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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. The New Social Terrain of (Nationalist) Party Politics

Author : Yiannos Katsourides

Published in: The Greek Cypriot Nationalist Right in the Era of British Colonialism

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter examines the Cyprus political scene during the transition from Ottoman occupation to British administration. This transition facilitated and accelerated a new social order—the rise of the bourgeoisie and the working class, and the emergence of a new socio-political elite that soon claimed its stake in political life. These societal changes were favourable for the development of party politics on the island, while at the same they entailed numerous shortcomings that served to distort party politics. These related primarily to the usurious practices and clientelistic relations that were put into place in the political system which have been entrenched in Cypriot party politics ever since.

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previous chapter Introduction: Nationalism and Political Representation in Colonised Countries

next chapter Institutional Engineering and Political Change

An ethno-religious entity that the Ottoman regime used as an administrative organisation.

The literal meaning of the term means the ‘leader of the nation’. The term suggests the holder both of spiritual and secular authority and was assigned to the Church of Cyprus and particularly to the Archbishop.

Hopkin (2006, 409) notes that in situations of absolute poverty, gifts such as food and clothes are usually sufficient to buy votes although he stresses that philanthropy is not wholly limited to the distribution of material goods.

‘The Issue of the Ionian Islands and the Cypriot Question’, Eleftheria, 30 March 1929, 1. See also Sophokleous (1995, 261) which quotes an excerpt from the newspaper Neo Kition dated 19 May 1880 about the election of Gladstone in England: ‘But when we learned that the person assuming control of Great Britain’s important interests is the same man who returned the Ionian Islands to their Mother… our joy and that of our fellow nationals had no limits… Greeks! At last the great citizen of England, the great politician, the wise man, the philhellene Englishman, has come to power. Rejoice, celebrate and proclaim in the loudest tones…’.

On these practices of the state, see Hobsbawm (1994, 117).

‘During the British occupation, the expansion of agricultural land and its further subdivision among heirs in the case of the private landed estates contributed to a further reduction in the share of the large landowners. By the time of the general census of 1909–1929 from a total of 1,390,000 hectares of agricultural land, only 7.5% belonged to these big owners’ (see Katsiaounis 1996, 128). See also Census of Cyprus of 1921, London, 1922, pp. 12–13 where it is specifically mentioned that Cyprus is to a large extent a country of peasant landowners as one in every 6.7 people owns land (46,321 people) with about 30% of the country’s territory being in private ownership.

See the report by S. B. Surridge (1930), Administrator of Limassol, on the situation of the agricultural class in Cyprus.

Evidence from the population censuses show that while in 1881 only 18 towns or villages had a population of more than 1000 inhabitants, by 1931 the number had risen to 53, with Limassol experiencing the highest population growth and also being the most densely populated urban centre. See Census of 1881, 7; Census of 1931, 4.

These taxes included the land tax, the poll tax, the tribute tax, the tithe (i.e., 1/10 of production on all agricultural products), the military tax for non-Muslim subjects, the goat and sheep tax, import duty and taxes on trade, fishing, pigs, salt, silk, etc. See ‘Taxes, Duties and other sources of revenue’, Cyprus Blue Book 1892–1893, 4–44 and Cyprus Blue Book 1915–1916, 1–60.

This Turkish word essentially means community leader.

Cyprus Blue Book 1883–1884, 4. See also Cyprus Blue Book 1901–1902, 7.

Noussis was a pseudonym used for his articles by the economist Christos Economides.

‘The memorandum of the Greek parliamentarians to the Minister for the Colonies’, Eleftheria, 11 September 1929, 1–2; 14 September 1929, 4.

‘The victory of 27 September’, Evagoras, 4 October 1901, 1.

A characteristic example is the following excerpt from the Nicosia newspaper Kyprios dated 29 December 1900: ‘The joy this caused was momentary. The fleeting hope of bliss was false, the pompous promises of a happier future were a deceptive dream which fled at the first awakening. Despotism was succeeded by tyranny, physical injuries by spiritual and moral injustices. Under the new master, not only was no work for the better carried out as expected, but life became more burdensome and unbearable, increasing the sufferings of misfortune with additional measures more oppressive than those which existed before’.

Eleftheria, 12 October 1927, 2. The tribute refers to the annual amount of £92,800 that Cyprus was obliged to pay to the Ottoman Empire.

