{"id":20242,"date":"2018-07-16T08:07:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T12:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=20242"},"modified":"2021-04-19T11:17:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T16:17:54","slug":"the-museum-of-barbarism-on-the-island-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/the-museum-of-barbarism-on-the-island-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The Museum of Barbarism on the Island of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"map\"ThePaphos, Cyprus<\/em>. Let\u2019s begin our story with Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love, who was born here.<\/p>\n

Then we\u2019ll talk about Audrey Hepburn, Lazarus, Richard the Lionheart, Walt Disney\u2019s\u00a0Snow White<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0and Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Othello<\/em>\u00a0before we get to the Museum of Barbarism.<\/p>\n

The prologue to our story is that folks have been living in Cyprus for a really long time. So long that they were the first people in the world to domesticate cats over 9,000 years ago. A Neolithic village has been unearthed called\u00a0Choirokoitia<\/em>\u00a0that\u2019s surprisingly sophisticated for being 8,000 years old. It\u2019s now a\u00a0UN World Heritage Site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThese folks worshipped a fertility goddess, as did the Mycenaean Greeks (the Greeks of Homer\u2019s\u00a0Iliad<\/em>), who conquered the island in about 1,400 BC and merged the two deities into one, born fully adult from\u00a0aphros<\/em>, sea-foam.<\/p>\n

This was depicted in one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance, Sandro Botticelli\u2019s\u00a0Birth of Venus<\/em>\u00a0(in 1486 \u2013 Venus being the Roman Aphrodite):<\/p>\n

\"artistThere is an appropriately beautiful small bay on the southwest coast of Cyprus called the Rock of Aphrodite, where she stepped ashore \u2013 or so the ancient world believed.<\/p>\n

\"beach\"A little ways away is the Temple Sanctuary of Aphrodite, where pilgrims came from every Greek city and kingdom for 2,000 years to worship her.<\/p>\n

\"stoneAphrodite was the goddess of love, desire, and fertility or having children.\u00a0Few things were more important than that to people then as now. We think of Greek mythology as cool stories we learned as kids, but the ancient Greeks believed in and prayed to their deities just as fervently as any Christian, Jew, or Hindu today.\u00a0Vast numbers of them prayed to Aphrodite more than any other.<\/p>\n

Which may explain why \u2013 today \u2013 couples travel from all over the world to get married here. Marriage ceremonies and honeymoons are big business in Cyprus.<\/p>\n

Back to ancient times. The Roman poet Ovid tells the story of a Greek sculptor who carved a marble statue of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with it and prayed to Aphrodite to make her real \u2013 and she granted his wish. They had a son named Paphos, who founded the city of that name near Aphrodite\u2019s Sanctuary \u2013 where I am writing this.<\/p>\n

The name of the sculptor was Pygmalion. In 1912, George Bernard Shaw wrote a play with that name but with a modern twist to the myth, about a professor (Henry Higgins) who decides to transform (come alive) a cockney flower girl (Eliza Doolittle) into a lady of high society. In 1964, Shaw\u2019s play was made into a movie,\u00a0My Fair Lady<\/a>, starring Audrey Hepburn.<\/p>\n

The Greeks came to Cyprus not just for love, however.\u00a0They came to mine copper, which the island had a lot of \u2013 so much so they called it\u00a0Kypros<\/em>, the land of copper, as did the Romans after them. The Latin word for copper was\u00a0cyprium<\/em>, the metal of Cyprus. The Romans later shortened this to\u00a0cuprum<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 which is why the chemical symbol for copper is\u00a0cu<\/em>\u200b.<\/p>\n

The Romans loved Cyprus for its perfect weather and perfect soil out of which they could abundantly and cheaply produce wheat, wine, and olive oil.\u00a0And it was here that St. Paul came on his first missionary journey in 45 AD, converting the first Roman official to Christianity, Sergius Paulus, the Proconsul of Roman Cyprus at the capital of Paphos (Acts 13-6-13).<\/p>\n

We all know the story told in John 11 of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.\u00a0But what happened to Lazarus afterwards?\u00a0He went to Cyprus where Paul appointed him Bishop of Kittim (present-day Larnaca) and he lived on for another 30 years. There is a beautiful church, the\u00a0Agios Lazaros<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0built over his tomb:<\/p>\n

\"church\"
\nWhen at the end of the 3rd\u00a0century, the Roman Empire and Christianity split in two, Rome\/Catholic and Byzantium (Constantinople)\/Orthodox, Cyprus became part of the latter.\u00a0 The place prospered\u00a0until Arab hordes showed up in the 650s trying to conquer it in the name of their rationale for imperialism, Islam.\u00a0The Byzantine Cypriots fought them off for 800 years, but at great cost, with magnificent cities like Salamis destroyed\u2026<\/p>\n

\"museum\u00a0\u2026and Arab Moslem raiders carrying off countless thousands over the centuries into slavery.<\/p>\n

One benefit to posterity, however, is that Christian monks retreated from the Arab raids deep into the high Troodos (rhymes with produce) Mountains to build monasteries and churches adorned with magnificent art. The Painted Churches of Troodos are today a\u00a0UN World Heritage site<\/a>.\u00a0The most famous is\u00a0Kykko<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"golden<\/p>\n

\"churchThen in 1191, Isaac Komnenos, the King of Cyprus, made a big mistake. The fleet of Richard the Lionheart\u2019s (1157-1199) Third Crusade was dispersed by a storm on the way to the Holy Land near Cyprus. Komnenos captured the ship carrying Richard\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Princess Berengaria of Navarre, and held her hostage. You don\u2019t do that to a guy nicknamed Lionheart.<\/p>\n

