Cyprus

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Island of Aphrodite: A History of Encounters
• Chapter 2 Under the Lion of St. Mark and the Ottoman Crescent
• Chapter 3 The British Colonial Era: Seeds of Division
• Chapter 4 Enosis and Taksim: The Rise of Competing Nationalisms
• Chapter 5 The Struggle for Independence: EOKA and the Road to Zurich
• Chapter 6 1960: A Republic is Born
• Chapter 7 The Constitutional Crisis and the Bloody Christmas of 1963
• Chapter 8 The Unraveling: Intercommunal Violence and the UN's Arrival
• Chapter 9 The 1974 Coup and the Turkish Invasion
• Chapter 10 Attila Line: The Making of a Divided Island
• Chapter 11 The Green Line: A Scar Through the Heart of Nicosia
• Chapter 12 Life in the South: The Republic of Cyprus
• Chapter 13 Life in the North: The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• Chapter 14 The Ghost City: The Tragedy of Varosha
• Chapter 15 The Politics of Memory: Refugees and Property
• Chapter 16 The Guarantor Powers: Britain, Greece, and Turkey
• Chapter 17 Decades of Deadlock: The UN-Sponsored Negotiations
• Chapter 18 The Annan Plan: A Moment of Hope and a Bitter End
• Chapter 19 A European Member, A Divided House: Cyprus and the EU
• Chapter 20 Church and Mosque: The Role of Religion in the Conflict
• Chapter 21 A Tale of Two Economies on One Island
• Chapter 22 Educating for Peace or for Division?
• Chapter 23 The Missing: A Wound That Will Not Heal
• Chapter 24 A New Battlefield: Energy Politics in the Eastern Mediterranean
• Chapter 25 Portrait of a Generation: Hopes and Fears for the Future

To stand in the heart of Nicosia, the last divided capital in the world, is to be confronted with a profound and unsettling paradox. On one side of the invisible, yet intensely palpable, line, the vibrant sounds of a bustling European city fill the air. Cafes hum with conversation, shoppers meander down modern streets, and the business of daily life unfolds with a familiar rhythm. Yet, just a few feet away, beyond a barrier of barrels, barbed wire, and the watchful eyes of soldiers, lies a zone of silence and decay. Here, buildings stand empty, their windows like vacant eyes staring out onto streets reclaimed by nature. This is the Green Line, a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that cuts a swathe through the city and across the entire island of Cyprus. It is a stark, physical manifestation of a division that has defined the lives of Cypriots for generations.

The Green Line, named after the color of the pen used by a British officer to draw a ceasefire line on a map in 1963, stretches for 180 kilometers (112 miles), cleaving the island in two. It snakes through cities and villages, across fields and hills, a scar on the landscape that represents a deep and enduring political and ethnic rift. In Nicosia, its presence is at its most jarring. The line runs through the heart of the old, Venetian-walled city, turning what was once a thriving commercial thoroughfare into a desolate no-man's land. Streets that once connected communities now come to an abrupt halt, blocked by concrete walls and fortified guard posts. The former international airport, a symbol of the island's connection to the world, now lies abandoned within the buffer zone, a time capsule of the moment the division became a hard reality.

This book, "Cyprus: Portrait of a Divided Nation," seeks to explore the multifaceted story of this island, a place whose history is as rich and complex as its present is fraught with challenges. For centuries, Cyprus has been a crossroads of civilizations, a strategic prize for empires, and a meeting point of cultures. Its shores have welcomed Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Lusignans, Venetians, Ottomans, and the British, each leaving their indelible mark on the island's character, architecture, and people. This long history of encounters created a unique cultural tapestry, a blend of East and West that gave Cyprus its distinct identity. For much of this history, Greek and Turkish Cypriots lived side-by-side, sharing villages, customs, and a common Cypriot identity.

