3.14.2009

Your Country is Fucked: Cyprus




Cyprus is, and has always been, fucked. Don't believe me? I submit the following evidence:

1. The ethnic Hellenic-Cypriot and Turkic-Cypriot civil war (one that has raged roughly since there were Greeks and Turks), but really picked up steam after the leftist Greek militants attempted to annex the whole damned place.
2. The island is subdivided into four parts; one of which only Turkey recognizes (in the North); the Southern portion, which is in control of the true Republic of Cyprus; a UN controlled zone and a British controlled zone. And, don't forget the entirety of the island is a member of the EU and EC. Who votes?
3. The economy is -to say the least- erratic. Nearly 80% of Cyprus's fortune relies on Western visitors. When you've got a 35 year civil war, needless to say, you don't want tourism (followed by seawater desalination) to be your main income.
4. Cyprus has, as to be expected given its prime location in the Mediterranean, always been a ping pong in the game of imperialism. First Greek, then Phoenician, then Assyrian, then Greek again (sorta' --it was Macedonian), then Ptolemaic Greek, then Roman, then Byzantine, then Venetian, then Ottoman, then British. Then, and only then, independent in 1960. But in 1963 the Turk-Hellene violence broke out, and you know the rest since then.

This font of violence, upheavals and overlords, does lay claim to the birthplace of Aphrodite, Adonis and the king Pygmalion, and is among the most beautiful destinations in the Mediterranean, but nevertheless remains (and likely will always remain) fucked.

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