Cyprus has been home to many peoples in its history. At the beginning
of the 1990s, five ethnic communities lived on the island, Greek
Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians, and Latins. The events
of 1974 resulted in a de facto partition of the island, and by the early
1990s virtually all Turkish Cypriots lived in the "Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus" ("TRNC"). Nearly all members of the
other groups lived in the Republic of Cyprus; only about 600-hundred
Greek Cypriots lived outside the governmentcontrolled area.
Greek Cypriots
Greek Cypriots formed the island's largest ethnic community, nearly
80 percent of the island's population. They were the descendants of
Achaean Greeks who settled on the island during the second half of the
second millennium B.C. The island gradually became part of the Hellenic
world as the settlers prospered over the next centuries. Alexander the Great freed the island from the
Persians and annexed it to his own empire in 333 B.C.. Roman rule dating
from 58 B.C. did not erase Greek ways and language, and after the
division of the Roman Empire in A.D. 285 Cypriots enjoyed peace and
national freedom for 300 years under the jurisdiction of the Eastern
Empire of Byzantium. The most important event of the early Byzantine
period was that the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus became independent
no in 431. Beginning in the middle of the seventh century, Cyprus
endured three centuries of Arab attacks and invasions. In A.D. 965, it
became a province of Byzantium, and remained in that status for the next
200 years.
The Byzantine era profoundly molded Cypriot culture. The Greek
Orthodox Christian legacy bestowed on Greek Cypriots in this period
would live on during the succeeding centuries of oppressive foreign
domination. English, Lusignan, and Venetian feudal lords ruled Cyprus
with no lasting impact on its culture. Because Cyprus was never the
final goal of any external ambition, but simply fell under the
domination of whichever power was dominant in the eastern Mediterranean,
destroying its civilization was never a military objective or necessity.
Nor did the long period of Ottoman rule (1570-1878) change Greek
Cypriot culture. The Ottomans tended to administer their multicultural
empire with the help of their subject millets, or religious
communities. The tolerance of the millet system permitted the
Greek Cypriot community to survive, administered for Constantinople by
the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus, who became the community's head,
or ethnarch.
However tolerant Ottoman rule may have been with regard to religion,
it was otherwise generally harsh and rapacious, tempered mainly by
inefficiency. Turkish settlers suffered alongside their Greek Cypriot
neighbors, and the two groups endured together centuries of oppressive
governance from Constantinople.
In the light of intercommunal conflict since the mid-1950s, it is
surprising that Cypriot Muslims and Christians generally lived
harmoniously. Some Christian villages converted to Islam. In many
places, Turks settled next to Greeks. The island evolved into a
demographic mosaic of Greek and Turkish villages, as well as many mixed
communities. The extent of this symbiosis could be seen in the two groups'
participation in commercial and religious fairs, pilgrimages to each
other's shrines, and the occurrence, albeit rare, of intermarriage
despite Islamic and Greek laws to the contrary. There was also the
extreme case of the linobambakoi (linen-cottons), villagers who
practiced the rites of both religions and had a Christian as well as a
Muslim name. In the minds of some, such religious syncretism indicates
that religion was not a source of conflict in traditional Cypriot
society.
The rise of Greek nationalism in the 1820s and 1830s affected Greek
Cypriots, but for the rest of the century these sentiments were limited
to the educated. The concept of enosis--unification with the Greek
motherland, by then an independent country after freeing itself from
Ottoman rule--became important to literate Greek Cypriots. A movement
for the realization of enosis gradually formed, in which the Church of
Cyprus had a dominant role.
During British rule (1878-1960), the desire for enosis intensified.
The British brought an efficient and honest colonial administration, but
maintained the millet system. Government and education were
administered along ethnic lines, accentuating differences. For example,
the education system was organized with two Boards of Education, one
Greek and one Turkish, controlled by Athens and Constantinople,
respectively. The resulting education emphasized linguistic, religious,
cultural, and ethnic differences and ignored traditional ties between
the two Cypriot communities. The two groups were encouraged to view
themselves as extensions of their respective motherlands, and the
development of two distinct nationalities with antagonistic loyalties
was ensured.
By the 1950s, the growing attraction of enosis for ever larger
segments of Greek Cypriot society caused a Turkish Cypriot reaction, a
desire for taksim--partition of the island--for the smaller
ethnic community had well-founded reasons for fearing rule from the
Greek mainland. In the mid-1950s, Greek Cypriot agitation for enosis
went beyond manifestos and demonstrations, and Turkish Cypriots
responded in kind. Within twenty years, the island was tragically
divided.
By the early 1990s, Greek Cypriot society enjoyed a high standard of
living, and, to a degree unknown in its past, was educated and open to
influences from the outside world. Economic modernization created a more
flexible and open society and caused Greek Cypriots to share the
concerns and hopes of other secularized West European societies. The
Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus was the ethnarch, or leader, of the
Greek Cypriot community in name only, because religion had lost much of
its earlier power. Finally, the dream of enosis was irrevocably
shattered by the events of 1974, and Greek Cypriots sought to deal with
the consequences of the Turkish invasion.
Other Ethnic Groups
Cyprus had three other ethnic groups at the beginning of the 1990s:
Maronites, Armenians, and Latins. Together they numbered only about
6,000, less than 1 percent of the island's population, but they
maintained social institutions of their own and were represented in
organs of government. The Maronites and Armenians had come during the
Byzantine period, and the Latins slightly later. The Maronites,
Arabic-speaking peasants from around Syria and Lebanon, were already an
important ethnic group at the time of the Turkish conquest in 1571. By
the mid-twentieth century, they lived mainly in four villages in
northwestern Cyprus. Armenian Cypriots were primarily urban and
mercantile, most of whom had arrived after the collapse of the Armenian
nationalist movement in the Caucasus at the end of World War I. Latins
were concentrated among merchant families of the port towns on the
southern coast and were descendants of the Lusignan and Venetian upper
classes. The Ottomans had suppressed Roman Catholicism, and Latins were
largely Greek Orthodox, but retained their French or Italian names. Some
Latins reverted to the group's original religion.
Cyprus - Population
In 1960, the last year for which there was an official census for the
entire population of Cyprus, the island was home to 573,566 people.