‘Blatant Robbery’, Eleftheria, 5 November 1910, 1. Also characteristic is the report in the newspaper Kypriakos Fylax (Cypriot Sentinel) dated 8 April 1906: ‘Against the tribute tax, the national policy took aim accurately and spiritedly, correctly believing that it constitutes the maximum and insuperable obstacle to any kind of administrative, material, spiritual and moral improvement of the country, draining revenue for the benefit of third parties and resulting in economic exhaustion and weakness’.

Article by Savvas Loizides, ‘Tribute tax: a tax both old and new’, Eleftheria, 21 September 1927, 1.

‘Report by the taxation sub-committee’, Eleftheria, 10 May 1930, 2; ‘Memorandum from the Holy Synod and Parliamentarians to the Deputy Minister for the Colonies’, Eleftheria, 22 October 1930, 1–2.

Article by Savvas Loizides, ‘Tax system’, Eleftheria, 24 December 1926, 1; Article by I. Clerides, ‘Income tax’, Eleftheria, 14 September 1927, 1; ‘Taxation’, Laiki, 22 January 1926, 1.

Laiki, 10 July 1925, 1. ‘The protection of capital’, Neos Anthropos, 1 June 1926, 3.

‘Continuing the arbitrary behaviour of the English government’, Neos Ergatis (New Worker), 29 March 1929, 1.

‘Tax system’, Eleftheria, 8 January 1927, 1.

‘Need for industry’, Foni tis Kyprou [Voice of Cyprus], 22 September 1901, 1.

In a report written in 1927, the British supervisor of the mines, H. G. Mountain, noted that there were nine mining concessions in Cyprus that had been given to four companies: the Cyprus Mines Corporation which exploited the mines at Skouriotissa and Mavrovounio, the Cypriot Asbestos Company, the Sulphur and Copper Company which was located in the town of Chryssochou and the Chromium and Calcium Company in Troodos. See, ‘A review of the Cypriot mines’, newspaper Nea Laiki [New Popular], 6 and 13 May 1927, 1, which reprints the report of the British inspector of mines.

Characteristically, in 1928 when legislation was passed establishing a 6-day working week with a compulsory day of rest on Sundays, an exception was made for the mining companies.

Article by N. K. Lanitis, Eleftheria, 16 October 1926, 1. The traditional practice of Cypriot capitalists of putting their money into moneylending is referred to by Storrs (1945, 487).

Article by Kriton Tornaritis, Freedom, 13 1926, 1; ‘Chamber of Commerce’, Eleftheria, 24 January 1927, 2; ‘Regulation of the Chamber of Commerce’, Eleftheria, 16 March 1927, 4. A similar view was held by the prominent lawyer I. Clerides. See, article by I. Clerides, ‘The mining enterprises’. Eleftheria, 25 March 1927, 1.

‘The memorandum of the Greek parliamentarians to the Minister for the Colonies’, Eleftheria, 11 September 1929, 1–2; Eleftheria, 14 September 1929, 4.

The Bank was created on the initiative of I. Economides, a Member of Parliament.

Article by N. K. Lanitis, Eleftheria, 16 October 1926, 1.

Many of these merchants created property worth hundreds of thousands of pounds during and after WWI by exploiting precisely these conditions. See ‘The peasant question in Cyprus’, Neos Anthropos, 18 February 1925, 1. See also article by N. K. Lanitis, in Eleftheria, 16 October 1926, 1.

The memorandum was published in Eleftheria, 25 August 1923, 2.

‘The Cypriot Scientists’, Eleftheria, 27 April 1906, 1.

‘Statistics concerning public sector employees in Cyprus’, Eleftheria, 25 May 1912, 1.

‘The ratio of government employees’, Eleftheria, 12 December 1928, 2.

See also ‘The government scholarships’, Eleftheria, 6 August 1927, 1.

Tornaritis Kriton, in Eleftheria, 13 November 1926, 1.

‘Usury’, Foni tis Kiprou, 23 November 1901, 1.

‘Usury’, Foni tis Kiprou, 23 November 1901, 1; N. Kl. Lanitis, in Eleftheria, 16 October 1926, 1.

TNA, CO 67/22714, No. 143227, Governor Stevenson to the Minister of Colonies Amery, 30 January 1929.

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Title: The New Social Terrain of (Nationalist) Party Politics
Author: Yiannos Katsourides
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: The Greek Cypriot Nationalist Right in the Era of British Colonialism
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55534-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-55536-2

Copyright Year: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55536-2_2

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