Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

CONNECTION TO MOTHERLAND
both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots was the connection they
felt to what they describe as their motherlands, Turkey and
Greece. For the Turkish Cypriots, this connection was relatively
straightforward. They saw themselves as part of a larger Turkish
population that lived not only in Turkey but also in many other
countries of the region. The Turkish language was an important part
of their self-definition, and they found great meaning in the poetry
and literature that the Turkish language made possible. They took
pride in being descendents from the Ottomans, an empire they
perceived as the most tolerant and multicultural in the world’s
history, providing some of the progressive ideas that are found in
many modern nations, especially those that incorporate many
cultures within their borders. Turkish Cypriots considered
themselves secular Muslims, celebrating the Islamic holy days and
attending to the primary rituals, such as marriage and death
ceremonies, but not participating actively in worship services or
following the more conservative practices related to clothing, daily
prayer, attending the services of the mosque, etc. For the most part,
they felt strongly aligned with the institutions and cultural life of
Turkey, and they took comfort from being so close to the people
from whom they descended and the land from which their
forefathers immigrated nearly 400 years earlier. As will be made
clearer in later sections, Turkish Cypriots also differentiated
themselves from the mainlanders, especially from the religiously
conservative Anatolian settlers who have come to Cyprus more
recently, but their own strong connection to Turkey was undisputed.
For the Greek Cypriots, the connection they felt to their
motherland was more complicated. Clearly, they saw themselves as
part of Greek culture, as belonging to the larger Greek community,
and as part of Greek history. They felt power in the expressiveness
of the Greek language, the richness of its vocabulary, and the many
poets and writers who used the language with skill and beauty to
create works recognized by the world community. They took great
pride in the accomplishments and contributions of the Hellenes, who
are considered as providing the basis of western democracy,
philosophy, science, medicine, psychology, literature, and arts. The
Orthodox Christian religion was an important aspect of their
identity, providing celebrations, feast days, rituals of birth, marriage,
and death, but no one described themselves as religious and few
believed the Church held much influence over their daily lives.
Unlike the Turkish Cypriots, however, they did not feel close to the
daily life and institutions of their Greek kin, and to some extent they
even felt a dislike of the Greeks, discussing how they often felt treated
by them as second-class citizens. Even though they took some
comfort from the promises of the Greek government to provide
protection from outside threats, they did not believe the Greeks
could (or would) deliver when the need arose. On the one hand, they
felt a need for support and security arrangements with Greece. At
the same time they were suspicious about the intentions and goodwill
of Greece toward Cyprus, viewing them as directly responsible for
much of the pain and frustration of the island. Finally, they
expressed uncertainty about how much of their heritage was Greek
and how much was due to the numerous influences from other
rulers of Cyprus. Overall, despite several misgivings and confusions,
the Greek Cypriots recognized their ties to the mainland and felt
pride in their Greek heritage.
The difference in the Greek-Cypriot feelings toward Greece,
compared to the Turkish-Cypriot feelings toward Turkey, can be
explained partially by the different historical circumstances each face.
The Greek influence in Cyprus goes back over 3000 years, to the
time of the first Greek settlers who came to Cyprus after the Trojan
wars described by Homer, while the Turkish presence in Cyprus
started over 400 years ago with the Ottoman conquest of the island.
While the period of Turkish influence has been relatively
uninterrupted, except for the British colonial period, the Greek
impact on Cyprus lies within several other layers of conquest,
including Phoenician, Assyrian, Egyptian, Roman, Byzantine,
Lusignian, Venetian, Ottoman, and British. Although the language
and mythology remained predominately Greek, these periods have
left their mark as well. Many Greek Cypriots will point to the
‘unbroken chain of Greek heritage,' but it is not always a very
convincing argument, even to the Greek Cypriots themselves. In
addition, the distance to the motherland is greater for the Greek
Cypriots than for the Turkish Cypriots (it is 500 miles to Athens,
while it is only 40 miles to the Turkish coast), and besides the
practical difficulties of maintaining a close relationship with a far
away neighbour, such physical distance also creates psychological
distance. Another factor is the ratio of Turkish Cypriots (less than
120,000 total population) to mainland Turks (65 million inhabitants)
compared to the Greek Cypriots’ (650,000) relation to the inhabitants
of Greece (10 million). The Greek Cypriots do not feel overwhelmed
by the size of the Greek population, so it is not difficult for them to
feel and act independently of Greece, while the Turkish Cypriots
may feel more constrained in the face of the large population of
Turkey. Finally, the Greek role in the 1974 coup that led to the
Turkish intervention is openly acknowledged, and Greek Cypriots
quickly condemn both this intervention in their internal affairs and
the lack of Greek help in their attempt to defend themselves against
the Turkish forces. By contrast, the Turkish Cypriots express
gratitude to Turkey for their intervention in 1974, viewing this an act
of ‘salvation' for their community.

