Murtaza wrote:
Proof one word.
Well lets make it four.
Proof other than google.
Country Studies.
Country Studies is put together by the Federal Research Division of the
Library of Congress as part of the Country Studies/Area Handbook Series sponsored by the
U.S. Department of the Army between 1986 and 1998.
CYPRUS: OTTOMAN RULE
http://countrystudies.us/cyprus/7.htm
“Throughout the period of Venetian rule, Ottoman Turks raided and attacked at will. In 1489, the first year of Venetian control,
Turks attacked the Karpas Peninsula, pillaging and taking captives to be sold into slavery. In 1539 the Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol. …”
“In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, but this time with a full-scale invasion rather than a raid. About 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2, 1570, and laid siege to Nicosia.
In an orgy of victory on the day that the city fell--September 9, 1570--20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every church, public building, and palace was looted. Word of the massacre spread, and a few days later Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. ..”
“The former foreign elite was destroyed--its members killed, carried away as captives, or exiled. The Orthodox Christians, i.e., the Greek Cypriots
who survived, had new foreign overlords. …”
“Ottoman rule of Cyprus was at times indifferent, at times
oppressive, depending on the temperaments of the sultans and local officials. ……..”
“Reaction to
Turkish misrule caused uprisings, but Greek Cypriots were not strong enough to prevail. Occasional Turkish Cypriot uprisings, sometimes with their Christian neighbors,
against confiscatory taxes also failed. During the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the Ottoman authorities feared that Greek Cypriots would rebel again. Archbishop Kyprianos, a powerful leader who worked to improve the education of Greek Cypriot children, was accused of plotting against the government.
Kyprianos, his bishops, and hundreds of priests and important laymen were arrested and summarily hanged or decapitated on July 9, 1821. …..”
“….. Various Cypriot movements arose after the 1830s, aimed at gaining greater selfgovernment , but, because
the imperial treasury took most of the island's wealth and because local officials were often
corrupt, reform efforts failed. Cypriots had little recourse to the courts because Christian testimony was
rarely accepted.”
“The Ottoman Turks became the enemy in the eyes of the Greek Cypriots, and this enmity served as a focal point for uniting the major ethnic group on the island under the banner of Greek identity. Centuries of
neglect by the Turks, the
unrelenting poverty of most of the people, and the
ever-present tax collectors fueled Greek nationalism. …”
“During the period of Ottoman domination, Cyprus had been a backwater of the empire, but in the nineteenth century it again drew the attention of West European powers. By the 1850s, the decaying Ottoman Empire was known as "the sick man of Europe," and various nations sought to profit at its expense. Cyprus itself could not fight for its own freedom, but
the centuries of Frankish and Turkish domination had not destroyed the ties of language, culture, and religion that bound the Greek Cypriots to other Greeks.”
I will read it.
