Cyprus: Cyprus Art / Culture Profile

Identification.

Cyprus is an island in the eastern Mediterranean that was divided into a Greek southern side and a Turkish northern side next a coup instigated by the dictatorship ruling Greece in 1974 and a subsequent Turkish military offensive. Interethnic violence had before caused the partial separation of the two communities. With a Greek majority of around 77 % of the people at the time of independence in 1960, a lot of people regard Cyprus as part of the wider Greek culture. Although the island became part of the Byzantine Empire in the fourth century, it was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1878 and had an 18.3 % Turkish minority in 1960. Greek Cypriots are Christian Orthodox, while Turkish Cypriots are Sunni Muslim.

Location and Geography.

The island is close to Turkey, Syria, and Egypt. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots prefer to think of themselves as living close to Europe rather than Africa and the Middle East. The island appears barren and yellow in the long summertime and greener in the winter, with carob and olive trees along with pine forests on the mountains. The centrally located capital, Nicosia (called Lefkosia by Greek Cypriots and Lefkosha by Turkish Cypriots), is divided and functions as the capital of each side.

Demography.

In 1960, the island emerged as an independent national next almost a century of British colonial policy. At that time, the demographics were as follows: Greek Cypriots, 77 % (441,656); Turkish Cypriots, 18.3 % (104,942); Armenians–Gregorians, 0.6 % (3,378); and Roman Catholics and Maronites, 0.5 % (2,752); with a total people of 573,566. Since the 1974 division, the people statistics have been disputed. A lot of Turkish Cypriots left because of declining economic conditions on their side of the island, while a lot of Turkish settlers moved in because they viewed northern Cyprus as being better off than Turkey. Greek Cypriot official sources provided the following breakdown for the island as a whole in 1977: 735,900 total, of whom 623,200 are Greek (84.7 %), 90,600 are Turkish (12.3 %), and 22,100 (3 %) are foreigners. Those sources claim that there are presently 85,000 Turkish settlers on the Turkish Cypriot side and that around 45,000 Turkish Cypriots have emigrated.

Linguistic Affiliation.

Greek Cypriots are taught at schools and employ in writing and orally, on formal and public occasions, standard modern Greek (SMG), while Turkish Cypriots employ standard modern Turkish (SMT). For informal oral exchanges, each community employs what could be called the Cypriot dialect. Cyprus has a high degree of literacy, and much of the people can communicate in English, particularly the younger generation.

Until the 1970s, Turkish Cypriots could communicate adequately in Greek and a significant number of elderly Greek Cypriots could understand some Turkish. However, political conflict gradually led to increasing linguistic barriers. As animosity increased, the act of speaking the enemy's language was considered unpatriotic. Presently, next twenty-six years of complete separation, very few Greek Cypriots can understand Turkish and no young Turkish Cypriots speak or understand Greek.

For informal oral exchanges, each community employs a different idiom, known within each side as "the Cyprus dialect." Those dialects are sometimes regarded as intimate, local, and authentic idioms vis–a–vis the two standard varieties, while in Cyprus other contexts they may be seen as low, vulgar, or peasant idioms.

Symbolism.

At the same time as Cyprus emerged as a national in 1960, it acquired a flag but not a national anthem. The flag shows a map of the island in orange– yellow against a white background, symbolizing the color of copper, for which the island was renowned in ancient times. Under this lies a wreath of olive leaves. The symbolism of the flag thus draws on nature rather than culture or religion. The official symbol of the 1960 national, the Republic of Cyprus, is a dove flying with an olive branch in its beak in a shield inscribed with the date 1960, all within a wreath of olive leaves, symbolizing the desire for peace. Until 1963, at the same time as interethnic conflict broke out, a neutral piece of music was played on official national occasions; next 1963, the two communities fully adopted the national anthems of Greece and Turkey.

The flag of the Republic of Cyprus was rarely used before 1974. Greek Cypriots, who next 1960 were striving for union with Greece ( enosis ), used the Greek flag, while Turkish Cypriots hoping for the division of the island ( taksim ) used the flag of Turkey. The flag of the republic was used additional commonly next the 1974 separation of the island, but only by Greek Cypriots. It was employed as a national symbol of the Republic of Cyprus, which in practice meant the Greek side. Turkish Cypriots declared their own national in 1983 under the name of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which has been recognized only by Turkey. In striving to prevent international political recognition of the Turkish Cypriot polity, Greek Cypriots started to employ the official flag of the republic. In practice, however, Greek Cypriots often fly both the Greek flag and that of the republic, while Turkish Cypriots fly both their own flag and that of Turkey.

