Brandy Sours

Bryan Hill

Description

Will appeal to all who have wished to head for a sun-drenched island life in the Mediterranean. Includes the fascinating history and politics of the divided Island of Cyprus.A real life modern day experience similar to the popular Durrells TV program.With retirement fast approaching Bryan Hill was searching for at least one more big adventure. In late 2004 he, and his wife Irene, sold their home in Devon and moved to Northern Cyprus. They thought it would be life changing experience. And so it proved, with an abundant share of mind-numbing, frustrating, downright hilarious and sometimes scary brushes with the law, the military and, above all, the bureaucracy of this small island stuck in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean.Also included are some of the legends and folk law of the country which are equally fascinating and sometimes more believable than the reality of life there. To give a better understanding of the absurdities of life there, Bryan has sketched a brief history of Cyprus and the political events that have overtaken the island, particularly in the last 100 years. This is done with a tongue-in-cheek approach but this is not intended to trivialise the pain that many Cypriots suffer from the division of the island and its people.Bryan kept a journal in the form of a blog to keep in touch with friends and family while living in Cyprus. This proved extremely popular and he has used it as the basis for this memoir. As he says:'Looking back, if we knew then what we know now, I don't suppose we would have had the courage to do it... but we are so glad that we did. We had the time of our lives!'

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir
• Cyprus

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781788033855
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Brandy Sours





Bryan Hill
Copyright © 2018 Bryan Hill

The moral right of the author has been asserted.


Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.


Matador
9 Priory Business Park,
Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,
Leicestershire. LE8 0RX
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador


ISBN 9781788033855

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.


Matador® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
Dedicated to Tess and Haji, two wonderful dogs that so enriched our lives, now sadly no longer with us. Also to Kyrenia Animal Rescue, Hope4Pets, and all the other Cyprus Dog Rescue charities and their volunteers who do such wonderful work in fostering and rehoming so many of these poor abandoned and abused creatures.
Contents
Prologue
Early Settlers
Recent History