However, the 20th century witnessed the rise of competing nationalisms that would ultimately tear the fabric of this society apart. The Greek Cypriot desire for enosis, union with Greece, clashed with the Turkish Cypriot call for taksim, or partition. These divergent aspirations, fueled by political and religious leaders and exacerbated by the island's colonial rulers, set the stage for a tragic and violent conflict. The story of Cyprus in the latter half of the 20th century is one of escalating intercommunal violence, political crises, and ultimately, war. The "Bloody Christmas" of 1963 saw the first major outbreak of violence, leading to the establishment of the Green Line in Nicosia and the arrival of a UN peacekeeping force.

The events of 1974 marked the cataclysmic turning point in the island's modern history. A coup d'état, orchestrated by the military junta then ruling Greece with the aim of achieving enosis, was followed swiftly by a Turkish military invasion. The Turkish forces advanced to occupy the northern third of the island, leading to the de facto partition that persists to this day. This division was not just political and military; it was profoundly human. Hundreds of thousands of Cypriots were displaced from their homes, becoming refugees in their own country. Greek Cypriots fled the north, while Turkish Cypriots moved from the south, creating two largely homogenous ethnic zones.

The consequences of this division are etched into every aspect of Cypriot life. In the south, the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus has developed into a modern European state, a member of the European Union. In the north, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus remains recognized only by Turkey, its existence a point of ongoing international contention. The "Cyprus Problem," as it is known, has been the subject of decades of failed negotiations, a seemingly intractable dispute that has defied the efforts of countless diplomats and mediators.

This book will delve into the human stories behind the headlines and the political wrangling. We will explore life in the vibrant, modern cities of the south and the quieter, more isolated towns of the north. We will venture into the haunting stillness of Varosha, once a glamorous tourist resort, now a ghost town, its hotels and beaches frozen in time since 1974. We will listen to the voices of refugees who still long for their lost homes and properties, and to a younger generation grappling with a divided inheritance. We will examine the role of the guarantor powers—Britain, Greece, and Turkey—whose interests have long been intertwined with the fate of the island.

We will also look at the economic and social disparities that have emerged between the two sides, the separate educational systems that can either foster division or build bridges, and the enduring pain of the missing, a wound that refuses to heal for families on both sides of the divide. The discovery of natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean has added a new and volatile dimension to the conflict, turning the waters around Cyprus into a new battlefield for regional powers.

Through this portrait of a divided nation, we aim to provide a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the Cyprus conflict. It is a story of a beautiful island with a troubled past and an uncertain future. It is a story of two communities, bound by a shared history, yet separated by a line drawn on a map with a green pencil. It is a story that, in many ways, is a microcosm of the ethnic and nationalist conflicts that have shaped so much of the modern world. And yet, it is a story that is uniquely, and profoundly, Cypriot.

Legend, as it often does, provides a more dramatic origin story than history ever could. On the southwestern coast of Cyprus, where the sea churns against a cluster of imposing rocks, the goddess Aphrodite is said to have been born from the sea foam. The story, immortalized by the ancient poet Hesiod, describes the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility emerging from the waves and being gently guided ashore on a seashell. This mythological birth has inextricably linked Cyprus with the divine, branding it for eternity as the island of love. The site itself, Petra tou Romiou, or "the Rock of the Greek," is named not for Aphrodite but for a later Byzantine hero, yet the myth of the goddess's arrival persists, drawing lovers and the curious to its shores. It is a fittingly poetic beginning for an island whose story is one of constant arrivals, of cultures washing upon its shores and leaving an indelible mark.

