1.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
2.
Religious persecution
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Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within society to alienate or repress different subcultures is a recurrent theme in human history, Religious persecution may be triggered by religious bigotry or by the state when it views a particular religious group as a threat to its interests or security. At a societal level, this dehumanisation of a religious group may readily turn into violence or other forms of persecution. Indeed, in countries, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it is considered a human rights problem. Religious persecution can be considered the opposite of freedom of religion, Religious persecution may also affect atheists in that they may be denounced as being amoral or be persecuted by the religious on the grounds that they are godless. Persecution in this case may refer to confiscation or destruction of property, incitement to hate, arrest, imprisonment, beatings, torture, denial of civil rights on the basis of religion is most often described as religious discrimination, rather than religious persecution. The difference between religious and ethnic identity might sometimes be obscure, cases of genocide in the 20th century cannot be explained in full by citing religious differences, the Holocaust made no distinction between secular Jews, atheistic Jews, orthodox Jews and Jews that had converted to Christianity. The descriptive use of the religious persecution is rather difficult. Religious persecution has taken place at least since the antiquity, and has happened in different historical, geographical and social contexts, until the 18th century, some groups were nearly universally persecuted for their views about religion, such as atheists, Jews and zoroastrians. One period of persecution which has been studied extensively is early modern England, since the rejection of religious persecution, now common in the Western world. The most ambitious chronicle of that time is W. K. Jordans magnum opus The Development of Religious Toleration in England, jordan wrote as the threat of fascism rose in Europe, and this work is seen as a defense of the fragile values of humanism and tolerance. More recent introductions to this period are Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558–1689 by John Coffey, tolerance and intolerance in England, 1500-1700 by Alexandra Walsham. To understand why religious persecution has occurred, historians like Coffey pay close attention to what the persecutors said they were doing, no religion is free from internal dissent, although the degree of dissent that is tolerated within a particular religious organization can strongly vary. This degree of diversity tolerated within a church is described as ecclesiastical tolerance. However, when people speak of religious tolerance, they most often mean civil tolerance. Before that, theologians like Joseph Hall had reasoned from the intolerance of the early Christian church in the New Testament to the civil intolerance of the Christian state. Before a vigorous debate about religious persecution took place in England, for centuries in Europe, in England there had been several Acts of Uniformity, in continental Europe the Latin phrase cuius regio, eius religio had been used. Concerning the church, he went on, A church, then, I take to be a society of men
3.
Ottoman Cyprus
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The Eyalet of Cyprus was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571. The Ottomans changed the way they administered Cyprus multiple times and it was a sanjak of the Eyalet of the Archipelago from 1670 to 1703, and again from 1784 onwards, a fief of the Grand Vizier, and again an eyalet for the short period from 1745 to 1748. During Venetian rule, the Ottomans at times raided Cyprus, in 1489, the first year of Venetian control, Turks attacked the Karpass Peninsula, pillaging and taking captives to be sold into slavery. In 1539 the Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol, fearing the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire, the Venetians had fortified Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia, but most other cities were easy prey. In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, about 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2,1570, and laid siege to Nicosia. The city fell on September 9,1570,20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every church, public building, only women and boys who were captured to be sold as slaves were spared. Word of the spread, and a few days later Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. Famagusta, however, resisted with the Siege of Famagusta and put up a defense that lasted from September 1570 until August 1571, the fall of Famagusta marked the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus. The victory over the Turks, however, came too late to help Cyprus, in 1570, the Turks first occupied Cyprus, and Lala Mustafa Pasha became the first Turkish Governor of Cyprus, challenging the claims of Venice. Simultaneously, the Pope formed a coalition between the Papal States, Malta, Spain, Venice and several other Italian states, with no real result, in 1573 the Venetians left, removing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. As soon as Nicosia was conquered, Cyprus was declared an eyalet under the administration of a beylerbey, and Mustafa Pasha, Cyprus was divided into three sanjaks, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Paphos. Additionally, the sanjaks of Alâiye, Tarsus, İçel, Sis, Zülkadriye, Cyprus was also divided into several kazas, Tuzla, Limassol, Episkopi, Kythrea, Paphos, Kukla, Lefka, Morphou, Hirsofu, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Mesariye. These kazas each had their own kadı or naib, the sanjak of Tripoli, however, was removed from the jurisdiction of Cyprus in 1573 due to its distance and given to the Damascus Eyalet. The sanjaks of İçel, Alâiye and Tarsus were also removed in 1610, however, after the conquest of Crete, the Cypriot Orthodox Church argued that Cyprus had lost importance, that trade volume had decreased and that people were emigrating. It thus requested a change in the status as Cyprus could not afford remaining an eyalet. Thus, in 1670, Cyprus became a sanjak under the Eyalet of the Archipelago, under the control of Kapudan Pasha. This control was exercised through an appointed mütesellim, however, under this system, local aghas were the tax collectors. This magnified their power and resulted in discontent, with the rivalry between them causing a long revolt in the 1680s by Boyacıoğlu Mehmed Agha
4.
