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Cyprus Greek Cypriots
Greek Cypriots formed the island's largest ethnic
community,
nearly 80 percent of the island's population. They were
the
descendants of Achaean Greeks who settled on the island
during the
second half of the second millennium B.C. The island
gradually
became part of the Hellenic world as the settlers
prospered over
the next centuries
(see Ancient Period
, ch. 1).
Alexander the
Great freed the island from the Persians and annexed it to
his own
empire in 333 B.C.. Roman rule dating from 58 B.C. did not
erase
Greek ways and language, and after the division of the
Roman Empire
in A.D. 285 Cypriots enjoyed peace and national freedom
for 300
years under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Empire of
Byzantium
(see Byzantine Rule
, ch. 1). The most important event of
the early
Byzantine period was that the Greek Orthodox Church of
Cyprus
became independent no in 431. Beginning in the middle of
the
seventh century, Cyprus endured three centuries of Arab
attacks and
invasions. In A.D. 965, it became a province of Byzantium,
and
remained in that status for the next 200 years.
The Byzantine era profoundly molded Cypriot culture.
The Greek
Orthodox Christian legacy bestowed on Greek Cypriots in
this period
would live on during the succeeding centuries of
oppressive foreign
domination. English, Lusignan, and Venetian feudal lords
ruled
Cyprus with no lasting impact on its culture
(see The Lusignan and Venetian Eras
, ch. 1). Because Cyprus was never the final
goal of
any external ambition, but simply fell under the
domination of
whichever power was dominant in the eastern Mediterranean,
destroying its civilization was never a military objective
or
necessity.
Nor did the long period of Ottoman rule (1570-1878)
change
Greek Cypriot culture
(see Ottoman Rule
, ch. 1). The
Ottomans
tended to administer their multicultural empire with the
help of
their subject millets, or religious communities.
The
tolerance of the millet system permitted the Greek
Cypriot
community to survive, administered for Constantinople by
the
Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus, who became the
community's
head, or ethnarch.
However tolerant Ottoman rule may have been with regard
to
religion, it was otherwise generally harsh and rapacious,
tempered
mainly by inefficiency. Turkish settlers suffered
alongside their
Greek Cypriot neighbors, and the two groups endured
together
centuries of oppressive governance from Constantinople.
In the light of intercommunal conflict since the
mid-1950s, it
is surprising that Cypriot Muslims and Christians
generally lived
harmoniously. Some Christian villages converted to Islam.
In many
places, Turks settled next to Greeks. The island evolved
into a
demographic mosaic of Greek and Turkish villages, as well
as many
mixed communities
(see
fig. 4). The extent of this
symbiosis could
be seen in the two groups' participation in commercial and
religious fairs, pilgrimages to each other's shrines, and
the
occurrence, albeit rare, of intermarriage despite Islamic
and Greek
laws to the contrary. There was also the extreme case of
the
linobambakoi (linen-cottons), villagers who
practiced the
rites of both religions and had a Christian as well as a
Muslim
name. In the minds of some, such religious syncretism
indicates
that religion was not a source of conflict in traditional
Cypriot
society.
The rise of Greek nationalism in the 1820s and 1830s
affected
Greek Cypriots, but for the rest of the century these
sentiments
were limited to the educated. The concept of
enosis--unification
with the Greek motherland, by then an independent country
after
freeing itself from Ottoman rule--became important to
literate
Greek Cypriots. A movement for the realization of enosis
gradually
formed, in which the Church of Cyprus had a dominant role.
During British rule (1878-1960), the desire for enosis
intensified. The British brought an efficient and honest
colonial
administration, but maintained the millet system.
Government
and education were administered along ethnic lines,
accentuating
differences. For example, the education system was
organized with
two Boards of Education, one Greek and one Turkish,
controlled by
Athens and Constantinople, respectively. The resulting
education
emphasized linguistic, religious, cultural, and ethnic
differences
and ignored traditional ties between the two Cypriot
communities.
The two groups were encouraged to view themselves as
extensions of
their respective motherlands, and the development of two
distinct
nationalities with antagonistic loyalties was ensured.
By the 1950s, the growing attraction of enosis for ever
larger
segments of Greek Cypriot society caused a Turkish Cypriot
reaction, a desire for taksim--partition of the
island--for
the smaller ethnic community had well-founded reasons for
fearing
rule from the Greek mainland. In the mid-1950s, Greek
Cypriot
agitation for enosis went beyond manifestos and
demonstrations, and
Turkish Cypriots responded in kind
(see The Emergency
, ch.
1).
Within twenty years, the island was tragically divided.
By the early 1990s, Greek Cypriot society enjoyed a
high
standard of living, and, to a degree unknown in its past,
was
educated and open to influences from the outside world.
Economic
modernization created a more flexible and open society and
caused
Greek Cypriots to share the concerns and hopes of other
secularized
West European societies. The Archbishop of the Church of
Cyprus was
the ethnarch, or leader, of the Greek Cypriot community in
name
only, because religion had lost much of its earlier power.
Finally,
the dream of enosis was irrevocably shattered by the
events of
1974, and Greek Cypriots sought to deal with the
consequences of
the Turkish invasion.
Data as of January 1991
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