Dr. Solomon’s lecture on Cyprus’ history was very interesting today— particularly when he discussed the modern history of Cyprus. I had already known that it was under Ottoman rule up until 1878 and then under British rule until the 60s, but I didn’t know much of the specifics or details. First of all, I found it very interesting to know why exactly the British wanted control of the island. Cyprus has a strategic location in the Mediterranean— as Dr. Solomon said this gives it the nickname as being an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”. This factor is important to the British today, who keep bases on the island, but in 1878 Britain was mainly interested in keeping the Russians out of the Mediterranean. In this time, right before WW1, Russia was interested in expanding in the Black Sea and Mediterranean area. Cyprus was the perfect place to hold to limit a possible Russian expansion, it being right near the Black Sea (but also far enough from the Ottomans). I also found the history of Cypriot independence to be particularly interesting. The Cypriots originally welcomed the British as they were more democratic than the Ottomans, but they still kept high control of the island. Cypriots asked to leave the British empire in the era of decolonization (after WW2), but their wishes were not granted. This lead to an anti colonial struggle where many Cypriots petitioned for a union with Greece. A guerrilla war was the driving physical force of this movement, but student protests also helped. Spiritually, the independence movement was lead by the Greek Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church in Cyprus has historically been a local leader in times of need for the island. This is not as true today as people are less religious, but this is a very recent shift. Eventually, the British agreed to leave the island (besides a few bases)— but rather than granting a union with Greece they granted Cyprus its own independence. This was done with the cosponsorship of Turkey and Greece— the ethnic motherlands of the two main groups in Cyprus. These countries gave cyprus a constitution to follow— Cyprus itself was forced to adopt it. This is ironic considering the constitution set up a democratic government. Because of the lack of Cypriot involvement in determining how independence should be, today it is often referred to as a reluctant independence today. Given how integral the church was to the independence movement, the archbishop was made the first president of Cyprus. 

Overall I found this lecture to be very interesting. It helped fill in more of the “why” to events that I have been hearing about during the rest of the trip. For example, I knew Cyprus gained independence, but I was not aware of its pathway to doing so. As part of this, I wasn’t aware of Greece’s and turkeys involvement in creating the constitution of the nation. This detail is highly important to the country today. The constitution is still in place despite being amended, so this helps to explain why Cyprus’ legal system is so similar to Britain’s. Additionally, this constitution establishes Turkey as a de-facto “protector” of ethnically Turkish Cypriots (given that they the nation contributed to the constitution on behalf of Turkish Cypriots). This allows one to understand why Turkey invaded the north of Cyprus in 1974; many see this justification as an excuse for the nation to grab land (including myself) but nonetheless helps give some explanation to why the international community didn’t strongly react to the invasion. I also found the discussed role of the Greek Orthodox Church in politics to be intriguing. In a previous conversation with Demetria, I have learned that cyprus used be a very traditional society. For example, families would often put all their resources to supporting their daughters— sons would not marry until their sisters were married first. Additionally, men used to be seen as the heads of household. In a traditional and deeply religious society like this it makes perfect sense to me that the church would also serve as a leader in politics. After the Turkish invasion, families no longer had the resources to continue their traditional ways— women had to start working for families to get by. This event served as a catalyst for modern values to take hold in Cyprus— and that doubled down with the popularity of religion declining. This decline of religion helps explain why the Greek Orthodox Church is not as much of a political influence today. To conclude, I personally do not see the mixture of religion and government as a positive thing— I feel it often leads to division and struggles between groups of people. However, in this case of the church campaigning for independence, I see this as an exception: the church was able to serve the greater good for all Cypriots as it gave them their own state.

Finally we attended a lecture on the Greek language. Prior to the lecture, I had already known the Greek alphabet, so I was excited to learn more about the language. My biggest takeaway from the lecture was that Greek is a very old language; it’s the oldest documented indo-European language (this is the language family that English is in). We learned many words in the language, but my biggest takeaway was the word forgot you’re welcome. It is pronounced according to the following English transliteration: “parakalo”. This word is so important since it can also be used to mean please when ordering food (which is useful for me on the rest of this trip!). A number I learned which is important to me is thekatessera, 14, the day I was born.

I attached a photo of the old city in Nicosia as I did not photograph any of the lectures.