Fellow GCs and TCs, over the last couple of years /r/Cyprus went from an unknown subreddit to a very active subreddit in every topic of our country.

It’s one of the main ways (if not the only way) nowadays, for GCs and TCs to **directly** communicate with each other, something that almost never happened in the last 40 years. The majority of both GCs and TCs now understand that in reality, we have more commons than differences, and through discussions we try to understand the differences better. Therefore, I think it can be a very powerful tool for coming together, or a very dangerous weapon for spreading more mistrust and hatred.

TCs are also in recent years starting to realize that staying slaves to “big brother” Turkey is not doing them any good, and as more and more settlers absorb the voterbase in the north, time is running out for TCs to truly be independent and they are quickly moving towards an irreversible status quo.

Now let me put my tinfoil hat on for a moment and warn both GCs and TCs:

Older and more experienced users know that Reddit is so large and influential in public opinion that it has become the target of huge disinformation campaigns from even state-sponsored actors. This is called [astroturfing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU&ab_channel=TEDxTalks). Lately I noticed the so called “Turkish trolls” that we see in various posts here and there ([Example 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/comments/qldtwe/ne_yapaca%C4%9F%C4%B1z/hj94owi/), [Example 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/comments/qldtwe/ne_yapaca%C4%9F%C4%B1z/hj26wce/)), who never lived in any part of Cyprus, start to increase in numbers.

It’s not outside the realm of possibility, that these “Trolls” at some point will not simply be ignorant nationalist people, but state-sponsored actors with the purpose of ruining this new way of coming together that we created here on reddit.

Now, that’s not to say that every disagreeing opinion is a paid astroturfer, but know that this is a thing, it is valuable, and it exists. Use critical thinking. Try not to be biased. And acknowledge the fact that there are people whose **job** is to spew bullshit just to affect a specific online usergroup’s opinion.

16 comments

  3. Mods please pin this. We need peace and a place of honesty to communicate. We will find common ground and god willing a solution some day whether either of the big brothers or sisters like it or not. Personally I’m determined.

  5. Mods, you have tools to limit astroturfing and misinformation.

    Karma requirements, account age requirements, limiting posts to members who join for X number of days, etc, are very powerful and work well to help limit occurrences.

  6. At our recent posts I have also noticed an increasing number of random Greek/Turkish nationalist that are coming to comment, I believe they are primarily coming from other subs as r/Cyprus is getting bigger like you said it is being exposed to more people. This also happened with a post that was done in Turkish, where a person with two accounts commented “write in Greek or English, this is not Turkey” if we detect trolls account as such we will definitely be monitoring and removing comments if necessary. I am very happy such a platform exists, as mutual communication and exposure is key to understanding each other and prevents the build-up of ethnocentrism. I personally aspire for this community to become a non hostile place where we can converse and as a mod I will guarantee that. Moreover, any improvements/suggestions for the sub is welcome, you can do that through clicking [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/cyprus).

    *Btw we have a meetup going on for this month in 2 weeks message me if interested (it will be in north Nicosia).*

  7. I think this mainly happens when posts are cross-posted to other subs. Like the post of the mountain flag that was cross posted to askbalkans. The post had a lot more interaction than other posts on this sub, and there were some pretty rude comments from Greeks and Turks alike. And the mods did a pretty good job of removing these comments.

    Altough we shouldn’t discourage Greeks from Greece and Turks from Turkey from visiting this sub. I thinks it’s just as important that they learn about our situtation as well.

  8. Wow this place did grow a lot. I’m a mainland Turkish , I joined here to get a different perspective of things like , wayy back when I first formed my account. I would like to thank the people who’ve always kept it civil.

  11. Trolls? These are simple ignorant people from Turkey who still think that there is some Turkish minority in Cyprus whom they can relate to. That is not the case though. I’m just going to go ahead and tell my fellow Turks that there is no Turkish minority on Cyprus, and the “TC”s are not really our kin and people. They’re not our concern, and we should feel no obligations towards them, neither should we be concerned with their future. In fact, after browsing this subreddit, I’ve empathized far more with the GC’s than with the TC’s, who were a truly industrious people.

    As for the person who opened up this thread, yeah, I’m sure that the Turkish state is paying some people to come here and disrupt Cypriot unity, despite the fact that all TC’s in this subreddit(and at large) have an insatiable hatred of Turkey and Turks in general. So why worry? What are they gonna do? Turn the TC’s into hardcore Turanists, even though the TC’s disavow any form of ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural affiliation to Turkey? We are strangers and we shall, hopefully remain so.

  12. I agree with everything you said. I joinned this subreddit around one and a half years ago when it only had 9k followers. Now it has almost 20k. We have to be careful with what we read and adapt over the internet, since every individual has his or her own goals on misinforming people. Thats why before adopting a view or an opinion about a specific matter we should all double and triple check the vailidity of the statement and rethink the purpose on which it was made.

  14. So far I understood from the old people there as well as one can see in the old villages in Cyprus, they have been living together without any issue, as one can see both the orthodox church and mosque in the same village and they actually speak both Greek and turkish. Problem does not arise not until the English power ” had” to depart, it became a problem. The problem is “created” so the British could stay.
    .

  15. Warning of “divide and conquer” tactic! The moment you let them divide you as TC and GC, you step into the trap. Tell them to go back to their own island and play that game there: Irish Vs Brit or Scott Vs Brit…

  16. >It’s not outside the realm of possibility, that these “Trolls” at some point will not simply be ignorant nationalist people, but state-sponsored actors with the purpose of ruining this new way of coming together that we created here on reddit.

    Sounds like what the CCP and North Korea are doing to shift public opinion.

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