Official estimates held that there were 441,568 Greek Cypriots, 3,627
Armenians, 2,706 Maronites (in the future these two groups were to be
counted as part of the Greek Cypriot community, according to the terms
of the constitution of 1960), 103,822 Turkish Cypriots, and 24,408
others (mostly foreigners). According to government statistics, 81.14
percent of Cypriots in 1960, were Greek Cypriot (including Armenians and
Maronites) and 18.86 percent were Turkish Cypriot. Republic of Cyprus
statistics estimated the 1988 population of the whole island at 687,500,
and that of the government-controlled area at 562,700. It was estimated
that the island's population consisted of 550,400 (80.1 percent) Greek
Cypriots (including 6,300 Armenians and Maronites), 128,200 (18.6
percent) Turkish Cypriots, and 8,900 (1.3 percent) who belonged to other
groups (mainly British). Cypriot population estimates were often
controversial, because they could have significant bearing on political
settlements. Thus, population figures from the "Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus" differed markedly from those of the Republic of
Cyprus.
Birth Rates
At the end of the 1980s, the Republic of Cyprus had a fertility rate
(births per woman) of 2.4, the highest in Western Europe. But this spurt
in births was a new development, and it was uncertain how long it would
continue. In the troubled 1970s, the reverse had been the case.
Substantial migration and a decline in the fertility rate resulted in a
negative growth rate of -0.9 percent in the years 1973-76. In the period
1976-82, while the economy was being restructured, population growth
gradually reached an average rate of 0.8 percent, and in 1984 peaked at
1.4 percent. In the second half of the 1980s, the growth rate remained
above 1 percent.
The long-term decline in the fertility rate was first noted after
World War II, when the crude birth rate dropped from 32 per thousand in
1946 to an average of 25 per thousand during the 1950s. The main
contributing factor in this remarkable fall in fertility was the rapid
postwar economic development. This downward trend continued in the
following decades, and a rate of 18 per thousand was recorded in the
first part of the 1970s. After a further decline to 16 per thousand in
the years after the 1974 invasion, the Greek Cypriot birth rate
increased to a rate of 20 to 21 per thousand during the period 1980-86,
and then continued its decline, reaching 19.2 per thousand in 1985-88.
This change in the reproductive behavior of the Greek Cypriot
population was generally attributed to improvement of the standard of
living, expansion of education to all sections of the population, and
the consequent wider participation by women in the work force. In
addition, there was the traditional Cypriot concern to provide a better
future for offspring, which, in a modern social context, entailed
increased expenditure for education and a striving to amass a larger
material inheritance. As a result, the average family size has declined,
from 3.97 persons in 1946 to 3.51 in 1982.
A final cause of declining birth rates is the disappearance in Cyprus
of the rural-urban dichotomy, in which higher birth rates are registered
in the countryside. The postwar period saw an increasing movement of
people to the towns, on either a daily or a permanent basis. This fact,
together with the compactness of the island, has resulted in "the
near fusion of urban and rural life," in the words of L. W. St.
John Jones, a student of Cypriot demography. The rapid and effective
dissemination of typical urban attitudes contributed to a rural
fertility rate not much higher than the urban one. Contraceptives were
easily available at modest cost all over the island; abortions, widely
carried out in private clinics, were seen not as matters of moral or
religious controversy, but simply as another means of family planning,
albeit a drastic one.
Emigration
Emigration of Cypriots abroad has often been on a large enough scale
to affect population growth. As a demographic phenomenon, it has been
viewed as an extension of rural to urban movement. At times when a
future in the towns was unpromising for those intent on escaping rural
poverty, there was the additional safety value of emigration. Cypriots
frequently availed themselves of this opportunity instead of living in
crowded slums in their country's towns, and their relatively small
numbers meant that recipient countries could easily absorb them.
Although there was emigration as early as the 1930s, there is no
available data before 1955.
The periods of greatest emigration were 1955-59, the 1960s, and
1974-79, times of political instability and socioeconomic insecurity
when future prospects appeared bleak and unpromising. Between 1955 and
1959, the period of anticolonial struggle, 29,000 Cypriots, 5 percent of
the population, left the island. In the 1960s, there were periods of
economic recession and intercommunal strife, and net emigration has been
estimated at about 50,000, or 8.5 percent of the island's 1970
population. Most of these emigrants were young males from rural areas
and usually unemployed. Some five percent were factory workers and only
5 percent were university graduates. Britain headed the list of
destinations, taking more than 75 percent of the emigrants in 1953-73;
another 8 to 10 percent went to Australia, and about 5 percent to North
America.
During the early 1970s, economic development, social progress, and
relative political stability contributed to a slackening of emigration.
At the same time, there was immigration, so that the net immigration was
3,200 in 1970-73. This trend ended with the 1974 invasion. During the
1974-79 period, 51,500 persons left as emigrants, and another 15,000
became temporary workers abroad. The new wave of emigrants had Australia
as the most common destination (35 percent), followed by North America,
Greece, and Britain. Many professionals and technical workers emigrated,
and for the first time more women than men left. By the early 1980s, the
government had rebuilt the economy, and the 30 percent unemployment rate
of 1974 was replaced by a labor shortage. As a result, only about 2,000
Cypriots emigrated during the years 1980-86, while 2,850 returned to the
island.
Although emigration slowed to a trickle during the 1980s, so many
Cypriots had left the island in preceding decades that in the late 1980s
an estimated 300,000 Cypriots (a number equivalent to 60 percent of the
population of the Republic of Cyprus) resided in seven foreign
countries.
Internal Migration
Major demographic changes could also be seen in the distribution of
the population between urban and rural areas in the past fifty years.
From 1881 to 1911 there was almost no internal migration, and the rural
population constituted 81 percent of the total. The first change was
noted in the 1931 census, when 22 percent of the population was
classified as town dwellers. In the following decades, especially in the
period 1946-60, the urban proportion grew increasingly rapidly; the
urban population increased by 78 percent in that period, while that of
rural areas grew by only 10 percent. Some 36 percent of the island's
population was concentrated in towns in 1960. The urban share increased
to 42 percent by 1973. In this same period, the rural population
actually declined by 0.7 percent.