The major left-wing parties on both sides, which are antinationalist and progressive, often jointly support the "Cypriot identity thesis," in which people are considered initial and foremost Cypriots. The major right–wing Greek and Turkish parties, which are nationalist and conservative, emphasize ethnic and cultural affiliations with the two other states.

The national days of Greece and Turkey are commemorated, along with dates from the history of Cyprus. Such commemorations often stir feelings of animosity. The majority significant commemorations for Greek Cypriots are the start of the anticolonial struggle (1 April 1955), the independence of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960 (1 October), and the two days of mourning for the events of July 1974: the Greek attempted coup of 15 July 1974, and the subsequent Turkish military offensive on 20 July 1974, known part Greek Cypriots as the "Anniversaries of the Treacherous Coup and the Barbaric Turkish Invasion." Turkish Cypriots commemorate the establishment of the Turkish Cypriot nationalist resistance organization in 1958 (1 August 1958). During December, a week is devoted to the period spanning 1963 to 1967, mourning those who died in the interethnic fighting that erupted around Christmas 1963. This is called the "Week of Remembrance of the Martyrs and the Struggle." The Turkish armed offensive of 20 July 1974 is celebrated as the anniversary of the "Happy Peace Operation." Turkish Cypriots as well commemorate 15 November 1983 as "Independence Day," at the same time as they declared themselves as a national.

History and Ethnic Relations

Emergence of the Country.

The processes of country building, which transformed Christian and Muslim peasants in Cyprus from colonial subjects to Greeks and Turks, followed those of country building in Greece and Turkey. Only in the twentieth century was there a widespread emergence of Greek and Turkish national consciousness in Cyprus. During the colonial period, both communities employed teachers from the two states, or their own teachers were educated in Greece or Turkey. Both actively encouraged those states to support them, as Greek Cypriots were striving for enosis and Turkish Cypriots initially wanted the island to remain under British policy or be returned to Turkey. As both groups identified with their mainland "brothers," their respective cultures were transformed in ways that drew them apart from each other. This process began with the identification of each group with the history of the "motherland" rather than the history of Cyprus per se.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the peasants of Cyprus shared a number of cultural traits, but as ethnic boundaries became stronger, those syncretic cultural traits gradually disappeared. Muslims may visit Christian churches to pray and offer votive offerings to Christian saints. There were people who came to be known as Cotton–Linens ( Linopambakoi ), who practiced both religions at the same time. Even additional widespread commonalities existed with regard to folk religion and medicine. People would visit a local healer or spiritual leader of either creed to solve all daily problems, be cured of illnesses, and avoid becoming bewitched. Those common elements gradually were abolished as Orthodox Christianity and Sunni Islam became established. Similar processes took place with regards to language as the mostly oral mixed varieties were restored by the written official national languages of Greece and Turkey.

Greek Cypriot folklorists attempted to legitimize the struggle for enosis by emphasizing links to contemporary or ancient Greeks, while Turkish Cypriot folklore studies emphasized the commonalties of Turkish Cypriots with the people of Turkey. These attempts at proving a group's purity and authenticity often were accompanied by attempts to prove the impurity and mixed culture (and blood) of the other community in order to deny those people an identity and even existence as political actors who could voice demands. Those conflicts were exacerbated by British colonialism, which tried to disprove the presence of Greeks and Turks in Cyprus in order to counter their anticolonial political strivings, advocating instead the existence of a Cypriot country with a slave mentality that required benevolent British guidance.

National Identity.

