هذا التقرير متاح أيضًا بـ العربية
The Republic of Cyprus is one of the more contentious examples when it comes to the condition of Muslims. The division it has endured for more than 50 years between north and south has, in one way or another, been reflected in the circumstances of the Muslim community, most of whom are of Turkish origin.
Muslims make up more than 98 percent of Northern Cyprus, which was established in 1975 following the military “peace operation” launched by the Turkish army on the island in 1974 in response to Greek Cypriot persecution of Turkish Muslims. It was officially declared in 1983 with recognition from Türkiye alone, amid international rejection.
That problem, one of the most prominent inherited ethnic-political crises of the 20th century, has cast a dark shadow over Muslims in the north, who suffer from southern racism that has at times reached the level of systematic targeting and unjust siege, were it not for Türkiye’s continued support for Turkish Cypriots.
Cyprus’s strategic geopolitical location has long whetted the appetite of global powers, past and present. Its proximity to Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant, along with its natural wealth — especially the recently discovered gas — has made it a target of international competition.
Whoever controls it gains a foothold on the flank of the Middle East, turning it into an arena for proxy war that in some cases has amounted to a religious conflict between the church, represented by Europe and the West, and Islam, represented by Türkiye.
Cyprus’s population is estimated at about 1.2 million, according to 2020 statistics. Greeks make up 77 percent, compared with 18 percent Turkish Muslims, while the remaining 5 percent consists of other ethnic and religious groups. Still, there are doubts about the accuracy of those ratios given the differing views of the island’s two major national communities, Greek and Turkish.
The island is divided into two independent republics: the northern republic, known as the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” which occupies 35 percent of the island and has its capital in Lefkoşa; and the southern part, the “Republic of Cyprus,” which accounts for 65 percent of the territory and has its capital in Nicosia.
Islam in Cyprus
Cyprus’s connection to Islam dates back to the earliest era of conquest, when Muslims opened the Levant (633-640 CE). The coastal region, including the island of Cyprus, remained a barrier between the Muslim army led by Amr ibn al-As and the Byzantines, who used the area as a gateway for military supplies in their war against the Muslims.
Muslims at the time recognized the importance of the region as the key to the Levant, one that had to be wrested from Byzantine hands to ensure that Muslims there could remain safe and free from Byzantine harassment.
The Muslims repeatedly sought support from the larger garrison in Damascus, then under the command of Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan. This was followed by another request from Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who ruled the Levant after the death of his brother Yazid, to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, but he postponed responding in order to ensure the safe return of the Muslim armies and avoid drawing them into other dangerous battles. The request was repeated again under Uthman ibn Affan, who followed Umar’s approach.
After prolonged insistence from Muawiya, Uthman ultimately agreed, and in 647 Muslims entered the island. Its leader, however, sought a truce with the Muslim army in exchange for an annual payment in return for protection, along with a pledge not to interfere in the Muslims’ wars with the Byzantines.
Five years after that truce, the Cypriots turned against it by siding with the Byzantines, helping them and supplying them with ships in their war against Muawiya in the Levant. The Muslim commander at the time responded by invading the island, conquering it and annexing it to the Islamic state. The conquest was carried out by a force of 500 ships and more than 12,000 fighters, making Cyprus an Islamic island in 652.
Three centuries under the Ottomans
The Cypriots did not tire of provoking Muslims by repeatedly backing the Byzantines in attacks on Muslim ships, prompting Harun al-Rashid (677-809) to reconquer the island during the period 790-805. But Muslims soon lost control of it during the Crusades led by England’s King Richard I, known as “the Lionheart,” leaving the island suspended between Muslims and Byzantines.
In 1571, the Ottoman Turks conquered Cyprus, and it became wholly Ottoman territory. The island remained under Ottoman rule for three full centuries until 1878, when the British occupied it and forced the Ottoman state to accept that occupation through the treaty known as the “Quadruple Alliance.”
Despite the end of Ottoman rule in Cyprus, large numbers of Turks remained on the island, concentrated in both the north and south. They became victims of racism, targeting and the historical resentment of Cypriots loyal to Greece, turning into easy targets for killing and abuse, which pushed Türkiye to intervene in their defense on the one hand and in defense of its own interests on the other.
On July 20, 1974, Türkiye launched the “Cyprus Peace Operation,” sending military forces to the island to end the oppression of Turks and establish peace. The operation prevented Greece from annexing Cyprus, which was then divided into two parts: a north aligned with Türkiye and a south aligned with Greece.
The following year, the two sides reached a population exchange agreement under U.N. auspices. Nearly 120,000 Greeks migrated from the northern part to the south, while 65,000 Turks moved from the south to the north. The two republics are separated by a central zone stretching 180 kilometers.
After consultations and political and media wrangling, the northern part, invoking the right of “self-determination,” formally declared independence and became the Turkish Republic of Cyprus in November 1983. That independence was recognized only by Ankara, while other international powers withheld recognition.
The issue has remained one of the most prominent ethnic-political crises of the 20th century after all attempts at unity or at reaching a federal formula that would preserve each side’s political, social and economic rights failed.