Long before the gods of Olympus were conceived, the first humans set foot on Cyprus. Around the 9th millennium BC, settlers likely from the Near East established communities that represent some of the most significant prehistoric sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous of these is Khirokitia, a remarkably well-preserved Neolithic settlement that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Perched on a hillside overlooking the Maroni River, the village was a sophisticated, organized society. Its inhabitants lived in circular houses made of mudbrick and stone, clustered together and protected by a formidable defensive wall. These were farmers, cultivating wheat and barley, and herding sheep and goats, their diet supplemented by foraging and hunting. Intriguingly, this was an aceramic culture, meaning they had not yet developed pottery, instead using vessels of stone and bone. Their dead were buried beneath the floors of their homes, a sign of complex spiritual beliefs and a deep connection to their ancestors. For reasons that remain unknown, these settlements, including Khirokitia, were abandoned around the 4th millennium BC, leaving the island sparsely inhabited for a time.

The island would not remain dormant for long. A new age, defined by a single, reddish-brown metal, would place Cyprus at the very center of the ancient world. The island was blessed with vast deposits of copper, so much so that its modern name is derived from the classical Greek word for the metal, Kupros. As early as the fourth millennium BC, Cypriots were fashioning tools from pure copper found on the surface. The later discovery of rich ores in the Troodos Mountains kickstarted a mining and metalworking industry that would fuel the Bronze Age. Cyprus, known in ancient Near Eastern texts as Alashiya, became a crucial supplier of copper to the great empires of Egypt and the Levant. This mineral wealth brought immense prosperity but also made the island a coveted prize, attracting traders, prospectors, and, eventually, conquerors to its shores. The island's strategic location, a crossroads between Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt, only enhanced its importance.

The Late Bronze Age brought the most transformative encounter of all: the arrival of Mycenaean Greeks. Beginning in the 13th and 12th centuries BC, as their own palatial civilizations on the Greek mainland collapsed, waves of Achaean settlers made their way to Cyprus. They were not conquerors in the traditional sense but migrants and colonists who brought with them their language, religion, and culture. They established new settlements and city-kingdoms, such as Kition, Salamis, and Paphos, which would become dominant centers of power and culture for centuries to come. This Hellenic migration was the bedrock upon which the island's enduring Greek identity was built. While other cultures would come and go, the Greek language and customs took deep root, shaping the island's character in a way that no subsequent power could fully erase. The Phoenicians also established a significant presence, particularly at Kition, adding another layer to the island's cosmopolitan mix.

This flourishing independence, however, was not destined to last. As a strategic and wealthy outpost, Cyprus was simply too tempting for the great powers that rose and fell across the Near East. The first to assert its dominance was the formidable Neo-Assyrian Empire. In 709 BC, the Assyrian king Sargon II erected a victory stele at Kition, recording that seven Cypriot kings had paid him homage. This subordination was likely more symbolic than absolute, a formal recognition of Assyrian might that allowed the Cypriot kings to continue ruling their own kingdoms in exchange for tribute. Assyrian documents would later list up to eleven such kingdoms on the island. When the Assyrian empire crumbled, it wasn't long before another great power stepped in to fill the vacuum. Around 570 BC, the island was conquered by Egypt under Pharaoh Amasis II. This period of Egyptian rule was brief but left a noticeable influence on Cypriot art, particularly in sculpture, which adopted some of the rigid conventions of the Egyptian style.

Egyptian dominance gave way to a much longer period of Persian rule starting in 545 BC. The vast Achaemenid Empire of Persia absorbed Cyprus into its domains, but, like the Assyrians before them, the Persians generally allowed the local city-kingdoms a degree of self-governance. The kings of Cyprus could still mint their own coins and even wage war amongst themselves, provided they paid tribute to their Persian overlord. This arrangement was not always peaceful. In 499 BC, several Cypriot kingdoms, with the notable exception of Amathus, joined the Ionian Revolt against Persia, a rebellion that was ultimately crushed. The Persian hold on Cyprus remained firm until the arrival of a force that would redraw the map of the entire known world.

