The British refused to bow to terrorism. Instead, they created more by helping Turkish Cypriots form a Turkish resistance/guerrilla fighter group. Headed by Rauf Denktash, TMT (Türk Mukauemet Teskilati) was every bit as brutal as EOKA—and more violence was the result.
Nearly 80 percent of Cypriots wanted to unite with Greece, but nearly 20 percent did not—the Turkish Cypriots, who feared living in an even more Hellenized state, preferred taksim, a partitioned island with Brits running the place. Turkey, like Greece a new NATO member, was adamant. Turkey didn’t want Greece in the backyard at all. Assessing the options—allow Cyprus to be united with Greece (a move that would infuriate Turkish Cypriots and Turkey), or divide the island and keep her as a crown colony (which would infuriate Greek Cypriots)—the British authorities came up with a daft solution: make Cyprus free. Colonies worldwide were crying out for freedom, but Cyprus had to be forced to declare herself an independent country. Predictably, Britain was allowed to keep two military bases on the island as part of the deal. And enosis with Greece was outlawed.
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On August 16, 1960, Cyprus dejectedly proclaimed independence. Archbishop Makarios became president and Turkish Cypriot Rauf Denktash became VP as part of an elaborate power-sharing agreement. In 1963, President Makarios killed Turkish Cypriots’ veto power. Infuriated, Denktash led Turkish Cypriots out of government. Turkish Cypriots haven’t had a say in the running of the republic of Cyprus since.
EOKA attacked a Turkish Cypriot village in 1964, massacring dozens, and Turkey nearly sent in her air force. President Lyndon Johnson talked Turkey out of striking, threatening to stop providing Turkey with arms if she attacked. UN peacekeepers came in, but violence continued—in fact, thanks to Greece, it grew worse. In 1974, Greece was being run by an unpopular military junta. Trying to gain popular support by hitting the enosis chord, the junta backed a coup in Cyprus to forcefully unite Cyprus with Greece. EOKA briefly took over the government, and 3,000 Cypriots died in a bloody rampage. Five days later, 30,000 Turkish troops dropped out of the skies and marched in from the coast to stomp out the coup and avenge previous atrocities. Turkish soldiers ran nearly 200,000 Greek Cypriots out of the north, killing some 5,000. The Turks pushed all Turkish Cypriots to the north, and Turkish forces occupied the area, splitting the island into two ethnic parts. The fragmentation endures. Until 2003, neither group could cross the Green Line into the other section. Now, Greek Cypriots can enter Turkish Cyprus for day trips—and vice versa—but the two societies remain estranged.
In 2003, when both governments lifted the ban on crossing the Green Line, a total of 17,000 from both sides made the trip in the first three days.
In this land, where the common language appears to be disagreement, more and more Cypriots agree on one thing: they are sick of the schizophrenic lifestyle. Who knows when both sides will agree to a unification plan? But the sooner the better: this island is an overarmed powder keg, just waiting for another spark.
Hot Spots
Pafos: The famous Greek Cyprus harbor isn’t the biggest draw: the region’s real riches lay in her hinterland. Nea Pafos holds a treasure trove of Roman mosaics, discovered when a farmer plowed over them in 1962; and beyond medieval churches you’ll find Petra Tou Romiou, legendary birthplace of Aphrodite.
Aphrodite’s Love Rock: Temples to Aphrodite are scattered across Cyprus (and the Mediterranean), but the huge black rock found not far from Pafos must have been supercharged. Excavated in the 1950s, it revealed the existence of a love cult who had moved there and dedicated their lives to the goddess, imitating her wanton ways before the coal black boulder. Local Cypriots flocked there when the rock’s role was uncovered, leaving shreds of their knickers in front of it as a modern sex sacrifice, apparently hoping for an aphrodisiacal effect.
Limassol: This southern coastal area powers the tourism economy and is famous for her colorful Carnival celebration and raucous wine festivals. A bit into the countryside of cherry trees and monasteries, you’ll find Krassohoria—the old wine villages, where the dry red is made the old way.
Famagusta: Turkish Cypriots now occupy it, and Greek Cypriots call it “a ghost town”—but the G-Cypriots still hold outlying sandy beaches, including Ayia Napa, a fishing village turned tourist trap, and Protaras, a sailor’s paradise.
In recent years, many of the icon-rich Greek Orthodox churches in Turkish Cyprus have been demolished, ransacked, looted, and otherwise stripped of their treasures. While some is vandalism, smugglers are also at work: they’ve even peeled frescoes from the walls.
Mass graves: Their locations are secret, but Cypriot leaders sometimes mumble about revealing the whereabouts of the skeletons from 1974 battles, including at least some of the 2,000 or more Cypriots who have been missing (and presumed dead) for three decades.
Hotshots
Tassos Papadopoulos: President of the Republic of Cyprus, 2003–present. Many thought he was the perfect man to stitch Cyprus back together, but many were apparently dreaming. Instead, he encouraged Greek Cypriots to vote against reunification in the April 2004 referendum. That move tarnished his reputation internationally, and now the world is much more sympathetic to Turkish Cyprus than previously. That he’s still popular with Greek Cypriots doesn’t bode well for reunification.