Following the displacement of one-third of the population in 1974,
the urban population in the government-controlled area rose to 52
percent in 1976 and 63.5 percent in 1983. Urbanization did not abate in
the following years, for in 1986 fully 64 percent of the population
living in government-controlled areas of Cyprus was urban-based.
According to the republic's 1988 Demographic Report for those areas
controlled by the government, 363,000 persons lived in urban areas and
199,300 in rural areas. Such a phenomenal change in the island's
demographic composition could not fail to have significant repercussions
in all areas of life.
The Nicosia district, historically the largest of the island's six
districts, continued to expand at a faster rate than the other
districts. In 1881 its population constituted 30 percent of the total;
in 1973, it constituted 37 percent, and in 1986, it was up to 42
percent. In the late 1980s, its population was estimated at 234,000,
despite the fact that a large part of Nicosia is in the occupied north;
Limassol, the second largest district, had 91,500; Paphos, 49,500; and
Famagusta, most of which is under Turkish occupation, 29,100.
Cyprus experienced a rapid and intense economic transformation after
World War II. The traditional economy of subsistence agriculture and
animal husbandry was replaced by a commercial economy, centered in
expanding urban areas. These economic changes resulted from extensive
construction of housing and other facilities for British military
personnel during World War II; exports of minerals (60 percent of all
exports), which became the island's most valuable export in the 1950s;
and the fourteenfold increase in British military spending through the
postwar period. (Cyprus became Britain's most important base in the
eastern Mediterranean after the loss of bases in the Arab countries.)
Independence brought such an acceleration of economic development, the
so-called "economic explosion," that by the end of the 1960s
the objectives of the government's economic planning were not only
fulfilled, but overtaken.
In this context of economic growth, agriculture modernized, farm
machinery became common, irrigation increased, and the scientific use of
pesticides and fertilizers became widespread, but farming became less
important in the economy as a whole. Although agricultural income
tripled during the 1950s, and then doubled in the 1960s, earnings from
industry, construction, trade, tourism, and telecommunications grew even
more, and agriculture's share of the gross domestic product (GDP) declined. This decline brought with it changes in employment
for many. The increasing fragmentation of farms through inheritance and
a shortage of water caused Cypriots to leave farming for full-time or
part-time jobs in other economic sectors. The proximity of employment
opportunities in urban areas only made the transition easier.
The flight from agriculture, which became noticeable in the decade
and a half after World War II, continued after independence and reached
a peak in 1974, when the best and most productive agricultural land fell
under Turkish occupation. In 1960, some 40.3 percent of the economically
active population were agricultural workers; in 1973, the figure were
down to 33.6 percent employed in this sector. In 1988 government figures
estimated only 13.9 percent of the work force earned a living from
farming full time. Although changes in accounting principles are the
cause of some of this decline, the decline of agricultural employment
since the late 1940s was striking.
Urbanization in Cyprus did not result in the annihilation of
traditional values and practices, but in their preservation.
Urbanization took place under conditions that generally spared the
island the problems often connected with migration of large numbers of
unemployed farm workers to urban centers. For one thing, urbanization
occurred in a period of prosperity and increasing economic activity, and
employment was available. In addition, farm workers generally left their
villages only when they had found work in urban areas. Another happy
circumstance was that the island's small size and its good road system
linked most villages to the towns, so that many rural workers could
commute daily to their new jobs. The capital and largest city was
especially well connected to the countryside. Finally, rural migrants
unable to afford housing in Nicosia and other towns were able to settle
in nearby villages, a circumstance that reduced the likelihood of slums.
Many migrants regarded access to secondary education as a principal
reason for moving to the city. While traditional Cypriot agricultural
society valued land above all else and considered education a wasteful
luxury, a modern and diversified economy made education a necessity.
Migrants came to value education as the principal means of improving
their material and social positions. Expansion of education contributed
immensely to the dissemination of urban values and organizations to
rural Cyprus.
Postwar population redistribution in Cyprus was so extensive that
most urban dwellers were born in rural areas. These migrants maintained
close ties with the countryside, and many owned plots of land in their
places of origin. The satisfaction of owning land went beyond increasing
property values, a fact that is easy to understand in Cypriots, who were
an agricultural people until just a generation ago.
Cyprus - Class Structure
From the establishment of Ottoman rule and destruction of the
Venetian aristocracy, Cypriot class structure was free of vast
disparities of wealth and status. Venetian estates were broken up and
given to Turkish settlers, who soon were indistinguishable from their
Greek Cypriot neighbors, until one heard them speak. A small Ottoman
bureaucracy governed the island, aided by the Greek Orthodox clergy,
who, under the millet system, were the leaders of their people.
Some Greek Cypriots engaged in commerce, but the island's population
consisted mostly of small farmers. This pattern continued until the
early decades of this century, when, under British rule, living
standards slowly began to rise.
A small Greek commercial class formed, often drawing its money from
working for the British. In addition to profiting from government
service and increased commerce, some acquired wealth as moneylenders.
Taking advantage of frequent droughts and plagues, moneylenders could
become dominant figures and landowners in the countryside. Their
fortunes were relatively small, however, for Cyprus was a poor country,
with most people living at subsistence levels. The founding of the
cooperative movement in the early years of the twentieth century and
British reforms in later decades broke the power of these small
financiers and permitted farmers to repay their debts at reasonable
rates. The cities had no wealthy class, but only more prosperous groups
that earned their living in government service, the professions, and
business.
From the 1950s to the invasion of 1974, the Cypriot economy bloomed,
and many prospered. The average living standard increased markedly in
both the countryside and the city. Workers commuted to urban areas for
employment, yet lived in their home villages; thus, no slums were
created. Some businessmen in the cities earned substantial amounts of
money through hotels, real estate, and commerce. Although some of these
businessmen became quite wealthy, their money was new. Fortunes in
Cyprus rarely went back beyond a generation.
The substantial economic growth of the Republic of Cyprus since the
mid-1970s furthered these trends. All government-controlled areas
benefited from the prosperous economy, and new modern houses were seen
in every village. Land become very valuable and fortunes could be earned
from land earlier regarded as worthless. Many became rich from the
explosive growth of the tourist industry. Fortunes were also earned from
manufacturing, trade and shipping, and financial services, and at the
beginning of the 1990s the republic had a highly visible class of the
newly wealthy.
