Greek Cypriots · Lablypedia

The majority of Greek Cypriots are members of the Church of Cyprus, an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Orthodox Christianity. In regard to the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, the term also includes Maronites, Armenians, and Catholics of the Latin Church ("Latins"), who were given the option of being included in either the Greek or Turkish communities and voted to join the former due to a shared religion.

History

Ancient Cyprus

Cyprus was part of the Mycenaean civilization with local production of Mycenaean vases dating to the Late Helladic III (1400–1050 BC). The quantity of this pottery concludes that there were numerous Mycenaean settlers, if not settlements, on the island. Archaeological evidence shows that Greek settlement began unsystematically in c. 1400 BC, then steadied (possibly due to Dorian invaders on the mainland) with definite settlements established in c. 1200 BC. The close connection between the Arcadian dialect and those of Pamphylia and Cyprus indicates that the migration came from Achaea. The Achaean tribe may have been an original population of the Peloponnese, Pamphylia, and Cyprus, living in the latter prior to the Dorian invasion, and not a subsequent immigrant group; the Doric elements in Arcadian are lacking in Cypriot. Achaeans settled among the old population, and founded Salamis. The epic Cypria, dating to the 7th century BC, may have originated in Cyprus.

Medieval Cyprus

The Byzantine era profoundly molded Greek Cypriot culture. The institution of Greek Orthodox Christianity soon became an integral part of Greek Cypriot identity during this period, and its legacy persisted under foreign domination throughout the succeeding centuries. Since Cyprus was never the "final goal" of any external ambitions – insofar as destroying its civilisation and citizenry did not become a military objective, or necessity – the island simply fell under the dominion of whichever power controlled the Eastern Mediterranean region at the time.

Greek Cypriots did, however, endure oppressive rule under both the Lusignans and successive Venetian Republic, from the 1190s to 1570. King Aimery – whom succeeded his brother, Guy of Lusignan, in 1194 – was known for being particularly intolerant of the Orthodox Church, and saw Greek Cypriot land appropriated for use by newly-established Latin churches in major towns on the island. In addition, oppressive taxation was imposed upon locals by occupying forces, with tax collection conducted, by proxy, under administration of the Latin churches.

Ottoman Cyprus

The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 replaced Venetian rule. Despite the inherent oppression of foreign subjugation, the period of Ottoman rule (1570–1878) had a limited impact on Greek Cypriot culture. The Ottomans tended to administer their multicultural empire with the help of their subject millets, or religious communities. The millet system allowed the Greek Cypriot community to survive, administered on behalf of Constantinople by the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus. Cypriot Greeks were now able to take control of the land they had been working on for centuries. Although religiously tolerant, Ottoman rule was generally harsh and inefficient. The patriarch serving the Ottoman sultan acted as ethnarch, or leader of the Greek nation, and gained secular powers as a result of the gradual dysfunction of Ottoman rule, for instance in adjudicating justice and in the collection of taxes. Turkish settlers suffered alongside their Greek Cypriot neighbors, and the two groups together endured centuries of oppressive governance from Constantinople. A minority of Greek Cypriots converted to Islam during this period, and are sometimes referred to as "neo-Muslims" by historians.

Modern history

Politically, the concept of enosis – unification with the Greek "motherland" – became important to literate Greek Cypriots after Greece declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. A movement for the realization of enosis gradually formed, in which the Church of Cyprus played a dominant role during the Cyprus dispute.

During the period of British colonial rule (1878–1960), an efficient colonial administration was established, but government and education were administered along ethnic lines, accentuating differences. For example, the education system was organized with two Boards of Education, one Greek and one Turkish, controlled by Athens and Istanbul, respectively. The resulting Greco-Turkish educational systems emphasized linguistic, religious, cultural, and ethnic differences and downplayed traditional ties between the two Cypriot communities. The two groups were encouraged to view themselves as extensions of their respective motherlands, leading to the development of two distinct nationalities with antagonistic loyalties.