In 333 BC, Alexander the Great of Macedon swept through the Persian Empire, and Cyprus became part of his rapidly expanding Hellenistic world. The Cypriot kings, seeing the tide of history turning, wisely sided with Alexander, contributing their fleets to his legendary siege of Tyre. Alexander allowed the kingdoms to continue, but the island was now firmly integrated into a Greek-speaking empire. His premature death in 323 BC plunged his vast domain into chaos as his generals, the Diadochi, fought for control. Cyprus, caught in the crossfire, became a battleground for these would-be successors. Ultimately, it was Ptolemy I Soter, who had secured Egypt, who won control of the island in 294 BC. For the next two and a half centuries, Cyprus would be a province of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, a period that further deepened its Hellenistic culture. Paphos was established as the capital, and the island enjoyed considerable wealth and stability.

The decline of the Ptolemaic dynasty coincided with the inexorable rise of a new superpower from the west. Rome’s shadow loomed large over the Mediterranean, and in 58 BC, the island’s long run under Ptolemaic rule came to an end. The annexation was prompted by a rather personal vendetta. The Roman tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher, having once been slighted by the King of Cyprus, Ptolemy, engineered a bill to make the island a Roman province. Ptolemy of Cyprus is said to have committed suicide rather than submit to Roman authority. The island was briefly gifted back to the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII by Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony, but after their defeat at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Cyprus returned definitively to Roman hands, becoming a senatorial province in 22 BC. The Pax Romana brought a long period of peace and prosperity. The Romans were master builders, and they left their mark on the island with new roads, aqueducts, temples, and theaters, the remains of which are still visible today, especially in Paphos, the Roman capital, and at Kourion.

This era of imperial stability also provided the perfect conditions for the arrival of a revolutionary new idea. In 45 AD, two missionaries, the apostles Paul and Barnabas—a native Cypriot himself—landed at Salamis and began to preach the gospel of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, they traveled across the island to Paphos, where they encountered the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. After a dramatic confrontation with a magician named Elymas, Paul is said to have miraculously converted the governor to the new faith. This event made Cyprus the first country in the world to be governed by a Christian ruler. The seeds of Christianity had been planted, and they would grow to define the island’s spiritual landscape. Over the next few centuries, the new religion gradually supplanted the old pagan cults, including the ancient worship of Aphrodite.

With the division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Cyprus fell under the administration of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, ruled from Constantinople. It was during this period that the Church of Cyprus fought for and secured its independence. At the Council of Ephesus in 431, the church was recognized as autocephalous, meaning it was independent and not subject to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch, who had claimed authority over it. This status was later confirmed by the Byzantine Emperor Zeno, who granted the Archbishop of Cyprus unique privileges, such as the right to sign his name in purple ink, a symbol of imperial authority. This ecclesiastical independence became a cornerstone of Cypriot identity, a source of pride and resilience through the many centuries of foreign rule that were to come.

The long era of Byzantine rule came to a sudden and unexpected end in 1191, not from a planned imperial invasion, but from a mishap at sea involving the Third Crusade. King Richard I of England, the Lionheart, was on his way to the Holy Land when his fleet was scattered by a storm. One of the ships, carrying his sister Joan and his fiancée, Berengaria of Navarre, ran aground near Limassol. The island’s despotic ruler, Isaac Komnenos, a renegade Byzantine noble who had declared himself emperor, seized the shipwrecked passengers and their treasure. When Richard arrived and demanded their release, Isaac refused. The Lionheart’s response was swift and decisive. He landed his forces, defeated Isaac, and conquered the entire island in a matter of weeks. In Limassol, he married Berengaria, who was crowned Queen of England. Suddenly, and almost accidentally, Cyprus was under English control. Richard, however, had little interest in his new possession beyond its value as a source of funds for his crusade. He quickly sold the island for 100,000 bezants to the Knights Templar. Their harsh rule soon provoked a revolt, and the Templars, unable to control the population, sold the island back to Richard, who in turn sold it to the deposed King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan. The arrival of the Lusignans in 1192 marked the end of Cyprus’s long history as part of the Greco-Roman world and the beginning of a new chapter under Latin European rule.