The Greek Gift: : Politics in a Cypriot Village: 26 (Peleus) - Hardcover

Loizos, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3447059729 ISBN 13: 9783447059725

Publisher: Harrassowitz, 2009

Synopsis

This volume presents the complete collection of the Treaties signed in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 16 August 1960, the day on which Cyprus became Independent.This study was one of the first to spell out how modern ideological politics affected a rural community in a post-colonial state. Cyprus, under British rule, had permitted the Greek and Turkish Cypriots only limited experience of democratic participation in national politics. The last five years of colonial rule in Cyprus [1955-1960] witnessed a major struggle by Greek Cypriots for "freedom" - by which they meant, a political Union with Greece, a goal which had obsessed them since the turn of the century, but which had alienated Turkish Cypriot nationalists.Independence in 1960 was soon disrupted by violent conflict between Greek and Turkish paramilitaries, and the retreat of many Turkish Cypriots into enclaves, both defensive and secessionist.The village described here, [later identified as Argaki, near Morphou in W. Cyprus, ] had produced an active unit of anti-British guerillas, members of the underground organization EOKA, led by Col. George Grivas. It had acted as a hiding place for EOKA fighters dodging the British, men like Nikos Sampson, and Nikos Koshis. It was also a mixed village, with a large Greek majority, the subjects of this study, and a small Turkish minority. Twenty five miles from the capital, prospering from irrigated agriculture, the village found itself intensively caught up in the rivalries between Greek nationalist leaders. President Makarios, Interior Minister Polykarpos Yorgadjis, [later assassinated] Glavkos Clerides, [later President] Dr.Vassos Lyssarides, and Nikos Sampson [a "president" imposed by the Greek dictatorship] are all major actors on the national political stage, but they are also connected by ties of friendship and political patronage to their Argaki clients - the village political activists who have variously identified with these national figures, but find that when the big m

About this edition

• Publisher: Harrassowitz
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 3447059729
• ISBN 13: 9783447059725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 326