An enigma amongst nations
What do Cat Stevens, George Michael, and Tracey Emin have in common? All three trace their origins to a tiny island smaller than Sicily and Sardinia, situated under the belly of a mammoth state of Turkey in the middle of the sea at the meeting point of three continents. The tiny nation of Cyprus—or in the case of this book, the island of Cyprus—remains etched in history as an island constantly in an influx of perpetual change and standing out as an anomaly at the same time. Home to paradoxical contestations of belonging and identity, Cyprus thrives on ambiguity. A case in point of it being the only EU member-state that the United Nations places in Asia.
In Alex Christofi's newly published fascinating book—Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean—we get a deep close-range look at one of world civilisation's interesting hotspots that has long swayed between the cross-currents of the rise and fall of the great monotheisms; the tussle and bargain of ideological currents of communism, imperialism, and fascism, and a legacy of Britain's policy of "divide and run".
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The name of the book, Cypria, stems from the name of a prequel to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, works that have long been lost in which the goddess of Cyprus, Aphrodite, started a war that we read about in literature even today.
"An island full of stories"—Cypriots have made immense contribution to civilisation being the first to domesticate cats 9500 years ago, digging the oldest water wells 9000 years ago, and passionate enthusiasts of olive oil that is known for having a positive effect on health, especially when it comes to combating cardiovascular diseases. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, came from Cyprus, and the island is likewise a mutual meeting point for the spread of both Christianity and Islam from their beginnings. Lazarus, the dead man restored to life—the living evidence of Christ's miracles—fled to Cyprus to convert the pagans to the new growing faith, while Umm Haram, one of the Prophet Muhammad's aunts, was martyred on the island, making her tomb one of the holiest Muslim sites in the Mediterranean. In terms of public health success, malaria eradication had its first success here.
Christofi breaks down the book starting from the island's ancient past till the present day with his authoritative, and persuasive prose graced with facts and figures fleshing out interesting epithets about the country of his father. A British-Cypriot, Alex Christofi, has an eye for keen storytelling and each chapter is sprinkled with notes that any history or geography buff would like to delve into. The history of Cyprus has seen all of the major world powers have their shares in occupying the tiny island. The first ancient kingdom on the island, Alashiya, thrived on copper trade and had trade links through the difficult and often violent terrains of Eurasia. It was the genius of subsequent Cypriot blacksmiths that led to the creation of Alexander the Great's legendary sword described as "astonishing temper and lightness".
Engaging and thoughtful in every chapter, Christofi is an erudite narrator on the chapters that explains the emergence of Cyprus from a colonial outpost to a modern nation-state. The capital of the country, Nicosia, remains the world's only divided capital city between the northern Turkish-majority section (a quasi-independent nation called the The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) and the southern Greek-majority Republic of Cyprus section. Till the present day, the dreams of a unified Cyprus remain in shambles, and it is this unfortunate making and unmaking of events that make the book worth reading. Conquered by the Ottomans and subsequently the British in 1878, the formation of Cypriot identity has always had an influx of differences between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority. Even then, in the age of global nationalisms with minorities and majorities within the Ottoman and British empires washing themselves in each other's blood, Cyprus remained an anomaly to violence during bursts of ferocious violence in the global World Wars with relations between the Greeks and the Turks remaining peaceful.
In the lead-up to the independence movement, the future of Cyprus was daunted by three major options—enosis: unification with Greece based on the Greek majority's identitarian makeup, taksim: partitioning between the Greek South and Turkish north, and a unified Cyprus. Surprisingly, while self-determination has taken place, none of the three drivers of self-determination seem to be in place. No unification with Greece has taken place, a unified Cyprus does not exist, and no nation other than Turkey recognises the Northern part, which many Greeks refer to as the "Turkish occupation" given greenlight by the likes of infamous Henry Kissinger of America. The 1974 right-wing coup solidified tensions resulting in brutal massacres on both sides triggering a Turkish response of occupation and carving out a new territory on the north—decisions that to this day remain unsolved.
Covering the nuances of world and regional history, Christofi charts a wonderful journey of a people, its history, and its entanglement with numerous fortunes, and misfortunes.
Israr Hasan is a Senior Research Assistant at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health.
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