“07/09/2010 1:13 PM

This associated press article does not provide the true facts as to WHY the Greek community was so opposed to her concert. It states the following: “Greek Cypriots viewed Lopez’s July 24 appearance as helping legitimize the Mediterranean island’s violent division. Cyprus was split into a Greek speaking south and a Turkish speaking north in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece” This implies that the north was Turkish speaking prior to the invasion. The truth of the matter is that the Turkish invasion forced 250,000 Greek Cypriots from their ancestral homes who lived in the north to flee from the advancing Turkish army. They have remained refugees to this day. The Turkish army continues an illegal military occupation and have not allowed these refugees to return to their homes and villages. In their place, Turkey imported over 150,000 illegal settlers from Turkey and forced all the Turkish Cypriots who were living in the South to occupy Greek Cypriot homes and villages. They have embarked on a program to completely erase all the Christian and Greek heritage in the occupied areas through the destruction churches and monasteries which existed since the time of Byzantium. This amounts to ethnic cleansing. That is the issue. all want is to go back home.”

Assuming that’s correct (I’m no expert in recent Cypriot history), it does rather show up the hypocrisy of Turkey’s recent outbursts against Israel…