The importance of religion within the Greek Cypriot community was reinforced when the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus, Makarios III, was elected the first president of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960. For the next decade and a half, enosis was a key issue for Greek Cypriots, and a key cause of events leading up to the 1974 coup, which prompted the Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern part of the island. Cyprus remains divided today, with the two communities almost completely separated. Many of those whom lost their homes, lands and possessions during the Turkish invasion, emigrated mainly to the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, South Africa and Europe, although most left Cyprus before 1974. There are today estimated to be 335,000 Greek Cypriot emigrants living in Great Britain. The majority of the Greek Cypriots in Great Britain currently live in England; there is an estimate of around 3,000 in Wales and 1,000 in Scotland. By the early 1990s, Greek Cypriot society enjoyed a high standard of living. Economic modernization created a more flexible and open society and caused Greek Cypriots to share the concerns and hopes of other secularized West European societies. The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, officially representing the entire island, but suspended for the time being in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

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Population

Greeks in Cyprus number 659,115, according to the 2011 Cypriot census. There is a notable community of Cypriots and people of Cypriot descent in Greece. In Athens, the Greek Cypriot community numbers ca. 55,000 people. There is also a large Greek Cypriot diaspora, particularly in the United Kingdom.

Diaspora

Culture

Cuisine

Cypriot cuisine, as with other Greek cuisine, was imprinted with the spices and herbs made common as a result of extensive trade links within the Ottoman Empire. Names of many dishes came to reflect the sources of the ingredients from the many lands. Coffee houses pervasively spread throughout the island into all major towns and countless villages.

Language

The everyday language of Greek Cypriots is Cypriot Greek, a dialect of Modern Greek. It shares certain characteristics with varieties of Crete, the Dodecanese and Chios, as well as those of Asia Minor.

Greek Cypriots are generally educated in Standard Modern Greek, though they tend to speak it with an accent and preserve some Greek Cypriot grammar.

Genetic studies

A 2017 study, found that Cypriots belong to a wide and homogeneous genetic domain, along with the people of the Aegean Islands (including Crete), Sicily, and southern Italy (including the Greek-speaking minorities of Apulia and Calabria), while the continental part of Greece, including Peloponnesus, appears as slightly differentiated, by clustering with the other Southern Balkan populations of Albania and Kosovo. The study calls this distinct genetic domain, the "Mediterranean genetic continuum".

A 2017 archaeogenetics study, concluded that both the Mycenaean Greeks and the Minoans were genetically closely related, and that both are closely related, but not identical, to modern Greek populations. The F_ST between the sampled Bronze Age populations and present-day West Eurasians was estimated, finding that Mycenaeans are least differentiated from the populations of Greece, Cyprus, Albania, and Italy.

A 2017 study, found that both Greek Cypriots' and Turkish Cypriots' patrilineal ancestry derives primarily from a single pre-Ottoman local gene pool. The frequency of total haplotypes shared between Greek and Turkish Cypriots is 7-8%, with analysis showing that none of these being found in Turkey, thus not supporting a Turkish origin for the shared haplotypes. No shared haplotypes were observed between Greek Cypriots and mainland Turkish populations, while total haplotypes shared between Turkish Cypriots and mainland Turks was 3%. Both Cypriot groups show close genetic affinity to Calabrian (southern Italy) and Lebanese patrilineages. The study states that the genetic affinity between Calabrians and Cypriots can be explained as a result of a common ancient Greek (Achaean) genetic contribution, while Lebanese affinity can be explained through several migrations that took place from coastal Levant to Cyprus from the Neolithic (early farmers), the Iron Age (Phoenicians), and the Middle Ages (Maronites and other Levantine settlers during the Frankish era). The authors note however that the Calabrian samples used in the analysis were relatively small (n = 30 comparative dataset, n = 74 YHRD) and thus these results should be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, from the Greek sub-populations, Cretan Greeks were found to be the closest to Cypriots. In terms of Rst pairwise genetic differences, which indicate deeper shared paternal ancestry than shared haplotypes, Greeks appear genetically close to Cypriots, and equidistant from Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots have similar frequencies for their major patrilineal haplogroups, with the main subclades for both being J2a-M410 (23.8% and 20.3% resp.), E-M78 (12.8% and 13.9% resp.) and G2-P287 (12.5% and 13.7% resp.). The biggest differentiating characteristic between Greek Cypriots and mainland Greeks is the low frequency of haplogroups I, R1a among Greek Cypriots because the mainland Greek population has received considerable migrations during the Byzantine era and the Middle Ages from other Balkanic populations, such as Slavs, Aromanians (Vlachs), and Albanians (Arvanites), while the biggest differentiating characteristic between Greek Cypriots and Middle Easterners is the much lower frequency of haplogroup J1 among the Greek Cypriots. Greek Cypriots are also differentiated by Turkish Cypriots in some aspects; namely Turkish Cypriots have 5.6% Eastern Eurasian (likely Central Asian/Turkic) and 2.1% North African patrilineal ancestry, while Greek Cypriots have 0.6% Eastern Eurasian and no North African patrilineal ancestry.

