A Study of the Role of Intellectuals in the 1931 Uprising

Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 8-1999 Intellectuals and Nationalism in Cyprus: A Study of the Role of Intellectuals in the 1931 Uprising Georgios P. Loizides Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Loizides, Georgios P., "Intellectuals and Nationalism in Cyprus: A Study of the Role of Intellectuals in the 1931 Uprising" (1999). Master's Theses. 3885. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3885 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INTELLECTUALS AND NATIONALISM IN CYPRUS: A STUDY OF THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUALS IN THE 1931 UPRISING by Georgios P. Loizides A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Sociology Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1999 Copyright by Georgios P. Loizides 1999 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by thanking the members of my Thesis Committee, Dr. Paula Brush (chair), Dr. Douglas Davidson, and Dr. Vyacheslav Karpov for their invaluable help, guidance and insight, before and during the whole thesis-pregnancy period. Secondly, I would like to thank my friends and colleagues at the Department of Sociology for their feedback and support, without which this pro ject would surely be less informed. Georgios P. Loizides ii INTELLECTUALS AND NATIONALISM IN CYPRUS: A STUDY OF THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUALS IN THE 1931 UPRISING Georgios P. Loizides, M.A. 'Western Michigan University, 1999 My thesis addresses the role of Cypriot intellectuals in the nationalist movement aiming at the political union of Cyprus with Greece. In particular, it will examine the contribution of three intellectual categories to the 1931 uprising, namely clerics, tea chers, and journalists. The 1931 nationalist uprising was the first Greek nationalist mass movement in Cyprus, and can be seen as laying the ground for the 1955-1960 armed struggle against the British, who were the colonial rulers of the island at the time. Furthermore, I argue that over and above the petty interests of modernized urban elites, it was the accommodation of prevalent cultural values and symbols that afforded the movement's resonance among the Greek popu lation of the island. Finally, I propose that structuralist theories viewing the development of nationalism in Cyprus as a purely hege monic process tend to neglect the dialogical aspects of nationalist discourse. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ii LIST OF TABLES.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. v LIST OF FIGURES. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. vi CHAPTER I . INTRODUCTION.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 General Background.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 Historical Background................................. 2 II. INTELLECTUALS, CULTURE, AND NATIONALISM.................. 9 Intellectuals. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 9 Culture............................................... 10 Nationalism and National Identity..................... 15 Intellectuals and Nationalist Movements............... 19 III. INTELLECTUALS AND NATIONALISM IN CYPRUS.................. 21 Introductory Remarks.................................. 21 Education and Church in Cyprus........................ 25 Nationalism and Dissent............................... 30 Clerics.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 32 Teachers.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 34 Journalists........................................... 36 IV. INTELLECTUALS AND THE 1931 UPRISING...................... 47 The Beginning of the Revolt........................... 47 The Revolt in the Urban Centers....................... 51 The Revolt in Rural Areas............................. 59 iii Table of Contents--continued CHAPTER The Aftermath......................................... 66 V. CONCLUDING REMS. 70 ENDNOTES . 7 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 75 iv LIST OF TABLES 1. Early Cyprus Publications: 1878-1930s..................... 37 2. 1931 Cyprus Population by Residence........................ 52 3. Protestors Killed by Security Forces in the 1931 Revolt.... 62 V LIST OF FIGURES 1. Population Growth by Area of Residence..................... 53 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION General Background To ignore the role of values in shaping a group's behavior is vulgar materialism; to omit analysis of the conditions under which persons conform with or deviate from their values is vulgar idealism. Alvin Gouldner (1979, p. 59) My thesis will address the role of Cypriot intellectuals in the nationalist movement aiming at the political union of Cyprus with Greece. In particular, it will examine their contribution to the 1931 uprising, which was the first Greek nationalist mass move ment in Cyprus, and which can be seen as laying the ground for the 1955-1960 armed struggle for union with Greece. Although my study aspires neither to be conclusive nor exhaustive, in the sense that it neither examines all nationalist movements in Cyprus, nor it ex amines all intellectual categories, it does provide a basis for a more conclusive study on the contribution of intellectuals to na tionalist movements in Cyprus. In my effort, I will focus on the role of three intellectual categories: (1) clerics; (2) teachers (elementary and secondary education teachers, as there were basic ally no post-secondary institutions on the island at the time in question); and (3) journalists. The 1931 uprising aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece, or rather to protest the powers (the British Empire) that prevented Cyprus from exercising the Greek Cypriots' 1 2 perceived right to politically uniting with Greece, with which they had historical and cultural ties. Thus, the movement was imbued with the early European (romantic) national ideology of making the na tional unit congruent with state structure. In the case of wider Hellenism, this ideology was expressed by a popular irredentist nationalist movement. If we can talk of a resentiment (or trans formation) that breaks traditional from modern ideologies, in Cyprus this would rest in the perception that modernity allowed for self determination, and so a demand for the assertion of political free dom from Colonial rule, although traditionally perceived as right and just, now was also deemed feasible. Historical Background The unionist movement was not a short-term affair. Discourse expressing the demand for the union of Cyprus with Greece can be traced to the very beginning of the 1821 Greek revolution against the Ottomans, who then ruled both Cyprus, and what is now Greece, and which lead to the creation of the then Kingdom of Greece. The Ottomans ruled Cyprus between 1570-1878, and were succeeded by the British, in exchange for British support to the sultan in case of attack from Russia. During the 1821 Greek revolution, many Cypriots fought as volunteers in various parts of Greece, some under their own makeshift flag that comprised a blue cross over a white back ground, reading: Hellenic Flag of the Fatherland Cyprus (Koumoul ides, 1974).1 Revolutionary literature was circulated on the is- 3 land by, among others, Archimandrite Theofylact, and the then Arch bishop Kyprianos, who was in contact with the revolutionaries, sent a letter to the Filiki Etaireia (the Friendly Society comprised the core of the Greek revolutionaries) promising financial aid (Koumoul ides, 1974; Kyrris, 1985; Pavlou, Piggouras & Ftohopoulos, 1983). These developments alarmed the Ottoman authorities in Cyprus, mainly after some of this literature fell in their hands. The Ottoman auth orities in Cyprus promptly reacted by ordering the hanging of the "heads of Church, and a great number of notables and common people" (Papadopoullos, 1965, pp. 57-58). This persecution lasted for many months, and aimed at cutting off any possible links with the Greek revolution that had just begun in other parts of the Ottoman Empire, and at warning the general population that any expression of dissent would be crushed. At the end of the massacre, 470 notables and hun dreds of other people were hanged (Koumoulides, 1974).2 These extreme measures did not prevent the newly elected Archbishop of Cyprus in 1828 from sending a letter to Kapodistrias--then Governor of the revolutionary Greece--who was negotiating the borders of the new state with the great powers (England, France and Russia), request- ing that Cyprus be included in his demands (Englezakis, 1995; Pavlou et al., 1983). This was the first official request by the Greek Cy priot leadership for union with Greece. Although all the above point to an already developed identification of the Greeks of Cyprus with the fate of Hellenism in general, the idea of uniting Cyprus with the newly established state of Greece did not develop into a mass 4 movement during Ottoman rule, partly due to the harsh and swift re action of the Ottomans to any such prospect. The few localized re volts that did take place during the Ottoman rule were quickly con- tained and never developed into mass movements.3 Interestingly enough, clerics comprised the leadership of at least two of these revolts, during the years immediately following the 1821 Greek War of Independence. One instigated by Ioannikios,

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