The republic's prosperity was widely shared, however. The average
standard of living matched those of some other West European countries.
At the beginning of the 1990s, even workingclass Cypriots regarded
vacations abroad as necessities. A welfare system along West European
lines supported Cypriots in need.
Education was a common means of rising in social status, and most
Cypriots respected higher education and white collar professions. The
expanding economy allowed many Cypriots to have more sophisticated work
than their parents. To move in one generation from farmer to urban
professional became, if not the rule, at least not extraordinary. Given
the small size of the republic, and the still strong tradition of the
extended family, virtually all Cypriots could number among their
relatives farmers, teachers, government employees, small businessmen,
and other professional workers.
Cyprus - Family and Marriage
The structure of the family was affected by the postwar changes. The
family was traditionally the most important institution in Cypriot
society. Especially in village life, people thought of themselves
primarily as members of families, and rarely, according to sociologist
Peter Loizos, spoke of "themselves as individuals in the
existential sense." Others have noted that Greek Cypriots
traditionally identified themselves first as members of families, then
according to their places of origin, and lastly as citizens of a nation.
The typical traditional Greek Cypriot households consisted of a
father, a mother, and their unmarried children. At marriage, the parents
gave their children a portion of land, if available, along with money
and household items. Traditionally, the bridegroom provided the house
and the bride's family the furniture and linens. This was the dowry, the
allocation of an equal portion of the parents' property to the children,
male or female, at the time of marriage, rather than after the death of
the parents. Until the 1950s, this transfer of property at marriage was
agreed to orally by the parties involved; more recently the so-called
dowry contract has been introduced. A formal agreement specifying the
amount of property to be given to the couple, the dowry contract is
signed by all parties and enforced by religious authorities. At the
engagement, for example, a priest will ask if such a contract has been
considered.
After World War II, it became the bride's obligation to provide the
house. Ownership of a house, given the scarcity of land (especially
after the invasion of 1974) and the considerable expense of building,
became a great advantage for a single woman seeking to marry. For this
reason, a great part of the wages of a working woman went to the
construction of a house, for a "good marriage" was as
important at the beginning of the 1990s as it was in the past.
Traditionally all marriages were arranged, generally through the
mediation of a matchmaker. The latter, although unrelated to either
family, knew them well enough to be confident that their children were
well suited. Opportunities for the young themselves to meet were rare
and restricted: at church, in the presence of their parents, and at the
village fountain and during the "Sunday afternoon walks,"
where girls and boys strolled separately. Couples were matched with a
few qualities in mind, and in larger settlements were often relative
strangers. Love was not seen as a good reason for marriage, for romantic
love was not highly esteemed in traditional Cypriot society. Divorce and
separation were virtually unknown, because through the system of
marriage and dowry, kinship and economic ties were so rigidly defined
that neither partner could opt out of a marriage without devastating
social consequences.
Urbanization and modernization have altered Greek Cypriot attitudes
toward marriage. The expansion of the school system has meant that boys
and girls meet from an early age and are exposed to modern ideas about
social and sexual relations. The great increase in the number of women
in the work force also has liberated them from strict parental control.
Even at the beginning of the 1990s, however, economic considerations
remained a decisive factor in matters of sexual morality and marriage
settlements. In farming communities, for example, where daughters were
financially dependent on parents, the latter could still regulate
premarital behavior. Among the lower middle class of wage earners, where
there was little property to divide among the children, parents still
retained considerable authority over their daughters, for a "good
name" was thought to increase the chances of a marriage bringing
upward social mobility. Among affluent urban classes, where girls
associated with boys of similar economic background, parents relaxed
their vigilance considerably, and more typically modern Western
attitudes toward sexual morality emerged.
In traditional Cypriot society, full manhood was attained through
marriage and becoming the main support for a family. Similarly, it was
only through marriage that a woman could realize what was seen as her
main purpose in life, becoming a mother and homemaker. Remaining single
reduced a woman to the marginal role of looking after aged parents and
being on the periphery of her married siblings' lives.
The great importance of a separate "dwelling unit" for the
nuclear family has always been recognized as a prerequisite for the
couple's economic independence. Accordingly, the head of the family has
been seen as morally justified in pursuing the interest of his
dependents in all circumstances. This principle of symferon,
that is, self-interest, overrides every other consideration. Acting in
accordance with the principle of symferon, Greek Cypriot
parents do all in their power to equip their children for the future. In
present-day Cyprus, this involves providing the best possible education
for sons, and securing a house as well as an acceptable education for
daughters.
In traditional Cypriot villages, houses were built close to one
another, encouraging the close contact and cooperation that were
necessary for survival in a context of general poverty. The closely knit
community of families provided a sense of belonging and security, but
also greatly restricted individuals within accepted norms and boundaries
in all aspects of life. Urbanization had a liberating effect. As people
became wage earners, the selfsufficiency of the nuclear family grew at
the expense of community interdependence.
Despite changes in its structure, however, the family remained strong
in Greek Cypriot society. In the period 1985-89, the country's marriage
rate was 9.5 per thousand, the highest in Europe. The period saw a
rising trend in the marriage age for men and women, about one year older
for both than in earlier years. In 1988 the mean age at marriage was
28.7 for grooms, and 25.2 for brides. Grooms and brides in rural areas
still tended to marry younger than their urban counterparts. On the
other hand, the divorce rate had almost doubled from 42 per thousand in
1980 to 68 per thousand in 1988. The number of extramarital births
remained very low by European standards; in 1988 only seventy-two
children were born out of wedlock, a mere 0.7 percent of the total
number of births.
Cyprus - Status of Women
Postwar changes greatly affected Greek Cypriot women's place in
society, especially changes which gave them expanded access to education
and increased participation in the work force. At the beginning of the
century, the proportion of girls to boys enrolled in primary education
was one to three. By 1943, some 80 percent of girls attended primary
school. When, in 1960, elementary education was made compulsory, the two
sexes were equally enrolled. By the 1980s, girls made up 45 percent of
those receiving secondary education. Only after the mid-1960s did women
commonly leave Cyprus to receive higher education. In the 1980s, women
made up about 32 percent of those studying abroad.