Glafcos Clerides: President of Greek Cyprus, 1993–2003. He nearly provoked an ugly showdown in 1998 when he signed on for an antiaircraft defense system, but under international pressure—and threats of an attack from Turkey in response—opted not to deploy it.
Rauf Denktash: Vice President of (Unified) Cyprus, 1960–1963; president of Turkish Federated State, 1974–1983; founder and President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; 1983–2005. The Turkish Cypriot lawyer launched the antienosis resistance in the 1950s, loudly publicized the plight of Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s, walked out of the united government, and formed the republic in Northern Cyprus; he hasn’t done Turkish Cyprus any favors lately by dragging his feet on reunification, and letting international criminal fugitives and drug traffickers move in without fear of extradition. Sidelined in the 2004 election that brought pro-EU Mehmet Ali Talat to power.
Mehmet Ali Talat: Prime Minister, 2004–2005; President, 2005–present. Theoretical leader of the Turkish Cypriot government—which Greek Cypriots will remind you doesn’t really exist—Talat has tried to unify the island. But like everybody else in this scenario, he’s a pain in the neck: when the EU gave his government $300 million in aid, even though the Turkish north wasn’t even really part of the EU, Talat sniffed that it just wasn’t enough.
Archbishop Makarios: President of (unified) Cyprus, 1960–1977. Born in 1913, Makarios—as head of church and state—was a walking conflict of interest, as well as the most powerful man on Cyprus and in the Greek Orthodox world. A major supporter of enosis, he later dropped the idea—EOKA tried to assassinate him for that—and the man who was the Church’s most holy was rumored to be quite a ladies’ man as well. Always clad in black robes, his chest heaving with so many pendants that he looked like a walking jewelry display, charismatic Makarios kept Cyprus from entirely disintegrating in her most troubling times.
Makarios: Led church and state in troubled times
News you can understand: Lots of top-notch press here, including Cyprus Mail, www.cyprus-mail.com/news and Cyprus Weekly, www.cyprusweekly.com.cy
28. MALTA
Most Likely to Secede
FAST FACTS
Country: Republic of Malta; Repubblika ta’ Malta
Capital: Valletta
Government: Republic
Independence: September 21, 1964 (from UK)
Population: 400,300 (2004 estimate)
Head of State: President Eddie Fenech Adami (2004)
Head of Government: Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi (2004)
Elections: President appointed by house of representatives, five-year term; prime minister appointed by president, five-year term
Name of Parliament: Ho
use of Representatives
Ethnicity: Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians, Phoenicians)
Religion: 98% Roman Catholic
Language: Maltese and English (both official)
Literacy: 93% (2003)
Famous Exports: Knights and falcons
Per Capita GDP: $19,700 (2005)
Unemployment: 7.8% (January 2006 Eurostat figure)
EU Status: Entered May 2004
Currency: Maltese lira
Quick Tour
Gold-glowing palaces and square-shouldered forts peer down over glistening water, brightly colored buses bounce along cliff-hugging roads, restaurants serve up fish caught mere minutes before, and nearly half the year is a religious holiday: Malta’s festive nature, honey-hued beauty, and balmy weather are just a few of the reasons that so many crowd onto such a small rock, known as the historical home of the Knights of Malta and formerly as “the most heavily bombed place on earth.”
Most of Malta’s friendly inhabitants, all of whom speak English, are related.
MALTA VS. MALTA
Best to have a microscope handy if you want to find Malta on a world map: the five sun-drenched islets, together known as Malta, stretch out for a total of a mere 150 miles between Africa and Europe, making the archipelago appear to be a speck in the Mediterranean with a star. Malta is also the name of the largest island, which holds capital Valletta. The other islands are Gozo and Comino; Comminotto and Filfla are virtually uninhabited pebbles.
Maltese, an Arabic-derived language peppered with Italian, is a remnant of the Phoenician settlers who arrived here from Lebanon. Almost every village in Malta has her own dialect.
Granted, apart from exploring ancient temples, strolling through courtyards where songbirds twitter, touring palaces, and flopping around on the beach, there’s not much to do on sleepy Malta, where “Empty Wasp Nest Found in Attic” is literally headline news. Of course, you could go to mass here—she’s one of the world’s most devout Catholic countries, where over 70 percent regularly attend church and women still don black shawls; some Maltese still ritualistically kiss loaves of bread before slicing them. If there in spring or fall, you could always go hunting—a favored island activity, even more thrilling from speedboats.
BIRD CRAZY
There are about three trees on the islands, hence Malta has few native birds. Twice a year, however, the sky is thick with huge flocks of thrushes, turtle doves, quail, and woodcock winging from Africa to Europe and back six months later. You’d think the birds might have figured out an alternate route, because every time they pass over Malta, hunters are waiting; thousands of the feathered creatures drop out of the sky hourly becoming that night’s dinner or next week’s mounted wall piece. Some 3 million birds are shot or captured while flying over Malta each year, a practice that has environmentalists cawing about the fate of the migratory birds. Hunting, however, is a time-honored activity on the food-short island, and they ain’t stopping it now.
