Talk:History of Cyprus

Old text from March 2002
Is "the retor Ciceron" our friend Cicero?

You are right. I will correct it.

Church of Cyprus
I'm not a historian--so this bit may be perfectly clear to anyone who is--but paragraphs 4 & 5 seem to conflict. Can someone explain the parts about the Church of Cyprus gaining independence? Thanks, --KQ 21:17 Sep 21, 2002 (UTC) ?

Phoenicians, Kition
There is no mention of Phoenician colonization, only Greek. Kition at least should be mentioned. D.E. Cottrell 09:51, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Khirokitia
There is also no mention of Khirokitia. It must be one of the oldest archeological sites in the island (around 6000BC). Anarxia 11:17, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Prehistory
The whole prehistory could do with a lot of expansion, maybe I`ll get around to do it... --Yak 15:45, Mar 2, 2004 (UTC)

Amathus
I did not know how to fit in the ancient city of Amathus in the new version. Is it Mycenean or phoenician? --Yak 09:01, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)

Publius Claudius Pulcher
Publius Claudius Pulcher here is certainly not the same as in the Battle of Drepana. Any Romanist who can disambiguate this? --217.245.191.165 15:19, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

page reorg
This page is getting pretty long. Does it make sense to break it into three sub-sections, corresponding roughly to


 * 1) Prehistory
 * 2) Ancient history
 * 3) Modern history

We could keep the chronology section then give links to the new sections, maybe with a synopsis paragraph for each. Mmm 03:17, Jun 5, 2004 (UTC)
 * good idea. Could we somehow link it like the history of France series? I was never very happy with the chronology section. It might be a good idea to incorporate some of the material into the text and reduce it to a chronological table with only short text - lots of work, of course

--Yak 10:31, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I have moved the prehistory to a separate page (Cyprus, prehistory) - a suggestion for the reorganization. Please comment! The flag would have to be replaced by a nice picture, haven't found anything yet, horned god of Enkomi, maybe, if there is a free picture. How do I get a more brownish red? Gow 17:38, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The Knights Templar
"He (Richard the Lionhearted) sold the island (Cyprus) to the Knights Templar, before they moved to Rhodes and finally to Malta."

The Knights Templar never moved away from Cyprus before their order was abolished in the early 1300's. The person who wrote this must have meant the Hospitallers, therefore I will change this matter.

summary for the main page
Someone should summarize the pre-1960 Cyprus history in a few paragraphs and add it to Cyprus. TIA. --Joy &#91;shallot&#93;   21:27, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

RE: summary for the main page
Pre-1571 Cyprus history added. Pro-Turkish historical inaccuracies corrected.


 * re Cypro-Cretan period etc.: should mythology and history not be kept apart? I find this melange extremely annoying and uninformative


 * The Greeks believed it to be history and showed the graves and ancestor temples of these people to visitors. All the kings of Cyprus could trace their ancestry back to Teucer, Agapenor and Kinyras and even the bible mentions one of the Kinyradae, Kethimus (Kittim). From Pygmalion the chronology follows Ovid's Metamorphosis, Apollodorus Bibliothiki and Jerome's Chronicon. Prior to that it follows Plato (Symposium, Critias, Timeaus).

Greek sources partly moved to Ancient Greek History of Cyprus.


 * There is still no summary of this article at Cyprus. --Wetman 02:59, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

timeline
If hard-pressed, I will admit the National importance of 'The earliest wimemaking in the Mediterranean' though I think it should go to wine-making. But the first perfume-factory (reference?) definitely belongs into the main-article ancient history, not the time-line. The domesticated status of the Shillourokambos-cat is by no means sure. The fascinating thing about the PPNB-settlement is that they definitely introduced wild animals like fallow deer and even foxes, no small feat in small boats. If Argyrosargyrou is so important in firsts, maybe a list of "things first inventend in Cyprus" would do? Gow 17:30, 21 May 2005 (UTC)


 * "This is 4,000 years old. Without a doubt, it is the oldest production site for perfume in the world," said Italian archeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, team leader of a mission excavating the Pyrgos-Mavroraki site 55 miles southwest of Cyprus's capital Nicosia." Cyprus Mail Mar 6, 2005 / Scotsman 25 Feb 2005


 * Thanks! I'll shift the reference to MBA (misplaced it in EBA!) Gow 11:40, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Kissinger and the CIA
"1974: On 15 July the military government (junta) in Greece with the support of the CIA and American national security advisor Henry Kissinger orders a coup by the Greek National guard to overthrow Makarios who they see as being too pro-Russian."

