When will Cypriots finally drop the prefix?

BY ALKAN CHAGLAR

Today most Cypriots accept the nomenclature "Greek or Turkish Cypriot." A minority actually believe they are Greeks or Turks. But by contrast, you rarely hear Maronites, Armenians or Latins referring to themselves as Maronite or Latin Cypriots. Nor do you hear more recent arrivals from other European countries refer to themselves as _____-Cypriots. So why are the numerically larger Greek and Turkish Cypriots obsessed with prefixes? While it is normal to use the terms when speaking about the communities specifically, why do some Cypriots only use prefixes? And will Greek/ Turkish Cypriots ever become just plain Cypriots?

FEAR BREEDS PREFIXES
Prefix identities in Cyprus are closely linked to the implantation and development of alien Greek and Turkish nationalisms. Unimaginable now, there was a time when Cypriots never defined themselves as either “Greek or Turkish Cypriots.” Ottoman civic society used building blocks created by religion. For some Cypriots like the Crypto-Christian “Linobambaki” they could identify themselves as both Muslim and Christian! In many ways the religious description was more apt as not all Christians were necessarily Greek and not all Muslims Turkish.
However, following the effects of the Greek War of Independence and the creation of modern day Turkey on some externally educated Cypriots the British colonial administration decided to import Greek and Turkish language teachers from abroad to the detriment of a Cypriot identity. Attempts were made to employ the terms “Greek and Turk” as ethnonyms for the first time. Totally in line with British policy then and encouraged by the Church, this led to a mixture of nationalist teaching, expectations of the newly converted, and even “Speak Turkish only” orders backed by externally sponsored paramilitary groups. These nationalists would have preferred Cypriots to define themselves as just Greeks or Turks but this never caught on- Cypriots could not abandon being Cypriot completely. Many older Cypriots inform me that they would have been lynched had they called themselves Cypriots decades earlier. Even today, those who refuse to use the prefix and who define themselves as Cypriot without prefix are accused of treachery. Predictably, the prefixes used by Cypriots today were thus born out of this fear.

NEED TO PAY HOMAGE
To entrench the idea of using prefixes, history books were encouraged to find Hellenic or Turkish roots. Consequently, today many Cypriots believe adding the Greek or Turkish prefix is necessary as a historical homage of one’s Greekness or Turkishness. However, if you actually read a variety of sources on the origins of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, it is disputable whether the bulk of today’s Greek Cypriots are from the Mycenaeans or whether Turkish Cypriots descend from the Ottoman Turks. Language does not necessarily act as a clue either in tracing our ancestry. Certainly neither Mycenaeans nor Ottomans would have defined themselves as Greeks or Turks either. If anything, Cyprus’ heritage is extremely mixed with Phoenicians, Venetians and Arabs to name but a few. Which culture do you think Cypriots should pay homage to?
But even if you insist and you have 100% proof that you are of Hanafi Sunni Muslim Turkish origin going all the way back to the Kokturks of Otuken, impossibility, then this does not mean you are less Cypriot. You can be Cypriot with Turkish ancestry. There is nothing wrong with expressing curiosity into one’s heritage, genealogy provides excitement to millions living in the United States but to use this as an argument to exclude yourself and your community from Cypriots as a whole is divisive and serves no real purpose. No heritage should be portrayed as superior or exceptional.

PUNISHMENT?
Yet for some Turkish Cypriots, particularly one’s with a chip on their shoulder the prefix is used out of anger. It is used since because it is believed most Cypriots of Greek descent do not consider them Cypriots. One friend reminded me “99% of Greek Cypriots in Cyprus consider you a foreigner.” How did he arrive at that figure I wondered. But then I asked, who are you actually punishing by adding the prefix, a couple of bigots or yourself? Surely, by excluding oneself from using the term Cypriot you are surrendering your right to Cyprus and to all things Cypriot. In fact as an indigenous community, they have every right to use the term Cypriot and take ownership of the whole island and everything that is Cypriot. Besides do you want an identity built on a chip off your shoulder?

TRADITION
For some Cypriots the use if Prefix has became a tradition which is ill-equipped to deal with modern day inter-breeding and often leading to tongue twister definitions of identity. A friend called Manouk told me “I’m a quarter Maronite quarter Turkish Cypriot, quarter Armenian and a quarter Greek Cypriot.” But you’re Cypriot? I asked. He paused for a second: “Yes.” I wondered whether compartmentalising his identity into quarters was really necessary. I did not ask him to reveal his mixed heritage and nor did it change my perception of him.
NEED FOR EXTRA INFORMATION
But for some Cypriots extra information by way of prefix is essential as if it would make all the difference in their perception of the person to whom they are speaking. An elderly gentleman recently came to visit me and demanded to know: “What I was?” Every time I said “Cypriot,” he asked me again. Eventually after the seventh time he became vexed and then asked the question again this time changing the tone of his voice. “Yes, but what are you?” he repeated. “I’m British Cypriot” I said, suddenly remembering that I am as much British as Cypriot. With racist undertones he would not accept my right to be Cypriot; I had to be either Greek or Turk, but who does this clarification serve I wondered. I felt an identity was being imposed upon me beyond my control and wishes. I wondered what life must be like for Maronites, Latins or Armenians. Where do they fit into this “one or the other” identity? And what about all the hybrids with Russians, Africans, Philippinos, British Cypriots?

FALSE COMPARISONS
But still some claim prefix identities are obligatory. Such enthusiasts of prefixes cite the common use of the terms “Italian-Americans.” But it is important not to imitate other communities whose circumstances may be very different to our own. For former immigrant communities like the Italian-Americans the prefix indicates a cultural and linguistic cord with Italy from where the community immigrated within the last century. Italian-Americans hyphenate because it denotes that they have two cultures -- the one they grew up in and the one they adopted. Their experience is one of acceptance of living in a country of a different language, and culture. Integrated now, the community is still young enough to listen to the tales of grand parents who came from Italy and to maintain family ties with Italy. There are no doubt correlations with the more recent arrivals from Sri Lanka or Thailand to Cyprus but with Cypriots? Cypriots of Greek and Turkish decent are indigenous; they have lived in Cyprus for 2000 years. Their culture is unmistakably Cypriot. Surely, if we are to compare anybody to Greek or Turkish Cypriots, then it would be the Native Americans.

TIME TO LET GO OF YOUR PREFIXES
Is it not time to let go of our prefixes? An article I read recently in “Canada Post” described how 75% of Canadians did not know or even want to know their origins, for them being Canadian was hard enough. Clearly in Canada, another young country people have moved on. But Cypriots still have some way to go. Perhaps a solution will help, but do you really have to wait until a political deal is brokered, signed on paper and sealed before you embrace being Cypriot with all its variations? Is it not enough that our Cypriot culture crosses these artificial ‘Greek and Turkish ethnic lines everyday.’
Who cares if your mother tongue is Greek or Turkish or if you are technically a Christian or a Muslim? Most young Cypriots speak multiple languages nowadays and are Atheist. But even if you are a devout Muslim or Bible-bashing Christian, religious Cypriots have tended to always get along too. For those who claim our common culture and other similarities are born from the fact that ‘Greeks’ and ‘Turks’ in Cyprus coexisted are misguided. These are not similarities or mere consequences but growing evidence that we ‘Greek and Turkish Cypriots’ are ultimately all Cypriot. So why do we create unnecessary divisions and then complain about our division to the world? When nation building the language we use is extremely powerful and changing the way we describe ourselves will gradually help change our attitudes towards each other thus laying the foundations of a future country.