Turkish Cypriots
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Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given once they arrived in Cyprus. Additionally, many of the converted to Islam during the early years of Ottoman rule. Nonetheless, the influx of mainly Muslim settlers to Cyprus continued intermittently until the end of the Ottoman period, today, while Northern Cyprus is home to a significant part of the Turkish Cypriot population, the majority of Turkish Cypriots live abroad, forming the Turkish Cypriot diaspora. The emigration was exacerbated by the violence in the 1950s and 1960s. The vernacular of Turkish spoken by Turkish Cypriots is Cypriot Turkish, the vast majority of Turkish Cypriots are Sunni Muslims. Some of these captives accepted or were forced to covert to Christianity and were baptized, by 1425 some of these slaves helped the Mamluke army to gain access to Limassol Castle. Despite the release of some of the captives, after the payment of ransoms, the medieval Cypriot historian Leontios Machairas recalled that the baptized Turks were not permitted to leave Nicosia when the Mamlukes approached the city after the battle of Khirokitia in 1426. According to Professor Charles Fraser Beckingham there must therefore have been some Cypriots, at least nominally Christian, by 1488 the Ottomans made their first attempt at conquering Cyprus when Sultan Bayezid II sent a fleet to conquer Famagusta. However, the attempt failed due to the intervention of a Venetian fleet. Thereafter, the Queen of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro, was forced to relinquish her crown to the Republic of Venice in 1489, in the same year Ottoman ships were seen off the coast of Karpas and the Venetians began to strengthen the fortifications of the island. Nonetheless, by 1500 coastal raids by Ottoman vessels resulted in the loss of Venetian fleets forcing Venice to negotiate a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1503. However, by May 1539 Suleiman I decided to attack Limassol because the Venetians had been sheltering pirates who continuously attacked Ottoman ships, Limassol stayed under Ottoman control until a peace treaty was signed in 1540. Nonetheless, Cyprus continued to be a haven for pirates who interrupted the safe passage of Ottoman trade ships and Muslim pilgrims sailing to Mecca and Medina. The basis for the emergence of a sizeable and enduring Turkish community in Cyprus emerged when Ottoman troops landed on the island in mid-May 1570, However, there were also some new converts to Islam on the island during the early years of Ottoman rule. This influx of mainly Muslim settlers to Cyprus continued intermittently until the end of the Ottoman period, by the second quarter of the nineteenth century approximately 30,000 Muslims were living in Cyprus, comprising about 35% of the total population. Throughout the Ottoman rule, the ratio between Christian Greeks and Muslim Turks fluctuated constantly. During 1745-1814, the Muslim Turkish Cypriots constituted the majority on the island against the Christian Greek Cypriots However, by 1841, according to the first British census of Cyprus, in 1881, 95% of the islands Muslims spoke Turkish as their mother tongue
5.
British Cyprus
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Cyprus was a territory of the Ottoman Empire, lastly as part of the Vilayet of the Archipelago, since it was conquered from the Republic of Venice in 1570-71. Cyprus was then proclaimed a British protectorate and was integrated into the British Empire, king Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece in 1948. A referendum was presented by the Orthodox Church of Cyprus in 1950, the Greek petition and enosis became an international issue when it was accepted by the United Nations. The Cyprus Emergency was an action that took place in Cyprus from 1955 to 1959. The Cyprus Emergency mainly primarily consisting of a campaign by the Greek Cypriot military group EOKA to remove the British from Cyprus so it could be unified with Greece, signed on 19 February 1959, the London and Zurich Agreements started the process for the constitution of an independent Cyprus. The United Kingdom granted independence of Cyprus via referendum on 16 August 1960, archbishop Makarios III, a charismatic religious and political leader, was elected the first president of independent Cyprus. In 1961 the Republic of Cyprus became the 99th member of the United Nations, media related to British Cyprus at Wikimedia Commons British Rule in Cyprus - cypnet. co. uk
6.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
7.
Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