This isn't a place for Hitchens' claims, though I personally don't know the extent of the accuracy of this statement. In any case the Greek junta had their own nationalist agenda for provoking the coup, so mentions of CIA support for said junta is out of place in this context. The junta's opposition to Makarios certainly wasn't Cold War-related stuff like "too pro-[Soviet]" J. Parker Stone 07:55, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Movement of Turkish Cypriots into Enclaves
This is virtually overlooked by everyone. Prior to 1963, the Turkish Cypriots owned over 30% of the land, by the time they had moved into enclaves they were in possession of just 3% of the land. It is false to say that they did this to deprive the Greek Cypriots of rent and labour. I have spoken to many people that moved into the enclaves and they all owned houses and land, and left behind the villages they had lived in for generations.

--Son of the Tundra 09:10, 27 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I've been doing some reading and what it seems that the reason for the enclaves is that the Turkish Cypriots were getting ready for partition from such an early time in Cyprus' independence, the reason why the TMT were insistant in uprooting their people out of their homes. If this is true, then why would the Greek population help in the process if this would have led to the exact opposite of what they wanted, Takism.  And that is what happened, isn't it?  You're thoughts and KNOWLEDGE please, not your emotions so we can finally fix this debated issue.

Fact: Turkish Cypriots lived in enclaves for 11 years, from 1963 to 1974.

Fact: The enclaves were embargoed by the Greek Cypriot authorities.

Fact: The UN attempted to provided food and medicine to the Enclaves.

It seems wholly reasonable to include these facts in the timeline.

--Son of the Tundra 08:23, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

In a sense you are both right. The movement and maintenance of the TCs in the enclaves had multiple causes. Paramilitary Greek Cypriot organizations killed and terrorized Turkish Cypriots during the Bloody Christmas, causing TC civilians to leave their homes and go to areas under the control of the TMT. At the same period the TC political leadership leaves parliamentary positions, and never returns. The state, now ran by Greek Cypriots entirely, has an interest in maintaining the enclaves and reducing the influence of the TCs as much as possible from political life. The TMT, having its own plans for taksim, enforced through violence and terror to TC civilians (except of course TMT supporters) their isolation in the enclaves, from Greek Cypriot friends, and prohibits them from shopping from GC stores outside the enclaves or speaking the Greek Cypriot dialect. This is the basic background on the enclaves, and it must be included, it is part of Cypriot history and had an enormous effect on the relation between the two communities in the second half of the 20th century and Cypriot history and politics. Unfortunately I have no sources where I am right now, but back home, I do have a number of reliable history books (modern ones as well) that refer to the enclaves and their formation. This is a part of Cyprus history (1960-1974) that has been neglected and has been suppressed in Cypriot historiography because of political motives and propaganda. --Tco03displays (talk) 20:46, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

The name
I eliminated this section, as: a) the information does not seem deserving of its own section, at least not one at the very begining, b) the information is covered eslewhere under etymology, and c)the name of the section implies a discussion of the name of Cyprus, not that of copper. Israelite9191 22:13, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I have re included the name section because the name of the island is an integral part of its history, arguably if the island did not have rich copper ores it most probably would not gain the importance it did in the area at the specific time period. Aristovoul0s 14:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

