According to Ms Jacobs, on a personal level, strong intercultural practices and traditions, including intermarriages, ‘koumbaroi’, milk mothers, and deep friendships existed within many former mixed villages of Cyprus.
She was inspired to write the hidden chapter of Cypriot history by the loving friendship between my Greek Cypriot ‘pappou’ (grandfather), Costas, and his Turkish Cypriot best friend, Mehmet. The aim of her research is to record and examine, first hand, oral history accounts of the relationships between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in several former mixed villages of Cyprus before civil unrest broke out on the island.
The interviews in Cyprus and Australia
So far, she has conducted 33 interviews in Australia, spanning 6 different states and territories, and 40 interviews in Cyprus, spanning the north and south of the island.’ Her interviews of elderly Greek and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus and in Australia, capture their childhood and early adulthood stories from several mixed villages, to explore Christian-Muslim relations in Cyprus from the 1930s-1960s.
In 2015, she flew to Cyprus to spend two months conducting interviews of Greek and Turkish Cypriots from three formerly mixed villages, spanning the north and the south of the island. One village (Agia Irini) had a Turkish Cypriot majority; another (Polis Chrysochous) had a Greek Cypriot majority, and the third, Alaminos, had close to a 50/50 split throughout the 1920s-1960s.
Ms Jacobs interviewed people still living in those villages and then crossed through the checkpoints to find those from the other group, who were displaced from those villages. Therefore she has the stories of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots from these three mixed villages. She has also interviewed Greek and Turkish Cypriots from all over Australia as well.
Ms Jacobs great-uncle Andreas reuniting with his friend Fuat in Agia Irini, Cyprus in 2015. Source: Supplied
Examples of the co-existence
SBS Greek asked Ms Jacobs to present a few examples of how was the co-existence of these different cultures on the island of Cyprus. ‘Before nationalism and conflict, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots lived peacefully together. On a personal level, strong intercultural practices and traditions, including intermarriages, 'koumbaroi' (groomsmen/bridesmaids), milk mothers, and deep friendships existed.’ she says.
Some of the evidence of strong community-level relations included people speaking each other’s language (Turkish and Greek), attending each other’s schools, working together, sharing in each other’s celebrations and entering the religious house of the ‘other’. These all paint a picture of a once harmonious and integrated society.
Ms Jacobs adds that whilst so much focus is understandably placed on the grief experienced by those who were displaced, the grief felt by those who remained is often overlooked.
‘Many Greek and Turkish Cypriots grieved terribly when their friends and neighbours of the other group were forced to leave their villages. Many genuine friendships existed and, in many respects, the two groups lived as a single community. Deep connections with the ‘other’ have persisted through decades of conflict, nationalism, war and displacement.’
The Cypriot Culture
She believes that it is not an exaggeration to say that at some point there was a “Greco-Turkish Culture” developed on the island, which she calls it Cypriot Culture. This evidence is coming from the fact that both languages influenced the other through language contact. The same with the food. For example, ‘flaounes’ in Greek is the same as ‘pilavunas’ in Turkish, ‘koupes’, ‘halloumi’ ('hellim' in Turkish), molokhia, Sheftalia and 'soujoukos' are some examples.
Furthermore, the weddings would last for three days (Saturday to Monday) and involved similar customs, music, food and dancing. Monday was the day when the 'koumbaroi' would throw the party.
Stephanie Jacobs with Turkish Cypriot Feriha in Agia Irini, in 2015. Source: Supplied
The practice of cross-religious milk kinship
The most striking example, described by twenty-six of forty of the Cyprus interviewees, is the milk mothers, the practice of cross-religious milk kinship. When a woman could not breastfeed her own child, a friend or neighbour, often from the other ‘group’ would feed the child for her. Almost 75 per cent of the participants interviewed in Cyprus remembered milk mothers from the ‘other’ group.
The joining together of two families of different religions through the practice of wet nursing demonstrates a level of real intimacy between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. It appears that the religious meaning (as it is stated in the Qu’ran) understood by Turkish Cypriots grew into a shared cultural practice adopted by Greek Cypriots.
Milk relationships survived decades of conflict and division: when the check-points between the North and South of the island opened in 2003, many of the interviewees reported visiting or being visited by, their milk mother or milk siblings from the ‘other’ group. In many cases, they desperately sought to reconnect with one another, as they longed to make up for the decades that had been lost.
Bicommunal cooperation is already taking place
Stephanie Jabocs is optimistic that bringing the people of both sides back together, even though the Cypriot Issue has not yet been resolved. Bicommunal cooperation is already taking place at the grassroots level through organisations.
‘There are villages that are coming together, such as Kontea in the North of Cyprus, where Greek Cypriots who once lived there bring their children and grandchildren to connect with the Turkish Cypriots still living there today. They dance and sing and eat and reminisce.
*Australian Greek-Cypriot Stephanie Jacobs has a professional and academic background in international relations, and especially on the relationships between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Stephanie is a PhD student at Flinders University; her research explores the relationships between Greek and Turkish Cypriots from formerly mixed villages of Cyprus.
Ms Jacobs grandfather Costas reuniting with his best friend Mehmet Emin, in Agia Irini, in 2013. Source: Supplied