Notable people

Ancient

Acesas, Salaminian weaver
Apollodorus, Kitian physician
Apollonios of Kition, 1st-century BCE physician of the Empiric school
Clearchus of Soli, 4th- and 3rd-century BCE Peripatetic philosopher
Demonax, 2nd CE Cynic philosopher
Evagoras I, king of Salamis 411–374 BCE
Evagoras II, king of Salamis 361–351 BCE
Nicocles, king of Paphos
Nicocles, king of Salamis 374/3–361 BC
Nikokreon, king of Salamis
Onesilus, king of Salamis 499–497 BC
Paeon of Amathus, Hellenistic historian
Persaeus, 3rd-century BCE Stoic philosopher, student of Zeno
Pnytagoras, king of Salamis
Stasanor, 4th-century BCE general of Alexander the Great
Stasander, 4th-century BCE general of Alexander the Great
Stasinos, poet, author of the epic poem Cypria
Synnesis of Cyprus, 4th-century BCE physician
Zeno of Citium, 3rd-century BCE philosopher, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy
Ptolemy of Cyprus, 1st-century BCE Ptolemaic king of Cyprus
Zeno of Cyprus, 4th-century CE physician

Medieval

Saint Spyridon, 4th-century bishop of Trimythous
Saint Tychon, 4th-century bishop of Amathus
Theodora, 6th-century empress of the Eastern Roman Empire
John the Merciful, 7th century Amathusian Patriatch of Alexandria
Neophytos of Cyprus, 13th-century monk
Leontios Machairas, 15th-century historian
Georgios Boustronios, 15th-century historian
Thomas Flanginis, 17th-century merchant and founder of the Flanginian School
Ioannis Kigalas, 17th-century scholar and professor

Modern

Alkinoos Ioannidis, musician, born in Nicosia
Andreas G. Orphanides, professor of archaeology, rector and composer
Anna Vissi, singer, musician, actress born in Larnaca
Anthony Skordi, actor
Artemas Diamandis, British-Cypriot singer
Aristos Petrou, Cypriot-American rapper, member of the rap duo Suicideboys
Andrekos Varnava, Australian-Cypriot historian, writer, and professor at Flinders University
Cat Stevens, British-Cypriot singer-songwriter, Greek Cypriot father
Christopher A. Pissarides, Cypriot economist, Nobel laureate, born in Nicosia
Christy Lefteri, British-Cypriot novelist
Chris Tsangarides, Grammy-nominated record producer, sound engineer, and mixer of Greek Cypriot origin
Demetri Catrakilis, South African rugby union player
Demis Hassabis, artificial intelligence researcher, Greek Cypriot father
Drew Pavlou, Australian anti-CCP activist
George Kallis, composer
George Michael, English singer-songwriter, Greek Cypriot father
George Eugeniou, founder and artistic director of Art Theatre, London
Georgios Grivas, military officer
George Vassiliou, President of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993
George Young, Greek Cypriot actor
Grigoris Afxentiou, guerrilla fighter
Grigoris Kastanos
Jamie Demetriou, comedian, actor, screenwriter
Kypros Nicolaides, Professor in Fetal Medicine at King's College Hospital, London
Kyriakos Charalambides
Lambros Lambrou (footballer)
Lambros Lambrou (skier)
Manos Loïzos, composer
Marios Tokas, composer
Makarios III, archbishop and first President of Cyprus
Marcos Baghdatis, tennis player
Michael Cacoyannis, cinema director
Michalis Hatzigiannis, singer
Mick Karn, musician
Mihalis Violaris, singer
Natasia Demetriou, comedian, actor, screenwriter
Nico Yennaris
Panikos Panayi, British-Cypriot historian, writer, and professor at De Montfort University
Paul Stassino
Petros Serghiou Florides, mathematical physicist
Roys Poyiadjis
Sotiris Moustakas, actor
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, entrepreneur
Stass Paraskos, artist
Stel Pavlou, English writer, Greek Cypriot father
Theo Paphitis
Tio Ellinas
Tonia Buxton
Vasilis Michaelides, poet
Vassilis Hatzipanagis, football player