Cyprus-Forum.com

[denizaksulu]

DA,

Re the high cheek bones. You see similar features on Algerians. In Greek Algerian pirates were sometimes referred to as Agarinoi. As pirates they ravaged the Mediterranean coasts for centuries, no doubd leaving some high cheek bones behind them wherever they went, including the Turkish coast!

It took the American navy to deal with them, the Europeans and Ottomans were too busy dealing with the pirates trying to use them against each other. The American finally bombarded them into oblivion around 1840 if I recall accurately.

Nikitas, please tell me 'how old are you?' Well'genes' do get around. Thanks for the response

[Get Real!]

You are right the TC.Definitely the highest cheek bones on any TC I have seen so far. Definite Turkish stock.

I hate to break the news to you but these are Greek Cypriots easily distinguishable by the GC peasant head gear.

[T_C]

SO???

It's still the best picture EVER!

[Nikitas]

DA

I am 57, born in 1950 within the walls of Nicosia but grew up in Famagusta. So earliest memories are of Cyprus still British, that colonial atmosphere! Also spent some time in Egypt in the 50s more colonial atmosphere, some of it French there.

I recall Cyprus in the days when the first car purchase was a major deal, when villages still had a subsistence economy, with the livestock next to the house, being fed on all spare food from the human table. We left in 1963 for England and those memories were stored very vividly.

The photographs here bring a lot of memories back, and also show things I had not seen before. I am fascinated by the use of sailing vessels in the harbors. That kind of manouver requires top level seamanship, something I thought we Cypriots did not have. Apparently I was wrong, which goes to show one should never assume anything!

[Get Real!]

SO???

It's still the best picture EVER!

Thanks TC, they're my INDIGENOUS great-grandparents who drove off Turks in 1821....

[denizaksulu]

You are right the TC.Definitely the highest cheek bones on any TC I have seen so far. Definite Turkish stock.

I hate to break the news to you but these are Greek Cypriots easily distinguishable by the GC peasant head gear.

...hhhmmm. I will settle for an open verdict. May be an expert on the forum will arbitrate? Still the best picture with all the details of Cypriot dress as well.

[Nikitas]

GR,

Talking about indigenous people around the Mediterranean is a risky enterprise! Are the southern Italians indigenous? I have been there and found it very easy to communicate in Cypriot dialect. Yet most of them and most other Italians class them as indigenous!

[denizaksulu]

SO???

It's still the best picture EVER!

Thanks TC, they're my INDIGENOUS great-grandparents who drove off Turks in 1821....

Your indigenous ggp's have Algerian blood in them? (according to Nikitas)and your ggp's are from Greece (1821) you do contradict yourself GR

[Get Real!]

You are right the TC.Definitely the highest cheek bones on any TC I have seen so far. Definite Turkish stock.

I hate to break the news to you but these are Greek Cypriots easily distinguishable by the GC peasant head gear.

...hhhmmm. I will settle for an open verdict. May be an expert on the forum will arbitrate? Still the best picture with all the details of Cypriot dress as well.

There's much better closup family pictures than that but I've only got 128kb upload speed so if Iceman beats that please upload that family from Avgorou pic in Thomson's book, oh and that pretty girl on her own on the front cover of the book.

The GC head gear has a bit of material at the bottom and a mini-fez at the top whereas the TC head gear is a longer fez with no material.

[Nikitas]

Being technically minded I have looked at the dress items worn by the people in the photos. I noticed the black vrakas, presumably they are black, which would tend to point to Christian hence Greek people. On the other hand the jewllery worn by the ladies does not show any crosses or wedding rings, so pointing to non Christians, hence Turkish people. Hard to tell either way.

Judging from some very old family photos showing men in vrakas I observe that they have no head gear. But then those are posed photos, not every day working situations.