Cyprus had long had a high degree of female participation in the work
force. In the period 1960-85, women's share of the work force rose only
slightly, from 40.8 percent to 42.2 percent. However, there were great
changes in where women worked. Women's share of the urban work force
rose from 22 percent to 41 percent, while their share of the rural work
force fell from 51 percent to 44.4 percent. The decline in rural areas
stemmed from the overall shift away from agricultural work, where
women's contribution had always been vital, to employment in urban
occupations.
Cypriot women enjoyed the same rights to social welfare as men in
such matters as social security payments, unemployment compensation,
vacation time, and other common social provisions. In addition, after
1985 women benefited from special protective legislation that provided
them with marriage grants and with maternity grants that, paid them 75
percent of their insurable earnings. Still, a large number of women, the
self-employed and unpaid family workers on farms, were not covered by
the Social Insurance Scheme. These women constituted 28 percent of the
economically active female population.
In 1985 the Republic of Cyprus ratified the United Nations Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. Despite
ratification of this agreement, as of late 1990 there was no legislation
in the Republic of Cyprus that guaranteed the right to equal pay for
work of equal value, nor the right of women to the same employment
opportunities.
The occupational segregation of the sexes was still persistent in
Cyprus at the beginning of the 1990s. Even though the participation of
women in clerical jobs had more than doubled since the late 1970s, only
one woman in fifteen was in an administrative or managerial position in
1985. Women's share of professional jobs increased to 39 percent by the
mid-1980s, compared with 36 percent ten years earlier, but these jobs
were concentrated in medicine and teaching, where women had
traditionally found employment. In fields where men were dominant,
women's share of professional positions amounted to only 11 percent, up
from 8 percent in 1976. In the fields where women were dominant, men
took just under half the professional positions.
Although most Cypriot women worked outside the home, they were
expected to fulfill the traditional domestic roles of housewife and
mother. They could expect little help from their spouses, for most
Cypriot men were not ready to accept any domestic duties, and most women
did not expect them to behave otherwise. Nonetheless, even women with
full-time jobs were judged by the traditional standards of whether they
kept a clean house and provided daily hot meals.
Moreover, even at the beginning of the 1990s, Cypriot women were
still burdened with the expectation of safeguarding the honor of the
family. According to tradition, a woman's duty was to protect herself
against all criticism of sexual immodesty. A study carried out in a
farming community in the mid-1970s found that women were still expected
to avoid any social contact with men that could be construed to have a
sexual content. An expressed desire for male society was seen to reflect
poorly on a woman's honor, and virginity was seen by many villagers,
both men and women, to be a precondition for marriage. The honor of a
family, that is, the sense of dignity of its male members, depended on
the sexual modesty and virtue of its women. These traditional attitudes
have waned somewhat in recent decades, especially in urban areas, but
were still prevalent in the early 1990s. Another indication of the
conservative nature of Greek Cypriot society at the beginning of the
1990s was that the feminist movement in Cyprus was often the object of
ridicule from both sexes. Nevertheless, women's increasing economic
independence was a force for liberation in all sections of the
population.
Cyprus - Religion
The most important church in Cyprus, the Church of Cyprus, is an
autocephalous church in the Orthodox tradition using the Greek liturgy.
It recognized the seniority and prestige of the ecumenical patriarch in
Constantinople, while retaining complete administrative autonomy under
its own archbishop. The Great Schism, as the split between Catholic and
Orthodox became known, had major consequences for the Church of Cyprus.
Under Lusignan and Venetian rule, the Church of Cyprus was pressured to
recognize the authority of the Roman pope. The imposed Roman hierarchy
attempted to remold the Church of Cyprus in the image of the Western
church. Under the Muslim Ottomans, Cypriots were no longer considered
schismatics, but merely unbelievers and followers of an inferior
religion. As such they were allowed considerable autonomy, and the
archbishop was the officially recognized secular as well as religious
leader of his community. Under the British, there was an attempt to
secularize all public institutions, but this move was bitterly opposed
by church authorities, who used the conflict with the state to gain
leadership of the Greek nationalist movement against colonial rule. At
independence Archbishop Makarios III, a young, Western-educated former
monk, was elected president of the republic, holding this position until
his death in 1977. His successor, Archbishop Chrysostomos, was still
head of the Church of Cyprus at the beginning of the 1990s. He was a
conservative leader, both in religious and political matters,
well-suited for a church that had never undergone reforms similar to
those instituted by the Second Vatican Council for the Roman Catholic
Church.
The church had long been composed of four episcopal sees: the
archbishopric of Nicosia, and the metropolitanates of Paphos, Kition,
and Kyrenia. New metropolitanates were created by Makarios in 1973 for
Limassol and Morphou, with a suffragan, or assistant, bishop in Salamis
under the archbishop. A bishop had to be a graduate of the Orthodox
theological seminary in Greece and be at least thirty years of age.
Since Orthodox bishops were sworn to a vow of celibacy and parish clergy
were usually married, bishops were recruits from monasteries rather than
parish churches. Bishops were not appointed by the archbishop, but, like
him, were elected through a system granting representation to laymen,
other bishops, abbots, and regular clergy.
Individual churches, monasteries, dioceses, and charitable
educational institutions organized by the Church of Cyprus were
independent legal persons enjoying such rights and obligations as
holding property. In exchange for many church lands acquired by the
government, the government assumed responsibility for church salaries.
Parish clergy, traditionally married men chosen by their fellow
villagers, were sent for brief training before ordination. In the
twentieth century, modernizers, most notably Archbishop Makarios, were
instrumental in strengthening the quality and training of priests at the
Cypriot seminary in Nicosia.
The monasteries of Cyprus had always been very important to the
Church of Cyprus. By the twentieth century many had long lain in ruins,
but their properties were among the most important holdings of the
church, the island's largest landowner. Although the number of monks
decreased in the postwar era, in the early 1990s there were at least ten
active monasteries in the government-controlled areas.
In the Orthodox church, ritual was to a great extent the center of
the church's activity, for Orthodox doctrine emphasizes the mystery of
God's grace rather than salvation through works and knowledge. Seven
sacraments are recognized: baptism in infancy, followed by confirmation
with consecrated oil, penance, the Eucharist, matrimony, ordination, and
unction in times of sickness or when near death.
