Theo Theophanous, the head of the Cypriot community in Melbourne, argues that shared experiences of British colonial occupation by Cypriots, Indians, Pakistanis and others, may shape support for the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
One of the sleepers in the upcoming Voice referendum is how Australians whose heritage is from countries that were occupied by the British such as, India, Pakistan and Cyprus, that have a significant presence in Australia will vote.
As the President of the Cyprus Community of Melbourne and Victoria, a community with a British colonial history, I can attest to the impact that the experience of British occupation has had on Cypriots. I think it is a major reason why Cypriot Australians, along with the vast majority of Greek Australians who empathise with them, are likely to vote yes in the referendum. When added to the other citizens from countries with British occupation histories they could well make the difference.
The enduring impact of British occupation on the psyche of Cypriots, continues to be highlighted each year when the Cyprus Community in Australia commemorates the beginning of the armed struggle against British Occupation. The battle commenced in 1955 and raged for 6 years with hundreds of British soldiers and Cypriot resistance fighters losing their lives.
Ominously, an early response by the British at that time was to pit the minority Turkish community which then constituted only 18 per cent of the population against the Greek Cypriots. Greek and Turkish Cypriots had hitherto lived in relative harmony.
As an example, the village where my father lived was a joint Greek/Turkish village and my father spoke Turkish and had many Turkish friends. The intercommunal tensions that followed British use of Turkish Cypriots against Greek Cypriots, the armed struggle for Independence and the abject poverty under British colonial rule, were the main reasons my father along with many others emigrated to Australia.
My late father used to tell me that one reason he left Cyprus was to escape the British occupation and the British Monarchy – only to arrive in Australia and continue to be a subject of British royalty. Needless to say, he was a Republican.
Today Australians are beginning to understand the suffering under British occupation that was endured by Australia’s Indigenous peoples. The British suppression of First Nations in Australia also included pitting indigenous tribes against each other.
But it’s one thing to reflect on these injustices of British occupation as an Australian of Anglo Celtic heritage and another to have a cultural heritage from a country that has experienced them. British colonial actions in Australia have parallels in many countries that were occupied by the Britain including in Cyprus.
It is a powerful reason for the affinity Australians from such cultural backgrounds, which number in the many hundreds of thousands, feel with Australia’s indigenous peoples. This is a little understood cultural sleeper that may translate into support for the Voice proposal and may indeed be a deciding factor.
It’s important to understand how deeply felt and impactful British occupation is amongst Australians with a heritage based on British occupation. In Cyprus the resistance struggle against the British was met with house-to-house searches, arrests, documented instances of torture and hangings by the colonisers. Following decades of legal action and a ruling from the British High Court that paved the way for Cypriots to pursue claims of torture, rape and extra judicial killings, the British Government made a payment of a mere 1 million pounds to 33 Cypriots.
Cyprus ultimately gained its independence with the signing of the treaty of Versailles in 1965. But it was this treaty which nominated Britain, Greece and Turkey as guarantor powers which was later used as justification by Turkey to invade Cyprus in 1974 following a pre-emptive and short-lived coup against then President Makarios.
Turkey invaded and occupied 38 per cent of Cyprus. Thousands of Cypriots were killed, injured, or displaced and many are still missing as a result of both the invasion and the subsequent forced migration of Greek Cypriots to the South and Turkish Cypriots moving to the North. Cyprus remains divided with a Cold War Berlin style wall that cuts through its capital Nicosia. Greek Cypriots think that Britain has a special responsibility in placing pressure on Turkey to come to the table and end its occupation within a bi-zonal, bi-communal Cypriot Republic in line with UN resolutions.
Cypriots do recognise the benefits the British brought with them to Cyprus including more efficient and accountable administration. It is partly for these reasons that Cyprus has remained in the Commonwealth and new President, Nikos Christodoulidis, attended King Charles III coronation.
This history of modernisation sits alongside the pain of British occupation and is shared by Australia’s indigenous people’s and other former British colonies. Cyprus also has close relations with Australia which sent peace keeping contingents for decades to the island. This year we celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Cyprus. Recently, I had the honour of hosting a Cyprus delegation that is here to repatriate, with the agreement of Australian museums, Cypriot artifacts that found their way to Australia.
Meanwhile, Britain refuses to return Cypriot artifacts to Cyprus or the Parthenon marbles to Greece. It is this ongoing, still existent, British colonial attitude that drives pro Republican and pro Voice sentiments amongst peoples from the former colonies. As Greek and Cypriot Australians commemorate joint military operations with Australia in Crete, and both World wars we hope that Australia will step up to facilitate a solution and the withdrawal of Turkish troops in Cyprus.
The Cypriots gained their own Voice through an armed Independence struggle leading to self-rule. As Cypriot Australians we understand the pain and suffering that British occupation brought to Australia’s indigenous peoples because our forefathers in Cyprus also felt it. We also recognise the modern systems, and development that came with British occupation as I think most indigenous Australians do.
Cypriot Australians and many other Australians from former British colonies who fought in their own unique ways to obtain Independence and their own Voice think it is time for Indigenous Australians to also be given a Voice. We do not think such a Voice will divide the nation but will add a much-needed layer of consultation with Indigenous Australians in recognition of their suffering, their lands being occupied, and the special place they hold in Australia’s history.
Source: Neos Kosmos