Turkish Cypriots and efforts to preserve identity
Turkish Cypriots are trying to hold on to their identity despite the pressure they face from the south, backed by Greece. Without warning, they found themselves a primary target of Greek Cypriot revenge from Nicosia, which treats the northern republic as a purely Turkish city that must be confronted by every possible means, even though its people are among the island’s original inhabitants.
Although the northern republic is, according to its constitution, secular first and foremost, 98 percent of its population is Muslim, compared with 1 percent Christian and 0.1 percent Jewish. Even so, the state has not intervened to impose any creed or sect on its people, something reflected in figures showing that thousands of Muslims converted to Christianity, according to 2010 reports.
Under the economic blockade imposed by the south on the north’s residents, the services sector health, trade, tourism and education accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, while industry contributes 22 percent. The island’s northern part lacks major economic resources, unlike the southern republic.
Northern Cyprus relies primarily on Turkish support to meet its obligations toward its residents. The country is fundamentally tied to the Turkish economy, and the Turkish lira is the island’s main currency. Ankara tries as much as possible to provide all the food and medical supplies Northern Cypriots need to withstand pressure from the south, despite the recent growth in transport and communications after Cyprus joined the eurozone.
As for the educational system for Muslim Cypriots, it is divided into four main stages: preschool, primary education, secondary education and then university education, which includes more than 40,000 students spread across six universities: Near East University, Girne American University, Middle East Technical University, European University of Lefke, Cyprus International University and Eastern Mediterranean University (internationally recognized, employing more than 1,000 faculty members from 35 countries and enrolling 15,000 students from 68 nationalities). All were established after the “peace operation.”
A history of racism
As the Muslim majority, Turkish Cypriots have faced successive waves of racism and abuse rooted in a long religious-historical conflict since the Ottomans left and Muslims came to control the north. It began in December 1963 in what became known as the “Bloody Christmas” massacre, when the Greek Cypriot terrorist organization EOKA killed 364 people on New Year’s Eve and completely emptied 103 Turkish villages of their inhabitants. That crime remains a stain of shame on the Greeks to this day.
In his book “The Persecution of Islam in Cyprus,” researcher Oktay Oksuzoglu documents, through photographs and official records, the crimes committed by the Greeks under the leadership of the Orthodox Church against Muslim Turkish Cypriots, addressing the suffering Muslims endured to preserve their beliefs and Islamic identity.
The book details attacks carried out by the Greeks over more than 10 consecutive years during the period 1979-1993, in violation of international norms, most notably extermination, deprivation and siege, in addition to abuse through more taxes and the stripping of their rights. Matters even went so far as to prevent postal letters sent by Turks to their relatives from reaching them so they could check on them; the letters were secretly opened and read.
The researcher asserted, through the documents he published, that what Muslim Cypriots were subjected to rises to the level of “genocide,” in addition to the targeting of places of worship — mosques — which were bombed and leveled to the ground to prevent prayers from being held there, prompting many analysts to describe what happened as an unprecedented “collective hatred” in history.
50 years of failed settlement efforts
Many international mediators have tried to salvage the difficult situation for which Turkish Cypriots have paid a very heavy price, through settlement efforts aimed at reunifying the island’s two parts under regional and U.N. sponsorship. But all of those attempts failed amid the desire of Nicosia and Greece to strip Lefkoşa entirely of its independent Islamic identity.
The beginning came on Aug. 16, 1974, when the U.N. Security Council called for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations among Greece, Türkiye and Britain. But the southern side’s failure to abide by the agreements reached and its aversion to the idea of a federal state pushed the north to declare itself a self-governing region in 1975, before the referendum held for residents of the northern part in November 1983, under which the republic declared its independence under the name “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” with Rauf Denktash becoming its president.
Attempts then continued by the Security Council, the United Nations, the European Union and Türkiye to strengthen understanding between the island’s two parts. On July 8, 2006, the two sides north and south agreed to form working and follow-up committees to reach urgent solutions and coordinate for the benefit of both peoples, but the step’s hollow slogans were never translated into reality.
After the victory of Cypriot communist leader Dimitris Christofias in the Cypriot elections in February 2008, he announced his intention to lead dialogue with Turkish Cypriots to unify the Cypriot people through a peace process under U.N. supervision. But that step, like the one before it, did not succeed.
The period from 2011 to 2014 saw dozens of meetings and sessions between delegations from the two republics in an attempt to narrow differences, but failure was the only outcome. The negotiation track reached a dead end during its latest round in Switzerland from Nov. 7-21, 2016, and continued in July 2017.
Thus Turkish Cypriots are paying the price for the Greeks’ historical hatred toward the Ottoman state that ruled them for 300 years, as well as for their current political hostility toward Ankara. Muslims on the island await an uncertain future as all settlement efforts shatter against Greek intransigence, leaving every door closed to them except the Turkish one a door some fear could shut under any emergency and at any moment, amid the political fluidity that has marked the international landscape in recent years and the reshaping of many of its features.