Formal services are lengthy and colorful, with singing, incense, and
elaborate vestments according to the occasion for the presiding priest.
Statues are forbidden, but the veneration of icons, located on the
church's walls and often covered with offerings of the faithful, is
highly developed. Easter is the focus of the church year, closing the
Lenten fasting with an Easter Eve vigil and procession. Marriage is a
highly ritualized occasion. Formal divorce proceedings are required for
broken engagements that have been ratified by the church. The wedding
sponsors play an important role in the family, for they usually act as
godparents of all children born of that union.
Religious observance varied. In traditional rural villages, women
attended services more frequently than men, and elderly family members
were usually responsible for fulfilling religious duties on behalf of
the whole family. Church attendance was less frequent in urban areas and
among educated Cypriots. For much of the population, religion centered
on rituals at home, veneration of icons, and observance of certain feast
days of the Orthodox calendar.
Cyprus - Education
One of the most important institutional changes introduced during the
period of British rule was the allocation of a small subsidy for the
establishment of primary schools. A great increase in the number of
primary schools throughout the island was made possible by the Education
Law of 1895, which permitted local authorities to raise taxes to finance
schools. In 1897 there were only 76 schools, run by voluntary and church
donations; twenty years later there were 179. Colonial officials also
subsidized teacher training and agricultural courses, but did not
interfere with local and church authorities in the area of secondary
education.
As a result of a campaign against illiteracy launched by British
authorities, the percentage of illiterate adult Cypriots fell from 33
percent in 1946 to 18 percent in 1960. After independence the illiteracy
rate dropped still further, to 9.5 percent in 1976, the last year for
which there are statistics. In that year, 15 percent of women were
illiterate, as were 3.2 percent of men. This improvement reflected the
growing school enrollment. In 1960 as much as 25 percent of the
population had never attended school, but by 1986-87 this figure had
dropped to 6 percent. Another indication of the expansion of education
was that in 1946 only 5 percent of adult women had attended secondary
schools; forty years later 30 percent had.
During the colonial period, the main educational goal was the
inculcation of national ideals and the strengthening of ethnic identity.
After independence, goals became more practical. A welleducated
population was seen as the best way of guaranteeing a thriving economy,
a rise in overall living standards, and a vigorous cultural life. The
great importance attached to education could be seen in the significant
rise in government spending on it during the period since independence.
In 1960 education accounted for 3.4 percent of the gross national
product (GNP). By 1987 education accounted for 5.6 percent of GNP and 11.6
percent of the government's budget.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there was an abundance of qualified
teachers for all levels and types of schools, as well as administrative
personnel, all of whom were accredited by a special committee of the
Ministry of Education. All public schools had uniform curricula; the
preparation of school textbooks was the responsibility of committees of
teachers and administrators, working in close cooperation with
educational authorities in Greece. Some instructional material for both
primary and secondary education was donated by the Greek government.
Cypriot schools were also well provided with modern teaching equipment.
A principal challenge at the beginning of the 1990s was providing
education more responsive to the needs of the economy. The first
vocational-technical schools were established after independence in an
attempt to provide the rapidly expanding economy with technicians and
skilled workers. However, Cyriots retained a tendency to choose academic
rather than technical courses, for reasons of social prestige. Cyprus
therefore faced a chronic shortage of skilled workers and a high rate of
unemployment for university graduates. In the second half of the 1980s,
this trend had ended. In the 1986-87 academic year, only 5.3 percent of
students opted for the classical academic course of studies, compared
with 46.2 percent in the 1965-66 academic year. About half of all
students chose to concentrate on economic and commercial courses; about
one-fifth percent chose scientific courses; and onefifth percent,
vocational-technical courses.
The Greek Cypriot education system consisted of preprimary and
primary schools, secondary general and secondary technical/vocational
schools, and special schools for the blind, deaf, and other teachable
handicapped persons. In addition, there were institutions for teacher
training, specialized instruction, and informal education. As of 1990,
there was no university in the Republic of Cyprus, and until one opened
in the early 1990s, further studies had to be pursued abroad. There were
a small number of private schools.
The constitution of 1960 assigned responsibility for education to the
Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communal chambers. After withdrawal of
the Turkish Cypriots from all state institutions, the government
proceeded with the establishment of the Ministry of Education in 1965.
Under this ministry, the education system evolved its present structure:
one to two and one-half years of preprimary schooling for children aged
three to five and one-half years; six years of primary school for
children aged five and onehalf to eleven and one-half years; six years
of secondary schooling, followed by two to three years of higher
education for those who did not go to study abroad.
The development of preprimary education was a relatively recent
phenomenon in Cyprus. In 1973 only 11 percent of children under five
years of age attended public or private nurseries or kindergartens.
Following the 1974 invasion, the state became much more involved with
preprimary education through its establishment of nurseries and
kindergartens for the thousands of refugees from northern areas. The
1980s saw a further expansion of public education of this kind.
Primary education was always free in Cyprus and aimed at the
all-around education of young children. After 1962 primary education was
compulsory, and primary schools were found in all communities, even
remote villages. In the 1986-87 academic year, there were 357 public
primary schools, and l6 private ones (most of the latter for the
children of foreign residents).
Secondary education, which was also free, but not compulsory, was
open without examination to all children who had completed primary
schooling. It was divided into two stages, each consisting of three
grades. During the first stage, the gymnasium, all students were taught
the same general subjects, with a special emphasis on the humanities.
The second stage consisted of either the lyceum, which offered five main
fields of specialization (classical studies, science, economics,
business, and languages), or a vocational-technical course. Schools of
the second category aimed at providing industry with technicians and
craftsmen. Vocational schools trained many students for work in the
country's important tourist industry; technical schools emphasized
mathematics, science, and training in various technologies.
After independence the number of students at the secondary level
increased rapidly, rising from 26,000 in the 1960-61 academic year to
42,000 ten years later. By the second half of the 1980s, 98 percent of
those who completed primary school attended secondary schools, compared
with about 75 percent twenty years earlier.
