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Cyprus Ethnicity
Traditionally, both Cypriot communities were very
conscious of
their languages, cultures, and histories. Turkish Cypriots
thought
of themselves as Turks living on Cyprus and as members of
the
larger Turkish nation. Greek Cypriots believed that their
language,
history, culture and orthodox religion made them part of
the larger
Greek nation. It is probably not an exaggeration to say
that over
the centuries, neither group accepted the equality of the
other's
language, culture, ethnicity, and religion. Despite the
separate
lives of the two communities, however, some degree of
cross-cultural development did occur. Furthermore, both
the Greek
and Turkish Cypriots were strongly attached to their
island, and
they distinguished themselves from foreigners, including
mainland
Greeks and Turks.
It is here that one observes a great irony in Cypriot
selfidentification . On the one hand, the two communities were
proud to
identify themselves with their respective greater nations.
On the
other hand, both shared the belief that they were socially
more
progressive (better educated and less conservative) and
therefore
distinct from the mainlanders. Thus, until the events of
1963,
which led to a strict separation of the two communities,
Greek and
Turkish Cypriots lived side by side in a love-hate
relationship.
The two communities had borrowed some customs and ways of
living
from one another, and to some degree a recognizable
"Cypriot
feeling" had developed over the centuries, distinguishing
Cypriots
from their cousins in Greece and Turkey. Generally, one
did not
know to which community a Cypriot belonged until he or she
spoke.
Yet the two communities viewed each other with some
suspicion and
dislike. Tragically, however, a deepening of shared
feelings was
precluded by the events of late 1963. After that Greek and
Turkish
Cypriots lived separately, and their offspring grew up
with no
intercommunal contact.
Broadly, three main forces--education, British colonial
practices, and secularization accompanying economic
development-
-can be held responsible for transforming two ethnic
communities
into two national ones. Education was perhaps the most
important,
for it affected Cypriots during childhood and youth, the
period of
greatest susceptibility to outside influences. The two
communities
adopted the educational policies of Greece and Turkey,
respectively, resulting in the nationalist indoctrination
of their
youth. The schools polarized Cypriots in at least two
ways. The
segregated school systems of the colonial and
postindependence
period socialized students into Greek and Turkish
ethnicity,
teaching mainland speech, culture, folklore, and
nationalist myths.
The texts used in these schools also included ethnic
propaganda,
often highly chauvinistic, with each community emphasizing
its
superiority over the other.
British colonial policies also promoted ethnic
polarization.
The British applied the principle of "divide and rule,"
setting the
two groups against each other to prevent combined action
against
colonial rule. For example, when Greek Cypriots rebelled
in the
1950s, the colonial administration established an
all-Turkish
police force, known as the Auxiliary Police, to combat
Greek
Cypriots. This and similar practices contributed to
intercommunal
animosity.
Secularization also fostered ethnic nationalism.
Although
economic development and increased education reduced the
explicitly
religious characteristics of the two communities, the
growth of
nationalism on the two mainlands increased the
significance of
other differences. Turkish nationalism was at the core of
the
revolutionary program promoted by the father of modern
Turkey,
Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), and affected Turkish Cypriots
who
followed his principles. President of the Republic of
Turkey from
1923 to 1938, Atatürk attempted to build a new nation on
the ruins
of the Ottoman Empire and elaborated a program of six
principles
(the "Six Arrows") to do so. His principles of secularism
(laicism)
and nationalism reduced Islam's role in the everyday life
of
individuals and emphasized Turkish identity as the main
source of
nationalism. Traditional education with a religious
foundation was
discarded and replaced with one that followed secular
principles
and, shorn of Arab and Persian influences, was purely
Turkish.
Turkish Cypriots quickly adopted the secular program of
Turkish
nationalism. Under Ottoman rule, Turkish Cypriots had been
classified as Muslims, a distinction based on religion;
Atatürk's
program made their Turkishness paramount and further
reinforced
their division from their Greek Cypriot neighbors.
Data as of January 1991
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