A survey of Cypriot youths in today’s Cyprus Mail has turned up some surprising attitudes in the Cypriots taking part in the survey. The three most disturbing findings were that most Cypriots don’t associate themselves with being Europeans, would not tolerate a President from the other community if there was a Cyprus settlement and would not want to marry a member of the other community.
The finding that Cypriots don’t see themselves as Europeans was consistent in both the north and the south of the island. 70% of GCs and 65% of TCs identified themselves as “Mediterranean” rather than as Europeans and a small percentage as “Middle Eastern.” Although this is perhaps obvious to most people, one of the objections for Turkey’s entry into the EU was that the country was not European. Perhaps those same objectors did not realise that Cyprus was in the Middle East and not in Europe.
The most disturbing fact was the attitude of youths, on both sides of the divide, towards there being a President from the “other side.” 75% of GC youths and 83% of TC youths reported that they would find this negative to very negative. This does not bode well for any attempts at power sharing. There was also a strong unwillingness to mix with members of the other community to the point of accepting them as a marriage partner. 55% of TCs and 68% of GCs would have problems marrying someone from the other community.
This survey shows serious attitude problems in the young when it comes to accepting members from the other community and, in my mind, would make any attempts to integrate the two communities an almost impossible task.
Source:
[1] Cyprus Mail
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