In 1960, the new national was composed of people who considered themselves Greeks and Turks rather than Cypriots; these people did not support the national. Interethnic conflict erupted in 1963 and continued until 1967, at the same time as Turkish Cypriots found themselves on the losing side. At the same time as an extreme right–wing military junta emerged in Greece in 1967, its policies in Cyprus led to resentment and made Greek Cypriots wary of joining Greece. As interethnic strife begun to abate, Greek Cypriots tried to reverse the separatist situation. Turkish Cypriots had moved into enclaves under their own government, and Greek Cypriots tried to reintegrate them in social and political life. In the late 1960s, the two sides negotiated their differences in a relatively peaceful environment. Turkish Cypriots emerged from their enclaves and began, at least in economic terms, to reintegrate with Greek Cypriots. During this period, some Greek Cypriots started to regard themselves as Cypriots, in control of an independent national whose sovereignty they tried to safeguard both from Greek interference and from the threat posed by Turkish enclaves. A group of right–wing Greek Cypriots, with the encouragement of the junta and against the wishes of the vast majority of Greek Cypriots, launched a coup in 1974. The aim was to depose Archbishop Makarios, the president of the republic, and join Greece. Turkey reacted with a military offensive that caused enormous suffering part Greek Cypriots, 170,000 of whom were displaced from the 37 % of the island that came under the control of Turkey. People exchanges led to the creation of two ethnically homogeneous sides, although negotiations for a solution still take place.

Ethnic Relations.

Greek Cypriots who want a unified national claim that people peacefully coexisted in mixed communities in the completed. Turkish Cypriots argue that the two groups always lived in partial separation and conflict.

Next 1974, reunification emerged as the major Greek Cypriot political objective. This change in political aspirations led to major revisions. Initial, the "peaceful coexistence thesis" was established as a historical argument that proposed that if the completed was characterized by coexistence, so would a united next. A policy of rapprochement toward Turkish Cypriots necessitated measures of goodwill toward Turkish Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots no longer were regarded as enemies but as compatriots, and all animosity was directed toward Turkey. Gradually, the term "brother," once used only for Greeks (living in Greece) has begun to refer to Turkish Cypriots. Greek Cypriots officially started to talk of "one people" who should live in one national, while Turkish Cypriots officially spoke of "two peoples" or "two nations" which should live separately.

However, Greek Cypriot society became additional culturally integrated with Greece through education and the reception of Greek television channels. The Turkish Cypriot authorities actively encouraged even stronger measures of integration with Turkey, both economically and culturally.

The strongest proponents of a distinct Cypriot identity come from the major left–wing party, AKEL. Supporters of that party were in the completed victimized for being communist and treated as unpatriotic traitors by right–wingers speaking in the name of Greek nationalism. They had a lot of contacts with Turkish Cypriots through left–wing organizations, such as joint trade unions.

On the Turkish Cypriot side, Turkey generally is considered as having liberated Turkish Cypriots, but next 1974 various groups came to identify themselves ethnically and culturally as Cypriots rather than Turks. Politically, these groups are additional in favor of a unified national than are the right– wing Turkish Cypriot parties. As a result of the enormous influx of Turkish people into the island, they feel threatened by cultural assimilation by Turkey. Turkish workers as well provide an unwelcome source of cheap labor that competes with Turkish Cypriot workers and their trade unions. For this reason, they began to stress that jobs and resources should belong to the "Cypriots" rather than the outsiders (Turks). As a result of these developments, a new school of folklore studies emerged next 1974 on the Turkish Cypriot side that stresses cultural commonalties with Greek Cypriots. Turks are sometimes called karasakal ("black– bearded") by Turkish Cypriots, a term with connotations of backwardness and religious fanaticism.

People on both sides are mostly secular, particularly on the Turkish Cypriot side, since Turkish national identity emerged as a secular antireligious ideology. Greek nationalism from presently on acquired strong religious overtones in the form of the Hellenic–Christians ideals, but the influence of religion is as well on the decline on the Greek Cypriot side.
Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space

The majority striking examples of monumental architecture during the British colonial period were schools built by Greek Cypriots emphasizing a Greek classical facade. Next 1960 school buildings utilized a "modern" and functional style. The majority imposing examples of contemporary monumental architecture are the glass and marble-covered bank buildings on the additional affluent Greek Cypriot side. In terms of officially built monuments, which abound on both sides, the major ones are those depicting living and deceased political leaders. On the Greek Cypriot side, an enormous statue of completed-president Archbishop Makarios stands opposite an extra monument symbolizing the EOKA fight against anticolonialism (1955-1960), with freedom as a woman opening the prison door to emerging fighters and civilians.