Fears that the EU might clamp down on hunting caused a huge flap, and islanders nearly shot down the idea of joining up with the European Union. The prospect of becoming an EU member was a highly charged issue that brought back memories of when Malta—a British colony during World War II—was little more than a dispensable island. An attractive target, since she was dotted with British bases, Malta was pummeled by German bombs for two and a half years.
THE ATTACK ON MALTA
Britain ran it, Italy wanted it, and Germany knew that if Allied forces continued to use Malta as a naval base, North Africa could never be taken. The attacks on the Mediterranean islands started in June 1940, but the most vicious siege began on January 16, 1941, after Hitler ordered that Malta be “neutralized.” For the next five months, air-raid sirens blared nonstop and the sky rained bombs, in the longest continuous daily bombardment of the war. With Nazis soaring down to drop their payload in half a dozen sorties a day, the red flag that alerted islanders to another incoming enemy plane was constantly flying over the Governor’s Palace and the skyline of domed churches soon crumbled. The pitifully armed Maltese tried to fight back using the island’s three decrepit biplanes—locals named them Faith, Hope, and Charity. Shelters were hastily created in the colony, which had been taken by surprise. Moats were transformed into ditches, caves became homes, and hundreds of bomb shelters were chiseled out of the limestone hills. Thousands died in the bombings. Food supplies ran out, and many of the islanders nearly starved to death, since food-carrying convoys were routinely sunk en route to Malta. British forces took months to show up and take their place next to the fighting Maltese. The Allies, whose bases had made the island a target, did not initially consider Malta worth saving.
In 1943, both King George VI and President Roosevelt arrived on “Siren Island” to personally honor the Maltese whom they’d mostly abandoned during the siege. The British king presented the George Cross for Heroism to Malta—“the most heavily bombed place on earth”1—marking the first time the medal was ever presented to a nation; Roosevelt gave the Maltese a plaque. But despite all the hoopla and kind words, Malta—wiped out physically and economically—didn’t get a penny of aid then or after the war. Britain refused to turn Marshall Aid funding over to her colony Malta despite the heavy damage. Being cut off from money she needed for reconstruction—and that the feisty Maltese deserved—ultimately led to Malta declaring independence. The archipelago has bounced along a bumpy road ever since.
The fierce debate over EU entry did beg the question of why the European Union wanted to include far-flung Malta in the first place. Is the EU interested in the oil that might lie off Malta’s coast? Did they want to extend official European borders closer to Africa? Do they feel guilty for Malta being ravaged during the Second World War? Or is it again really a matter of military and transport: are the EU planners thinking that sometime in the future it might be handy to use her as a fortress again—or at least as a strategic site to guard western Mediterranean sea lanes? Why would the EU care so much about bringing in Malta, a far-yonder rock with scanty natural resources, that Brussels offered her more exemptions than anywhere else? One thing you can be sure of: they don’t plan on tapping Malta for her lumber. There’s barely enough to construct a toothpick.
History Review
Never mind that she has scarce water and poor soil, and that the only bountiful resource is limestone: with her boulder-strewn beauty, Malta—the only pit stop between today’s Libya and Sicily—has lured in just about everybody who sailed by over the past 7,000 years. Neolithic peoples who worshipped fertility goddesses were among the first inhabitants who climbed up and began rearranging the rocks; some of the dozens of temples they left are crude, Stonehenge-like assemblages; others, such as the Hypogeum, are elaborate subterranean affairs that have archaeologists baffled about how they could have been created with crude tools.
Excavated with obsidian and flint, the subterranean 500-square-meter Hypogeum—discovered in 1902—was a place of worship and burial ground, which may have taken centuries to construct. Few clues are left about exactly who created the multistory temple of echo chambers, statuettes, and caves but whoever it was, they mysteriously disappeared around 2500 BC.
Home to Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Sicilians, Normans, Arabs, and Genoese over the next few thousand years, Malta was also the site where St. Paul was shipwrecked in AD 60—another reason why some regard the land as divine. Spiritual seekers and religious pilgrims say that Malta is one of the world’s centers of cosmic power.
Winding up in the hands of Spaniards in the fourteenth century, geographical hand-me-down Malta was passed on to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, then running Spain. He changed Malta’s history when he gave the island to Knights Hospitallers in 1530 with a mandate that they calm the pirate-plagued waters that were proving treacherous to Spain’s gold-filled ships. The sixteenth-century Knights Hospitallers (aka Knights of Malta) left the most indelible mark on the land: the capital, Vallet
ta, is dense with their Renaissance and Baroque palaces, and they spread the faith around just as thickly. All of Malta is heaving with churches—over 320 of them, some lavishly decorated, others hidden in caves.
The knights were Catholic, but were none too happy to find that Malta had an Inquisition Board on the island. Inquisitors looked askance at the Knights’ possession of banned books and general amnesia about their vows of poverty and chastity. Nevertheless, the Inquisition typically took aim at the locals: Muslim slaves were among those accused of invoking Satan with magical spells, but even the villager who ate meat on Fridays might be hauled before the board and flogged.
THE DAYS OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA
What Every American Should Know About Europe Page 48