INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DIPLOMACY ON THE CYPRUS QUESTION

PART I: ORIGINS 8 such as St. Sophia, and St. Catherine in Nicosia and St. Nicosia in Famagusta were converted to Moslem mosques, and remained as such to nowadays. Hill, in his History of Cyprus after referring to Nicosia at which the massacre and looting went on for there days, writes that “the reader may be spared description of horrors which were such as usually occurred at the capture of any Christian city by the Turks” 17 and after the fall of Famagusta observes that “the history of Cyprus is rich in episodes of horror, and this was an age inferior to no other in barbarity: but as an example of cold-blooded ferocity, in which the childishness of the savage combines with the refinements of the sadist, the martyrdomof the hero of Famagusta by Mustafa Pasha yields the palm to none. It was inspired not by momentary fury, but by deliberate bloodlust. Some details may have been exaggerated by anti-Moslem sentiment, but the main facts are not open to doubt”. 18 The Turkish conquest brought many radical changes to Cyprus. In spite of the atrocities the Turks supported the Greek-Orthodox Church, which replaced the Roman Catholic as the official Church of the island. 19 The Archbishop of Cyprus was given similar privileges as those of the conferred on the Patriarch at Constantinople. 20 The Turkish rule in Cyprus ended in 1878. By the Convention of the defensive alliance between Great Britain and Turkey with respect to the Asiatic provinces of Turkey signed at Constantinople on the 4 th June 1878, Turkey consented to assign the island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England” for enabling her to make the necessary provision for executing her engagements under the Treaty. By an Annex to this Convention signed at Constantinople of the 1 st July 1878 between the same Contracting Parties the conditions under which England would occupy Cyprus are provided and provision was made that “if Russia restores to Turkey Kars and other conquests made by her during the last war in Armenia, the Island of Cyprus will be evacuated by England and the Convention of the 4 th June 1878 will be at an end”. By an additional article signed at Constantinople on the 14 th August 1878, it was agreed between the High Contracting Parties that for the term of the occupation and no longer, full powers were granted to the Great Britain for making Laws and Conventions for the Government of 17. Ibid. p.984. 18. Ibid. pp. 1033-1034. 19. Spyridakis attributes this to the a political motive as the Turks did not wasn’t to provide the European powers with any excuse for intervention after the battle of Lepanto in 1571 ( A Brief History of Cyprus, ante , p. 151). 20. The Patriarch was recognized not only as the religious head of his religious community but also as the politi- cal chief master and King taking the place of the former emperor. As the head of his religious community he represented it in the before all state and diplomatic authorities with which he was corresponding. The Patriarch was entitled to impose ecclesiastical taxes and to adjudicate on disputes between members of his flock of a civil character. The ethnarchical mission of the Church was attributed by Theodore Papadopoullos to historical needs and not religious requirements (see Theodore Papadopoullos , Orthodox and Civil authority, Journal of Contemporary History , 1968 p. 201).