On the Turkish Cypriot side, the major such monument lying outside Famagusta is dedicated to Ataturk (the founder of the national of Turkey), whose chief appears on the top. An extra, multisided, monument is outside Nicosia with the inscription "We Will Not Forget;" it features Denktash, the current Turkish Cypriot leader, and Kuchuk, a once prominent politician. Perhaps the majority striking feature in the landscape of the whole island is the "stamping" of the mountain range in the Turkish Cypriot side with two enormous flags, those of Turkey and the TRNC, visible from miles away with an inscription by Ataturk: "How Happy to Say I am a Turk." This could be seen as an attempt by the internationally unrecognized Turkish Cypriot national to engrave its presence on the land and remind all—Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, and foreign visitors alike—that it exists and is in control of the north side of the island.

From the middle of the twentieth century, the dominant trend was for people to move towards the urban centers and abandon the villages, a trend exacerbated by ethnic conflict. These demographic shifts took place as people searched for employment in government jobs, in the expanding industry, and later in the tourism sector. The social and political upheavals caused significant numbers of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to become, at one time or other, dislocated. This meant that town planning could at no time be seriously enforced, giving a rather cluttered character to urban space.

The 'traditional' one room-type village home gradually disappeared as the emergence of a additional individualized society necessitated separate rooms, at least for each adult. Related to this were changes in settlement patterns. While in the completed relatives often formed neighborhoods, as land plots were divided and subdivided part children, the emergence of the nuclear family gradually changed this pattern. In general, despite rapid industrialization and other changes of a capitalist nature, once couples are married, they build on the assumption of marital, occupational and geographical stability. This entails the construction of often large and expensive houses, which may place the couple in deficit for ten to twenty years.

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. On the Greek Cypriot side, one of the strongest social movements has been that represented by the communist party, AKEL. It has consistently commanded about a third of the total votes cast in elections during the post-independence period. Related and linked to this is the strong and effective presence of trade unions, which have successfully defended and promoted workers' rights. Highly organized and well represented, the working class movement has managed to claim significant benefits for its members and has kept up with the rise in living standards. This has, to a significant extent, reduced the possibility of wide-ranging class distinctions, giving rise to a large middle class with few instances of poverty and almost no evidence of destitution, such as homelessness. The full-employment status in Greek Cyprus has contributed to this national of affairs.

On the Turkish Cypriot side, the political left has as well been a significant political force, commanding 25 to 30 % of the vote. However, high unemployment and grave economic problems, along with an influx of destitute migrant workers from Turkey who are prepared to work for very low wages, have prevented Turkish workers from organizing and entirely protecting workers' rights. The prevalence of patronage and clientilism has meant that those close to right-wing parties, which have the majority political power, are as well favored economically, giving rise to additional rigid wealth distinctions.

Gender Roles and Statuses

Division of Labor by Gender. On both sides, there is a strong, though contested and decreasing, element of patriarchy. Economic, social, and political power are concentrated in the hands of men, and only men can become religious functionaries, whether Christian or Muslim. Women are almost absent from political offices, although they are entering the workplace in increasing numbers. However, in general they are employed in jobs of lesser status and lower remuneration than men. The entry of women into the job force, while offering a financial base for additional independence and security, often means that women undertake both the role of working outside the home while still retaining their responsibilities in the home, resulting in a double burden. A solution is often found, particularly on the richer Greek Cypriot side, by importing female workers (notably from Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines) to take over the domestic responsibilities.

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage. Whereas half a decade ago a significant proportion of marriages were arranged (often by the father), this has largely disappeared, although parents may still exert strong control and influence over marital choices. Most people consider getting married to be the normal course of action, so the vast majority do in fact marry; those who don't are often viewed as being either eccentric or unlucky, or both. Whereas before the provision of a dowry, mostly for women, was considered mandatory, parents still feel they should provide as much economic support as possible for their children at the same time as they marry. Ideally, the parents hope to provide the newlywed couple with a fully furnished home and other basic needs, such as one or two cars.

Domestic Unit. The typical family arrangement on both sides is the nuclear family, often with fairly strong ties towards a additional extended family, particularly the parents. Most couples hope to have two children, preferably one of each sex. The additional traditional division between the public domain (work, etc.), which is overseen by the male, and the private domain (the home), which is overseen by the female, is still strong, despite women's entry into the labor market. Since people usually move into city apartments or build their own home, relatives do not live in as close proximity as in the completed, at the same time as they lived in clusters of houses in the same town or village.