My friend who lives in Australia is a partly Turkish Cypriot. After the 1979 coup, her grandmother's village was destroyed by the Greeks. She and her husband escaped and their daughter later married another Turkish man who lives in Australia.
Her grandmother knows Turkish, English as well as fluent Greek. Before the events she had to use Greek to communicate with other people because their village was one of the only Turkish villages in that region. That's a pretty interesting fact in my opinion.
The coup was in 1974, not 1979. Also all TCs from that era were bilingual in Cypriot Greek (not necessarily the standard variety) and Cypriot Turkish, the communities didn't leave separately prior to 1974. Many TCs from the Paphos side of Troodos (Axylou, Amargeti, Houlou etc), northwestern Paphos (Laona villages close to Akamas), and Tillyria were native speakers of Cypriot Greek and learned Turkish at school.
Also all TCs from that era were bilingual in Cypriot Greek (not necessarily the standard variety) and Cypriot Turkish, the communities didn't leave separately prior to 1974.
After the Bloody Christmas, most Turkish-Cypriot communities lived seperately from from the Greeks. Not in different states, but walled off and armed enclaves. Similar to the situation in N. Ireland during the Troubles.
Not most, but a substantial amount of them did live in enclaves. Not all enclaves were fortified or walled-off, and TCs still commuted outside of them to go to work. GC police and the National Guard did impose strict screening measures until 1967 or so, but TCs would have still come in contact with GCs regularly. My late grandfather's boss in Nicosia (Pallouriotissa area in the southern portion) was a TC, for example.
There was contact between Catholics and Protestants during Troubles. I am pretty sure you would have been abele to find Protestants working for Catholics during Troubles. I didn't compare it to Apartheid South Africa or to current situation in Israel.
Of course there were relations. But the communities were deeply divided after Bloody Christmas. 25k TCs were displaced and moved to these communities. It wasn't sunshine and rainbows.
Sure, I'm not disputing there was a deep political divide (which eventually fermented the current situation), I'm just saying that the communities did not live wholly separately like post-1974 and until 2003. And because you mentioned this in light of my comments about language proficiency, I highlighted how the two communities still had regular everyday contact which facilitated it.
Also all TCs from that era were bilingual in Cypriot Greek (not necessarily the standard variety) and Cypriot Turkish, the communities didn't leave separately prior to 1974.
I was responding specifically to this part about communities not living seperately.
To say that Protestant and Catholic communities were not living seperately would be mostly incorrect eventhough the communties did interact.
fter the 1979 coup, her grandmother's village was destroyed by the Greeks. She and her husband escaped and their daughter later married another Turkish man who lives in Australia.
The dates might be wrong. There was coup in Cyprus in '67 which was followed with violence against Turks. There was also the Bloody Christmas in '64 which forced a lot of Turkish communities to essentially wall themselves in.
Then there was the coup in '74 which lead to the Turkish intervention.
Bloody Christmas (known as the "Turkish mutiny" in Greek Cypriot historiography) was in late 1963, not 1964. 1964 was when the majority of fighting happened between irregulars of both communities, and also when Turkey first intervened to bomb Tillyria during the battle of Kokkina.
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u/Alone-Struggle-8056 Oct 29 '24
My friend who lives in Australia is a partly Turkish Cypriot. After the 1979 coup, her grandmother's village was destroyed by the Greeks. She and her husband escaped and their daughter later married another Turkish man who lives in Australia.
Her grandmother knows Turkish, English as well as fluent Greek. Before the events she had to use Greek to communicate with other people because their village was one of the only Turkish villages in that region. That's a pretty interesting fact in my opinion.