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight

Epilogue
Acknowledgements
And the title Brandy Sours?
Prologue
When I was approaching retirement, I thought ‘is that all there is?’ I wanted at least one more big adventure, before I became too old and decrepit. So in late 2004, my wife Irene and I sold our home in England and moved to Northern Cyprus. We thought it would be a life-changing experience and so it proved, with an abundant share of mind-numbing, frustrating, downright hilarious and sometimes scary brushes with the law, the military and above all, the bureaucracy of this small island, stuck in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean.
To understand the absurdities of life there, you need to have some awareness of the political events that have overtaken Cyprus, particularly over the last hundred years. So here is a brief history lesson. I have taken a tongue-in-cheek approach to the events that have befallen the island, and particularly those relating to the current political situation. Some may feel I am biased, and in as much as I lived in Northern Cyprus, where the Turkish Cypriots don’t always get a fair press, I suppose I am. However, I hope that any Cypriots that read these ramblings will understand that it is not my intention to trivialise the sadness many still feel and I hope that one day, a lasting and honourable settlement can be achieved… but I doubt it.
Early Settlers
The history of Cyprus can be traced back around 9000 years, its inhabitants being settlers mainly from the Eastern Mediterranean who saw its potential for trading and latterly, its strategic importance. Relax… I’m not going back that far.
Around 2500 years ago, it was part of the Persian Empire. Then along came Alexander the Great who threw them out and it became part of the Hellenic (Greek) Empire. For a short time, the island was relatively peaceful and prosperous. However, Big Al upped and died at the tender age of 33 and bitter fighting broke out between his rivals which came to the notice of the Romans who were busy conquering the rest of the known world. Bad move! The Romans promptly annexed the island from the Greeks and once again, sweetness and light prevailed in Cyprus. But with the inevitable decline and division of the Roman Empire, the island found itself under Byzantine rule. Some would argue that Byzantine politics, defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as complicated, inflexible and underhand, have lasted for the best part of 2000 years and the definition is still relevant.
Cyprus was now ruled from their head office in Constantinople, Istanbul in modern day Turkey to everyone except some Greeks, who nostalgically refer to it by the former name, still nurturing hopeless dreams of it once again becoming part of the motherland. Christianity spread rapidly and Cyprus’ commercial importance grew considerably. This of course, drew unwelcome attention from its Arab neighbours but their efforts to take the island were largely unsuccessful until the Turks swept to power, seizing Jerusalem and ending Byzantine rule.
The island entered a brutal, despotic period brought to an end when the Christian countries commenced their crusades to stop the spread of Islam and to further their own religious and commercial ambitions. But all was not lost: enter our own knight in shining armour! The locals had kidnapped, in retrospect, not a sensible thing to do, the fiancée of Richard the Lionheart.
Quite naturally, he was a tad hacked off, so on his way to the Crusades, he took time out to conquer Cyprus and rescue his fair maid. It took a good one to get by Dick and he quickly saw the potential of the island and realising he was sitting on a fortune, promptly financed his next crusade from the proceeds. Wanting to get stuck into the action further to the East, in 1191 he sold Cyprus to the Lusignans… the French, before moving on.
The French settled in and ruled ruthlessly for the next 300 years when the Genoese and then the Venetians turned up. There was an uneasy peace between the three factions until it became impossible to keep the country together, particularly when the Egyptians joined in, and a full scale battle commenced from which the Venetians emerged winners. They ruled for a further 80 years, rebuilding the island’s defences. Their interest in Cyprus was both financial and strategic, allowing them to control the trade routes to the east, and I guess it helped that the streets were drier than those back home.
The next visitor was Lala Mustapha Pasha, the all-powerful Turkish Ottoman leader, and despite their bravery and impressive fortifications, the Venetians capitulated. He and his successors stayed for another 300 years. By then, the Turks were having problems with the Russians, and Britain offered to take control of the island on their behalf. Not so much a generous gesture as one of self interest: the communist threat to the Suez Canal. The British introduced a new constitution which must have seemed a good idea at the time. The government would comprise 6 British, 3 Turks and 9 Greeks. This initially caused some gloom and despondency among the Turks but as those nice British normally sided with them, and the High Commissioner always had the casting vote, a working arrangement was achieved… democracy of a sort, then.
Come 1914, Turkey cosied up to the Kaiser and the island was annexed by Britain who promptly offered it to the Greeks if they would be their allies during the ensuing unpleasantness. The Greeks, obviously aware of the old adage ‘beware Brits bearing gifts’, rejected this generous offer. The island became a British colony in 1925 but the Greek Cypriots were already agitating for ENOSIS… union with Greece. Some Turkish Cypriots sought union with Turkey and even preferred relatively benign British rule to the uncertainty of a Greek alternative. However, now things really took a turn for the worse.
Recent History
Despite their differences, when hostilities in Europe manifested themselves again, around 30,000 Cypriots fought for Britain, although their motivation was probably more in support of Greece which was dragged into the conflict. In Western Europe, Britain was fighting a rearguard action against Hitler, but in Eastern Europe, Greece, Britain’s only ally, was also doing the same against Mussolini. Although heavily outnumbered and with few weapons, they defeated old Beni. This peeved his little Austrian friend who sent in the German army to finish the job and so brave Greece collapsed.
During the occupation, the communists were the main resistance group, but they too, had their own agenda. They carried out a reign of terror not just against the invaders but against their fellow countrymen. The plan being that at the end of hostilities, they would form a government faithful to Moscow, thus extending the communist bloc into the Mediterranean.
Turkey who remained neutral on this occasion, offering safe passage to escaping Greeks throughout the war, also strongly resisted any communist ambitions to take them over.
Between the wars, under the influence of their great leader, Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish language had been modernised to European, replacing the Arabic, and a secular society was created rather than strict Muslim that had existed under Ottoman rule. Ninety-odd years later, Turkey’s cultural revolution is still ongoing although currently, President Erdoğan appears to have his own agenda.
When ‘peace’ returned to Greece after the war, the Monarchy was restored after a fashion, but later thrown out again. A period of even more corrupt and incompetent government ensued, ending in a bloodless military coup in 1967. This was primarily to stop the communists from seizing power. Rumour has it that the CIA may have been involved but I can’t imagine Uncl