The British and Cyprus

The British and Cyprus
Author: Mark Simmons
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2015-08-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750965819

The relationship between Britain and Cyprus over the course of the past 100 years has been a constantly evolving one. Since the First World War, Cyprus has played a key role in British defence strategy, and, after the withdrawal from Egypt, the island became the British Middle East headquarters. Today, Britain retains two sovereign bases in Cyprus and the island has become a popular holiday destination for many British tourists. Using previously unpublished letters and personal interviews, The British and Cyprus is told through the words of the people who served the British Crown on Cyprus – civil and military – and includes fascinating accounts of the dramatic fight against EOKA in the 1950s, who pressed for an end to British rule on the island.

Sweet and Bitter Island

Sweet and Bitter Island
Author: Tabitha Morgan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2010-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857717200

On a sweltering day in July, 1878 the men of the 42nd Royal Highlanders - the Black Watch - waded ashore at Larnaca Bay to begin the British occupation of Cyprus. Today, Britons on sunbeds colonise the same stretch of sand, the latest visitors to an island which has long held a special place in the English imagination - and a controversial role in British imperial ambitions. Drawing on largely unpublished material, Tabitha Morgan reflects on why successive administrations failed, so catastrophically, to engage with their Cypriot subjects, and how social segregation, confusion about Cypriot identity and the poor calibre of so many administrators all contributed to the bloody conflict that led, finally, to Cypriot independence in 1960. Sweet and Bitter Island explores for the first time the unique bond between Britain and Cyprus and the complex, sometimes tense, relationship between the two nations which endures to the present day. Extensively researched and lyrically written, this is the definitive portrait of British colonial life on the Mediterranean island.

Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus, 1954-1959

Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus, 1954-1959
Author: Robert Holland
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 1998-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780191513336

This is the first in-depth reconstruction of a major British decolonization based fully on original documentation. Charting the `inner history' of a violent colonial Emergency, it provides a case-study of the dilemmas posed by the challenge of terrorism overseas after 1945. Robert Holland analyses the evolution of a political settlement which, almost uniquely in the British `end of empire', slid beyond the United Kingdom's control. He considers the effects of the revolt on the politics of the surrounding region, particularly in relation to the emerging ethnic struggle between Greeks and Turks. His work offers a fresh perspective on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern developments, including the involvement of NATO and the United States, in the age of the Suez Crisis and its aftermath. This account is essential reading for anybody interested in the liquidation of the British Empire, the breakdown of ethnic co-existence under intense pressure, and the effects of regional destabilization on the wider international system.

The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press

The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press
Author: Marinos Pourgouris
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2018-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498576613

In June of 1878, the British Empire acquired the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus, after a secret agreement with the Ottoman Empire. The occupation of Cyprus was officially announced by the British government about a month later and what followed was an unprecedented mania with the island, which manifested itself through the publication of dozens of books and articles, the composition of poems, novels, and music pieces, the staging of operas and ballets, the appearance of dozens of advertisements in newspapers, the dispatch of special correspondents to the island, the announcement of forthcoming tours, etc. This book examines the “Cyprus Frenzy” of 1878 and the way it was expressed in both major and provincial newspapers in Victorian Britain. It follows the six main special correspondents who were commissioned to cover the occupation and who traveled to the island for that purpose: Archibald Forbes (The Daily News), St. Leger Algernon Herbert (The Times), John Augustus O’Shea (The London Evening Standard), Edward Henry Vizetelly (The Glasgow Herald), Samuel Pasfield Oliver (The Illustrated London News), and Hepworth Dixon (for several provincial newspapers). What is pertinent in the investigation of Victorian journalistic practices is the relationship between these correspondents and the military establishment, which was tasked with the duty of forming the first British government on the island. In this context, General Garnet Wolseley, who served as the island’s first High Commissioner, and his famous clique of associates are central characters in the story of Cyprus’ colonization. The book further considers the role of advertisements in propagating colonial discourse and it examines “Letters to the Editor,” published in major newspapers of the time, as a tool in the investigation of the Victorian readers’ reception and response to the occupation. By concentrating on the history of a very particular event—the British occupation of Cyprus in 1878—this book aspires to scrutinize colonial practices through a close examination of the mechanisms that they put in motion, the networks they utilize, and the fantasies they stir.

British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925

British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925
Author: Andrekos Varnava
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1315519399

Most of the Cypriot population, especially the lower classes, remained loyal to the British cause during the Great War and the island contributed significantly to the First World War, with men and materials. The British acknowledged this yet failed to institute political and economic reforms once the war ended. The obsession of Greek Cypriot elites with enosis (union with Greece), which only increased after the war, and the British dismissal of increasing the role of Cypriots in government, bringing the Christian and Muslim communities closer, and expanding franchise to all classes and sexes, led to serious problems down the line, not least the development of a democratic deficit. Andrekos Varnava studies the events and the impact of this crucial period.

Fighting EOKA

Fighting EOKA
Author: David French
Publisher:
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198729340

Drawing upon a wide range of unpublished sources, including files from the recently-released Foreign and Commonwealth Office 'migrated archive', Fighting EOKA is the first full account of the operations of the British security forces on Cyprus in the second half of the 1950s. It shows how between 1955 and 1959 these forces tried to defeat the Greek Cypriot paramilitary organisation, EOKA, which was fighting to bring about enosis, that is the union between Cyprus and Greece. By tracing the evolving pattern of EOKA violence and the responses of the police, the British army, the civil administration on the island, and the minority Turkish Cypriot community, David French explains why the British could contain the military threat posed by EOKA, but could not eliminate it. The result was that by the spring of 1959 a political stalemate had descended upon Cyprus, and none of the contending parties had achieved their full objectives. Greek Cypriots had to be content with independence rather than enosis. Turkish Cypriots, who had hoped to see the island partitioned on ethnic lines, were given only a share of power in the government of the new Republic, and the British, who had hoped to retain sovereignty over the whole of the island, were left in control of just two military enclaves.

Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA

Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA
Author: Andrekos Varnava
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2021-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785275534

This book explores the assassination of Antonios Triantafyllides, a leading Cypriot lawyer and politician, in British colonial Cyprus in January 1934. This event has been the infamous subject of rumours since its occurrence and a taboo subject for Cypriot society and historians alike, as the event has been silenced or dismissed. This book explores the assassination in its broadest possible context by situating it within the broader events within the British Empire, the region and the world more generally at that time. The basis for the exploration is a ‘community of records’ through which all the evidence is sifted, reading it both with and against the grain, in order to provide the most likely answer to who was really behind this mysterious cold case. Through rigorous analysis, this book concludes that those who most likely masterminded the assassination supported radical right-wing extremist pro-enosis nationalism and were subsequently also prominent in forming the EOKA terrorist group in the 1950s.

British Imperialism and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1923-1939

British Imperialism and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1923-1939
Author: ILIA. XYPOLIA
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2019-07-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9780367348908

As Cyprus experienced British imperial rule between 1878 and 1960, Greek and Turkish nationalism on the island developed at different times and at different speeds. Relations between Turkish Cypriots and the British on the one hand, and Greek Cypriots and the British on the other, were often asymmetrical with the Muslim community undergoing an enormous change in terms of national/ethnic identity and class characteristics. Turkish Cypriot nationalism developed belatedly as a militant nationalist and anti-Enosis movement. This book explores the relationship between the emergence of Turkish national identity and British colonial rule in the 1920s and 1930s.