worker that the Greek is his enemy than to convince both Greek and Turkish 
workers that they have a joint enemy in the capitalist exploiter.
Education is the key, and the struggle will be a long one. Persistence
is needed.

Sincere Regards,

Wei En Lin. 

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