Although Cyprus had no university of its own (the long-planned
University of Cyprus was expected to begin enrolling students for some
courses in 1991), many Cypriots were at foreign universities, and the
percentage of students studying at the university level, 29 percent, was
among the highest in the world. During the 1970s and 1980s, an average
of more than over 10,000 Cypriots studied abroad annually. During the
1970s, more than half of these students were in Greece, and about
one-fifth were in Britain. In the 1980s, the United States became an
important destination for students going abroad, generally surpassing
Britain. The number of women studying abroad increased markedly during
the 1970s and 1980s, going from 24 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in
1987.
Cyprus did, however, provide some opportunities for third-level
training, and in the late 1980s attracted some of those who earlier
would have studied abroad. In 1987 there were seven public and ten
private institutions of higher learning, where about one-fourth of the
island's secondary school graduates were enrolled. The public
institutions were the Pedagogical Academy of the Ministry of Education,
which trained kindergarten and primary school teachers; the Higher
Technical Institute of the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance, which
trained mechanical, electrical, and civil engineers; the College of
Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources; the
School of Nursing, the School of Midwifery, and the Psychiatric School
of Nursing under the Ministry, of Health; and the Hotel and Catering
Institute under the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance. Private
institutions offered courses in business administration, secretarial
studies, mechanical and civil engineering, banking and accounting, hotel
and catering, and communications.
Cyprus - Health and Welfare
Mortality rates and the health of Greek Cypriots rose steadily in the
postwar era. The eradication of malaria was an important cause for this
improvement, as were material prosperity and the diffusion of up-to-date
health information. Since independence in 1960, the Ministry of Health
has been responsible for improving public health and providing public
medical services, as well as overseeing the extensive private health
care sector.
Government medical services were available to all at the beginning of
the 1990s. The poor were entitled to free services; middle-income
families paid for care at reduced rates. These two groups accounted for
well over half the population; upper-income persons paid for the full
costs of medical services. In addition, there were a number of health
plans subsidized by employers and trade unions. Civil servants and
members of police and military units received free medical care.
Cypriots needing care not available in the republic were sent abroad at
government expense.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there were six general hospitals, all
in the main towns. In addition, there were twentyone rural health
centers and a psychiatric hospital in Nicosia. In 1987 there were 1,870
hospital beds, compared with 1,592 in 1960. The private health sector
was extensive, and more than threequarters of all doctors and dentists
had their own practices or practiced part time in private clinics.
Taking both public and private care into account, in 1989 there was 1
hospital bed per 166 inhabitants, 1 doctor per 482 inhabitants, and 1
dentist for every 1,356 inhabitants.
The improvement in the island's health care during the postwar period
was reflected by increased life expectancy. In the 1983-87 period,
Cypriot women could expect to live 77.8 years, and men 73.9 years,
compared with 69 and 64 years, respectively, for the period 1948-50. The
improvement in the infant mortality rate was even more striking, with 11
deaths per 1,000 births in the mid-1980s, compared with 63 per 1,000 at
mid-century.
The main reasons for improved health conditions on the island were
the Cypriots' constant pursuit of better living standards, their
consuming concern with their family's welfare, the close urban-rural
ties, and the rapid diffusion of and receptiveness to innovative ideas
in health care.
Cyprus - Social Insurance
The five-year development plans adopted by the government of Cyprus
increasingly stressed that a developing economy was the best means to
improve the welfare and living standards of all sectors of the
population. The plan covering the 1989-93 period had as its major
objectives improving living standards, attaining higher levels of social
welfare, and having a more equitable distribution of national income and
economic burdens.
Beginning with independence, the state, trade unions, and the
employers' associations had cooperated in establishing an extensive
network of social security that included social insurance, death
benefits, medical treatment and hospitalization, education, and housing.
The crowning success of this effort was the national Social Insurance
Scheme. As introduced by colonial authorities in 1957, it was limited
with regard to both the number of persons covered and the benefits it
could provide. In 1964 the plan was improved and expanded to cover every
person gainfully employed on the island, including even the
self-employed. The welfare program included maternity leave and
assistance for sickness and workrelated injuries. Legislation providing
for annual paid vacations was introduced in 1967. By 1987 Cypriots
working five days a week were entitled to fifteen days of annual leave a
year; those working six days a week had the right to eighteen days.
Supporting this entitlement was a central vacation fund to which all
participating employers were required to contribute 6 percent of
insurable earnings.
A system of unemployment compensation was introduced in 1968. Its
main objectives were protecting employees against arbitrary dismissal,
regulating how much advance notice was required before dismissal, and
setting the amount of unemployment compensation.
The Social Insurance Scheme was fundamentally improved in 1973. For
the first time, the plan included a disability pension, and coverage of
the self-employed was extended. The social insurance program now
included a whole range of benefits. Some benefits were short-range, such
as unemployment, sickness, or injury benefits, marriage and maternity
benefits and disablement and funeral grants. Long-term benefits included
pensions for elderly widow, and invalids, and payments to orphans and
survivors.
In June 1974, social insurance payments were increased 25 percent to
reach West European standards and meet relevant International Labor
Organisation criteria. The economic crisis stemming from the Turkish
invasion, with its 30 percent unemployment, compelled the government to
reduce all pensions by 20 percent and suspend the payment of
unemployment benefits, as well as marriage, birth, and funeral grants.
By 1977 benefits were restored to their preinvasion levels, partly
through the establishment of a separate fund for unemployment benefits.
The Social Insurance Law of 1980 set contributions and benefits
according to the incomes of the insured. The new program maintained the
previous flat-rate principle for basic benefits, but introduced
supplementary benefits with contributions directly related to the
incomes of insured persons. In addition to compulsory coverage of all
gainfully employed persons, the new program allowed those formerly
employed to continue their social insurance on a voluntary basis. In the
second half of the 1980s, participants had amounts equal to 15.5 percent
of their insurable earnings paid into the central fund. For employees,
the contributions came from three sources: 6 percent from employees
themselves, 6 percent from employers, and 3.5 percent from the
government. For the selfemployed , the government paid 3.5 percent, and
the insured the rest.