source:Building bridges across the green line

[Sotos]

Hey Halil, there is also the argument that TCs are not really Ottoman settlers but mostly GCs that became Muslims during the Ottoman rule. TCs reject this argument?

[the_snake_and_the_crane]

A lot of 'Turkish' Cypriots are of Latin descent that were heavily persecuted Catholics under the Ottoman Empire and forced to convert to Islam.

Even the name Louroucina sounds very Italian.

[mehmet]

Even the name Louroucina sounds very Italian.

I need some time to absorb this statement. Just as I had accepted my Greek heritage as well.

[the_snake_and_the_crane]

Louroucina..pronounced Lou-rou-chi-na ...this doesnt sound Italian or Latin to you????

[Get Real!]

Even the name Louroucina sounds very Italian.

I need some time to absorb this statement. Just as I had accepted my Greek heritage as well.

The Snake is right about Louroujina having unique venetian ties...

http://arifler.mycyprus.net/english/Lur ... oujina.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louroujina_Salient

[halil]

Hey Halil, there is also the argument that TCs are not really Ottoman settlers but mostly GCs that became Muslims during the Ottoman rule. TCs reject this argument?

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 . 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 . 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 .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 .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 . 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 İstanbul, 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 Emergency , Within 33years, the island was tragically divided.

[DT.]

is halil a machine?

[halil]

Sotos wrote:
Hey Halil, there is also the argument that TCs are not really Ottoman settlers but mostly GCs that became Muslims during the Ottoman rule. TCs reject this argument?

With the Ottoman conquest in 1570, the ethnic and cultural composition of Cyprus changed drastically. Although the island had been ruled by Venetians, its population was Greek. Turkish rule brought an influx of settlers speaking a different language and entertaining other cultural traditions and beliefs. In accordance with the decree of Sultan Selim II, some 5,720 households left Turkey from the Karaman, Içel, Konya, Alanya, Antalya, and Aydın regions of Anatolia and migrated to Cyprus. The Turkish migrants were largely farmers, but some earned their livelihoods as shoemakers, tailors, weavers, cooks, masons, tanners, jewelers, miners, and workers in other trades. In addition, some 12,000 soldiers, 4,000 cavalrymen, and 20,000 former soldiers and their families stayed in Cyprus.
According to Ottoman historian Professor Ronald Jennings, up to one third of Muslims in Cyprus listed in court records in the early sixteenth century were converts to the religion from Christianity. Jennings as well as other historians notes that a majority of Muslim later to become Turkish Cypriot villages were formerly either the estates of Latins or Maronites, suggesting that conversion to Islam was from Catholicism and not Greek Orthodoxy in the initial period of Ottoman rule. Travelling pilgrim Rev. Jerome Dandini noted during his visit to the island that these converts formed a Muslim-Christian Sect of Crypto-Christians, the derogatory local name of which is "linobamvaki" meaning "Cotton-Linen Sect" owing to the unceretainty of whether these people were Christians or Muslims. In terms of language, the community, which it is claimed formed one third of Muslim Cypriots in the 19th century spoke Greek in preference to Turkish, which was the lingua franca on the island as indeed in Anatolia and the Pontus for all Eastern Christians.
The Ottoman Empire allowed its non-Muslim ethnic communities (or millets) a degree of autonomy if they paid their taxes and were obedient subjects. The millet system permitted Greek Cypriots to remain in their villages and maintain their traditional institutions.

[LENA]

is halil a machine?

no