Joyce Glasser reviews The Divided Island (November 1, 2024) Cert 15, 90 mins.
How many families on a package holiday or honeymooners enjoying the beaches of Cyprus think about its strategic location at the Eastern most end of the Mediterranean, at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa? How many even know about the broken treaties, coup d’etats, troop invasions, bloodshed, mass graves, rapes, hostage taking, displaced residents and the lasting trauma that is part of the island’s recent history and a major impediment to unification? How many, in short know why Nicosia is the only divided capital left in Europe?
To mark the 50th anniversary of the partition of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot director Cey Sesiguzel and Greek Cypriot co-producer Andreas Tokkallos make a credible stab at the near impossible task of informing us. Their aim is to tell the impartial and definitive story of the island (a full semesters or year-long history course) before leaving us to ponder how or even whether the island can ever be united.
Until the 16th century, when the Ottomans conquered the island, bringing over a significant Turkish community, the majority of the inhabitants on this much conquered island were Greek speaking. That said, for four hundred years the majority languages and religions, Christian and Muslim, co-existed peacefully.
Older interviewees recall that before 1963 Turkish and Greek Cypriot children played together, families shared traditional holiday foods, and shops were frequented by all inhabitants who shared the island. In reality peaceful co-existence was often determined by outside forces, primarily changes in the administration of Cyprus and, on the Greek side, the goal of unification with Greece.
The Greeks argued they had been in Cyprus for thousands of years; the majority language is Greek and Greek Cypriots comprise about 75% of the population. But the Turkish Cypriots had been lawfully settled in Cyprus for four centuries and although only 18% of the population, Cyprus is just a short ferry ride from Turkey.
In 1821 Greece gained its independence from the Ottomans and the early seeds of “Enosis” (the Union of Greece and Cyprus) were planted. This movement intensified when, in 1878, the Ottoman Turks granted control of Cyprus to Great Britain in gratitude for British intervention against the Russian threat to Constantinople.
It was a gift Britain could not refuse. In 1878 Britain was an empire focused on India, the Jewel in the Crown. The Suez Canal had opened a decade earlier and Cyprus made an ideal base from which to control trade (all that tea!) through the Canal.
Turkey made the mistake of siding with Germany in 1914, and with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey redrew its borders and ceded sovereignty to Britain.
We begin to detect a pattern of action and reaction, in the history we hear, based on fear of the other side gaining control. This becomes particularly obvious and complicated in the 1950s, when the popular new Greek Orthodox Archbishop Makarios enters the scene in Cyprus, petitioning the UN to grant self-determination to Cyprus. This would lead to the union of Cyprus with Greece in any referendum. Naturally, the Turkish Cypriots were opposed, as was Britain that had made Cyprus its base in the Middle East.
The UN, which still maintains a buffer zone between the Turkish Cypriots in the North and the Greeks in the South, was in a bind. Both Turkey and Greece had been recently admitted to the UN and were important geographically. Even today, many feel the area is a tinderbox, waiting to ignite into war.
Makarios joined forces with Greek Soldier and nationalist, George Grivas, the head of EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), to oppose the British, and defy their laws against demonstrations calling for unification with Greece. Makarios returned from exile in 1958, seemingly appeased. Britain granted Cyprus independence on 16 August 1960 under a complex power sharing agreement.
But three years later Makarios, who signed the constitution reluctantly, was calling for 13 amendments, the effect of which would weaken Turkish Cypriot protections. In reaction, the Turkish Cypriot Taksim movement, calling for partition, spread and The Turkish Resistance Movement (TMT), began tit for tat attacks to counter those of the Greek paramilitary organisation EOKA (later EOKA-B).
The film contends that partition began in December 1963 when a Greek Cypriot patrol stopped an innocent Turkish Cypriot couple for no reason. The Greek Cypriots went on a campaign of massacres, rape and hostage taking that lasted nearly a decade. The Turkish Cypriots abandoned their homes to relocate for protection. Of 30,000 Cypriots displaced between December ’63 and August ’64, 25,000 were Turkish and of those, 23,000 remained in the enclaves until 1974, suffering from what was in effect a Greek blockade of food and supplies
The last big date to remember is 15 July 1974. A coup in Cyprus ordered by the new military junta in Athens overthrew Makarios and sought unification. In response, Turkey intervened militarily and revenge attacks against the Greek Cypriots began. The Turkish army took control of 36% of the island (up from 3%) and it’s still there.
This woefully simplified outline is not told as such in the film, which parcels out its excellent research and information through a variety of talking heads, horrific eye-witness stories, and occasional video footage, making it difficult to assemble. Sometimes, too, you wish the filmmakers would forego impartiality for some analysis and opinion, as it certainly seems that the Greek Cypriot leaders were playing with a loaded deck, the Turkish Cypriots were patient, and Turkey was provoked.
Maps showing us the towns referred to by the speakers would be helpful, as would a timeline of the major events. Speakers introduced early on in the film might be recaptioned when they reappear so we can recall who they are.
The irony is that, as historian and professor Andrekos Varnava explains, genetic studies show there is very little difference between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on the male line. They share a connection that’s pre-Ottoman and are most closely connected to four groups: Jewish, Lebanese, Southern Italian and Armenian. And the connections are more on class lines than religion lines.