Apart from the state Social Insurance Scheme, an increasing number of
insurance or pension funds were being registered with the Income Tax
Department of the Ministry of Finance. In 1987 there were 1,065 such
funds, with a total of C� 5.1 million Cyprus pounds in benefit
payments. The number of insured contributors to all funds, public and
private, amounted to 214,522 in 1987, compared with 183,000 in 1973. In
this period, the government's annual contribution increased from C� 1.7
million to C� 23.7 million. In 1986, the government's payments of
social insurance benefits constituted 4.5 percent of GNP, compared with
1.6 percent in 1970.
Cyprus - Social Welfare
Social welfare policy was introduced for the first time in Cyprus in
1946, when legislation was enacted to regulate the supervision of
juvenile offenders, the aftercare of reform school boys, and the
protection of deprived children. After independence social welfare
became the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare Services
under the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance. The government
committed itself to an active role in social policy when it stated in
1967 that "it recognizes that health, education and other social
considerations affect and are interdependent with a vast complex of
variables which determine both the social and economic welfare of the
island."
By the 1970s, social welfare had evolved into a body of activities
designed to enable individuals, family groups, and communities to cope
with social problems. In the late 1980s, the state provided five main
categories of services: delinquency and social defense; child and family
welfare; community work and youth services; social services to other
departments; and public assistance.
Delinquency and social defense services were concerned with juvenile
and adult offenders. They included pretrial reports on juveniles,
supervision of persons placed on probation, follow-up care for those
leaving detention centers (obligatory for juveniles, voluntary for
adults), and supervision of juveniles involved in antisocial behavior
when requested by parents or school authorities.
The primary recipients of child and family welfare were children
removed from families where conditions could no longer be remedied. Also
served were children needing protection, but remaining with their
families, and children threatened by such problems as chronic illness,
marriage breakdown, and homelessness. In these cases, the department
could supervise fostering arrangements and adoptions. Service of this
kind also involved inspecting and licensing homes for children, day
nurseries, and childcare personnel. In 1986 there were 207 day- care
centers, 164 of them privately run; state and local governments operated
the rest. Children placed in the state's care lived in the department's
four children's homes; delinquent youth (aged thirteen to eighteen)
lived in four youth hostels. There was also a home for retarded
children, one section of which was reserved for retarded adults.
Community work and youth services involved the department in
providing expert advice, and occasionally financial assistance, to
voluntary community and youth organizations. Especially after 1974, the
department provided much support for youth centers, where recreational
facilities were available for working young people. In the late 1980s,
there were ninety-eight of these youth centers, eighty-three of which
were run by local governments.
Social services to other departments included long-term care for
persons released from psychiatric institutions and, on occasion, for
former medical patients; prison welfare measures; and assistance for
students having difficulty adjusting to school.
Public assistance was first instituted in 1952 to reduce poverty by
offering economic assistance to very poor families, the aged, and the
disabled. This service was greatly expanded in 1973, when every Cypriot
citizen was made eligible for financial assistance "for the
maintenance of a minimum standard of living, and the satisfaction of his
basic needs," and promised social services for solving "his
personal problems and the improvement of his living conditions."
The ultimate objective of these services was to make their recipients
socially and economically selfsufficient . By the time of the Turkish
invasion in 1974, public assistance expenditures were minimal, given
full employment and comparatively high living standards. The years
immediately after the invasion saw a swelling of public assistance
services. By 1987, when the economy was fully restored, there were only
5,087 recipients of public assistance, half of whom were aged or
disabled.
Cyprus - Refugees and Social Reconstruction
During and immediately after the 1974 invasion, the Department of
Social Welfare Services undertook the housing, clothing, and feeding of
the 200,000 refugees. The social needs stemming from the invasion were
so great, however, that a new agency, the Special Service for the Care
and Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons, was established in September
1974. Initially this agency concentrated on emergency relief by
distributing food and clothing and providing medical assistance to the
refugee camps. After a few months, it became clear that the thousands of
displaced people would not return to their homes in the foreseeable
future. As a result, the agency gradually expanded its scope, to aid the
reintegration of the displaced into the new society forming in the
governmentcontrolled area, once their immediate physical survival had
been ensured.
Housing for the wave of refugees was initially provided by the
construction of twenty-three camps housing 20,000 displaced persons in
tents. Thousands, however, remained outside the camps in shacks,
makeshift barracks, public buildings, and half-finished houses. By the
end of 1975, the service had replaced its tents with wooden barracks,
built by the occupants themselves with materials or money provided by
the service.
Another initiative that contributed to solving the refugee problem
was the Incentive Scheme for the Reactivation of Refugees. Instituted in
1976, this program provided financial incentives to help refugees get
back on their feet. Funds were available to all refugees, but special
emphasis was placed on certain occupational groups that could soon
become economically self-reliant, such as farmers in remote areas. By
fostering economic recovery, the program successfully combated a culture
of despair in the refugee community and spared the government a
considerable drain on its public assistance funds. Despite the magnitude
of the refugee problem, the government concluded that by 1977 its
measures had succeeded in rehabilitating all groups affected by the
invasion.
The Special Service for the Care and Rehabilitation of Displaced
Persons also undertook the construction of low-cost housing projects. In
the 1975-86 period, 12,500 low-income families found housing in such
projects, which also provided social services in the form of day-care
centers, schools, and community and commercial centers. Other government
programs that enabled thousands of refugees to live in acceptable
housing involved "selfhousing " on either private or
state-owned land. In the period 1975- 86, nearly 10,500 houses were
built on private properties, and 11,000 on state-owned sites, at a cost
to the government of C�80 million. By 1987 more than 43,000 families,
about 80 percent of displaced persons, had been housed.
Once the refugee housing problem had been resolved, the government
extended its housing program to include lowand middleincome groups, who
also faced serious housing problems because of a tremendous increase in
the cost of land and construction. Through a combination of controls on
the value of land and housing loans, the government succeeded in
significantly improving housing conditions.
Also introduced were a number of programs such as child care and
youth recreation centers, hostels for the aged, assistance for invalids,
and welfare community centers, all of which were incorporated in the
existing services of the Department of Social Welfare Services. In this
way, the objectives of social policy were redefined as the
"systematization, institutionalization, and legalization of public
assistance, and the reconstruction of personal, family and social life
in the island."
