Why the Turks crossed the Sea




Today (20/07/16) at 5:29 am, I was still awake searching for books on Amazon. And suddenly I heard the air raid sirens. They were sounding for a minute. No war happened today, but on this day at 05:30 am, Turkey invaded Cyprus 42 years ago (1974) with the wretched excuse of protecting the Turkish Cypriots, Yeah right; protecting innocent Turkish Cypriots by killing innocent Greek Cypriots. This ain’t a peace operation a.k.a. "Cyprus Peace Operation" or in Turkish (Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı)



A woman in her late 80’s lives opposite my house. Her son is STILL missing. He was no more than 19 years old when he was fighting the Turks. . . .
I’m not a historian or a political analyst but the British in the 50’s began distilling discord between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, then they gave us a shared-tricky-trap-like republic in 1959 and four years later (1963) the intercommunal troubles began. In 1967 there was a coup in Greece and with the blessing of CIA they led a coup in Cyprus as well, on the 15th of July 1974.
5 days later (20th July) Turkey invaded. So this is the reason why I fear the word nation and its derivatives: nationalist, nationalism, &c. There’s a poem on page 60 in my 2nd poetry collection (Eight Birds and Other Poems) that talks about nation-

I fear the word nation

I fear the word nation.
I don’t hate my nation.
But loving a nation might lead to
loving it too much.
Nationalism is a word to describe that.
In German it sounds like Nazi
Nationalismus
It’s not love of your country
It’s to hate the outsiders
Patriotism is a safer word
But still you have to treat it with caution
My country is not superior.
It’s special but not the best
My sandy language is one of the most important
But not the best and most ancient
I love my country but I’m not a patriot
I love my country but I’m not a nationalist
I’m not superior to anyone.


Reading it more than a year later it feels juvenile and a bit naïve. But the ideas are genuine; but I might disavowed it when I grow older just like what C. P. Cavafy did with many of his poems. Greek poet Cavafy was a good friend with English novelist E. M. Forster. Forster knew Cavafy personally and he wrote a memoir of him. Both homosexuals. . .

Anyway. . . It seems I’m taking the subject elsewhere. The subject(s) here (do we actually have a subject here anyway?) is poetry, nationalism, Turkish invasion in Cyprus on this day. . .

I was a soldier for 2 years (2005-2007) (wasn’t writing poetry back then), and every day every hour we were observing every move of the Turkish occupying army. I was handling top secret documents in my own office with Bob Marley as background music. Bob Marley is pretty well appreciated in the Cypriot army (both for his songs and his smoking habits) haven’t smoke myself but inhaled as a bystander a few times [...] [...] [...]

You can read the rest of the article at my friend's blog, performance poet David Williams blog Shark Fishing in Wales