this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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The second half of your post precisely shows how the Cyprus Problem is just demoted to a rhetorical device for people who want a weapon to fight a different battle.
Someone who is actually interested in Cyprus would know that Erdogan is a latecomer to the whole story and that Turkey's interests in Cyprus have been the same even in the hight of pro-western, -secular, -NATO sentiment. To frame it as an Erdogan problem betrays that someone only started "caring" about Cyprus in the last decade.
Is that so, I'd argue the reason for that lies in the fact that I am not old enough too have seen a Turkey without Erdogan. And while I apparently should read up in the Cyprus problem, I cannot know about every territorial dispute everywhere
Precisely: you do not need to have an opinion on every territorial dispute everywhere. In this case, if your goal is to mount a (well-warranted) criticism of Erdogan's rule in Turkey, you can focus on those aspects of Erdogan's rule in Turkey that you are actually familiar with, and leave Cyprus out of it.
If you are going to have an opinion on Cyprus though, yes, indeed, you should inform yourself about the historical background as a prerequisite for construction your opinion. Our history, politics, and war legacy deserve to be taken more seriously than just be used as rhetorical crutches for an argument that isn't about us.