modern age history Greek coup
In response to a Greek-backed coup attempting to unify the island with Greece Is this true? Citation, source? Logictheo (talk) 12:23, 4 September 2008 (UTC)
 * This is disputed. Turkey stated this as the official reason (to protect TCs from the Greek Junta). Ioannidis (the Junta dictator) stated that the USA had made it clear to him that no intervention from Turkey would come, and accused the US for betrayal. Other historians state that Turkey had plans for the invasion of Cyprus for years and was just looking for an excuse. And even more complex analyses refer to the Cold War, and the USA's interest in ending the confrontation between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, because it could lead to a war that would destabilize USA's influence over the Mediterranean sea, allowing the Soviets to move south and attempt to gain further influence and even a direct access point to the Mediterranean (a strategic goal of the Russians since the Tsars). In this context the division of Cyprus into 2 parts indicates a de-facto solution to the above dilemma. It is a complex subject.--Tco03displays (talk) 20:53, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Timeline
Hi all

I have just tagged the section with a confusing/unclear tag

There are many references to LC IIc and LCIB etc. which confuse even me and I am fairly au fait with dates and ages. I have asked one of my friends, a Doctor of Archaeology to get involved with this but it may be a while before he can spare enough time to make a difference.

Is it possible that someone in the meantime could make/design a time-line as well as going through and standardising the dates

I suggest using LC IIB (1200 BCE) or similar at the start of the paras so that those unfarmiliar with LC IC and LC IB can easily see to which dates they refer.

I will attempt to do some myself but do not wish to make mistakes that would leave to even more confusion

Thanks --Chaosdruid (talk) 05:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC) PS - found this which has text from the page villas History of cyprus

Missing 400 Hundred Years
There seems to be about 400 years of history missing between the 15th and the 19th centuries.

I can guess why this might be, but don't know as I don't know much about the specific history of Cyprus. I guess there may be some dispute about specifics, but if we can manage pages for other parts of the world, can't we do so for Cyprus? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.111.27.50 (talk) 15:36, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Yup - the Ottoman section has disappeared. I have recreated the section header and will start to fill it later. I have already put a synopsis of the Enosis roots. Chaosdruid (talk) 23:29, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Ottoman Cyprus
Excellent article, really enjoyed it. It captures the full sweep of Cypriot history but for the Ottoman period which just has a link. For the casual reader might it be better if there was a summary of Ottoman rule with a link, rather than just a link? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.127.31.226 (talk) 17:11, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Slow edit war
I notice that there is a slow edit was going on.

The issues that I can see mentioned so far are:


 * 1) Poor English on the part of the new editor User:ΣΠΑΡΤΙΑΤΗΣ (Spartiates). In particular, I note a confusion between the verbs "leave" and "live". This should be something that is fixable.
 * 2) The lack of sources. I think Spartiates is trying to mention one in the edit summaries. Maybe if he/she could mention it here, someone could attempt to put it into a Wikipedia format. I also note that some of the text he/she removed is unreferenced. As it has been challenged, it needs referencing.
 * 3) Allegedly anti-Greek propaganda. I have heard that archeology in Cyprus is quite politicised and that archeologists who want to excavate non-Greek pre-historic sites are much more able to do this in the North than in the South. The measure of what should be included is not which side in the current political disputes it most suits but what is available in WP:Reliable sources and that information should receive WP:DUE weight.
 * 4) I also notice that the section as a whole has been tagged since February 2009 as rather inaccessible.

Are there any other issues that I have missed?--Peter cohen (talk) 22:11, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned references in History of Cyprus
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of History of Cyprus's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "ReferenceC": From Kition: Excerpt of text on the only plaque at the Kathari site (as of 2013). From History of North Korea:  From History of India: Oxford History of India – Vincent Smith From Foreign relations of Cyprus:  From Greek War of Independence: Brewer, David The Greek War of Independence, London: Overlook Duckworth, 2011 pages 169. From Bronze Age:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 14:38, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Plundering by Raynald of Châtillon
In the article of Raynald of Châtillon it is said that he plundered the island in 1155/6: Cyprus would never entirely recover from the devastation that Raynald's and Thoros's marauding raid caused. If someone has the knowledge, it would be nice to have this mentioned on this page, as well as the extent of the damages done if there are any sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Orgyn (talk • contribs) 21:01, 3 September 2020 (UTC)