Can you help me figure out what she is? The choice is either 'Greek Cypriot' or 'Turkish Cypriot'?
***Sorry guys, we have no other choices since this poll is based on what Cypriot society expects us all to decide...
HERE IS SOME BACKGROUND INFO TO HELP YOU DECIDE:
Maria was born into a modern, liberal, non-practising Christian Orthodox family in Palmers Green, North London. Her boyfriend is Black who family are originally from the West Indies and her first language is North London-English. Her bother is married to an Armenian and her other brother to a Romanian.
Her parents are from Kythrea, now in north Cyprus. They speak Cypriot-Greek.
But her grand father on her father's side was a Alevi Muslim, Cypriot-Turkish-speaking Cypriot called Mevlit Bekir. He was a painter, hence her surname Poyadjis (Boyaci). His ancestors originally came from Konya in Anatolia in 1579 to cultivate land. Maria's paternal grand mother was an Orthodox Christian, Cypriot-Greek speaking woman from Kyperounta whose ancestors are a mixture of Mycenaean and Phoenician.
Maria's mother and her mother's side of the family have always lived in Kythrea and have been known by the name of Youssef. Her materal great grand parents were Maronites, since Kythrea used to be a Maronite village that converted to Orthodoxy during Ottoman rule. Maronites originally came from Lebanon.
Going along her matrilineal line Maria's two maternal grand fathers married into the family from other villages. One of them was a Muslim called Hassan from Khyrsothou; Hassan's ancestors were Arabic-speaking Sunni Muslims from the Sudan who were shipped to Cyprus to work as porters for the Ottomans who later assimilated into the Muslim Turkish-speaking community. Her second grand father was from Syrianochori and was likely an Assyrian who assimilated into the Christian Orthodox religion. His maternal grand parents were Copts from Egypt.
All her relatives descend a tribe of people who moved into the fertile crescent from East Africa 100,000 years ago who no doubt descended from apes...
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