Richard proceeded to conquer the whole island and turned it over to a group of French Catholic knights led by Guy de Lusignan. The knights built a series of fortified castles around the island to ward off the Moslem “Saracens.” The most spectacular was atop a vertiginous crag high above the port of Kyrenia named after a crazy hermit who lived near there whom the knights dubbed St. Hilarion.<\/p>\n

When Walt Disney was making his classic\u00a0Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/a>\u00a0in 1937, he chanced upon pictures of St. Hilarion\u2019s Castle, which his imagination transformed into the fairytale castle of the movie. Can you see how he got the idea?<\/p>\n

\"mountians\"<\/p>\n

\"greek<\/p>\n

\"pageIn 1473, Venice inherited the island via the Venetian widow of the last ruler descended from Guy de Lusignan. The Ottoman Turks had conquered Constantinople twenty years earlier (1453) and the Venetians had to build extraordinary walls of defense around Cypriot cities and ports from Ottoman raids.<\/p>\n

In 1506, Cristoforo Moro, grandson of a famous Doge (elected ruler) of the same name, was sent to be the Venetian Lord Lieutenant (governor) of Cyprus.\u00a0He lived in a fortress in the port of Famagusta for two years \u2013 and when he returned to Venice in 1508 without his wife, rumors abounded that he had killed her for her infidelity.\u00a0His wife\u2019s name was Desdemona.<\/p>\n

In 1570, the Moslem Ottomans finally conquered Cyprus, slaughtering tens of thousands of Christian Cypriots.\u00a0So in 1604, when Shakespeare wrote his play\u00a0Othello<\/em>, he confused Venetian rule of Cyprus 100 years earlier with Turkish rule of his day, and the “Dark Moor” of Othello with the Venetian governor who happened to have a name meaning dark.<\/p>\n

Thus, the fortress in Famagusta is, to this day, known as Othello\u2019s Castle:<\/p>\n

\"castle\"Under the Ottomans, Cyprus fell off everyone\u2019s chart and lapsed into poverty and neglect. Cypriots stuck to their religion, however, staying Christian while the only Moslems were Turkish immigrants.<\/p>\n

By the 1870s, the Ottoman Empire was the \u201cSick Man of Europe\u201d and ceded control of Cyprus to England.\u00a0After WWI, it became a British Crown Colony which was granted full independence in 1960. And then the civil war began.<\/p>\n

Turkish Cypriots, who had by now been living in Cyprus for 400 years, comprised one-third of the population, living mostly in the northern third of the island.\u00a0They advocated\u00a0taksim<\/em>\u00a0or partition of the island into separate Greek and Turkish realms. Greek Cypriots wanted\u00a0enosis<\/em>\u00a0or autonomous union with Greece and them controlling the whole island.<\/p>\n

Independence was supposed to be a democratic compromise with both Greek and Turkish communities having rights, as per an agreement between Britain, Greece, and Turkey.\u00a0Almost immediately, atrocities broke out between both communities, predominately perpetrated by the Greeks.<\/p>\n

And so it was that, driving down a street in Turkish Nicosia, I saw a small sign next to a small home that said\u00a0Museum of Barbarism<\/em>.\u00a0There were horrifying pictures and descriptions by British eyewitness journalists of atrocities of Greeks upon Turks that would turn your stomach.<\/p>\n

\"TheIn 1967, a military junta seized power in Greece and sponsored more fighting and atrocities, which became so intolerable by 1974 that Turkey launched a full-scale military invasion of northern Cyprus.<\/p>\n

The Greek junta fell from power (as did the government it had set up in Cyprus), the Turkish military consolidated control over the northern third of the island, and in 1984, Turkish Cypriots declared their independence for their region as The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The only country that diplomatically recognizes it in the world to this day is Turkey.<\/p>\n

In Famagusta, the old part of the city is within the Venetian walls. The folks who lived there in 1974 were Turkish.\u00a0Nearby is a mile-long paradisiacal beach called Varosha lined with resort hotels and condos.\u00a0I walked along this beach with an elderly resident who spoke some English. He pointed to a building that towered over the beach.<\/p>\n

“In 1974, Greek snipers were firing from the roof of this building and lobbying mortars into the old city where my wife and I lived,” he related.\u00a0“We were saved by a Turkish fighter jet that bombed it in half, slicing it like cheese.”<\/p>\n

The building \u2013 a condo complex \u2013 has never been reconstructed and stands today as it was bombed in 1974:<\/p>\n

\"bulidingVarosha epitomizes the absurd tragedy of Northern Cyprus.\u00a0Prior to 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, a favorite haunt of movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Brigitte Bardot.\u00a0Ever since 1974, the\u00a0entire mile<\/em>\u00a0of hotels and condos along the Varosha beach are abandoned and empty.\u00a0Varosha is a ghost town.<\/p>\n

\"varoshaEvery building you see, all the way in the distance and beyond, is a deserted ruin. Greek property claims keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Southern Cyprus is riddled with resort complexes, like the one I\u2019m staying at in Paphos. Here\u2019s the view from my balcony:<\/p>\n

\"poolTourists can fly directly to the airports at Paphos or Larnaca from two dozen cities in Europe.\u00a0 There are no direct flights whatsoever to Northern Cyprus.\u00a0Greek political pressure demands that Northern Cyprus be shunned and isolated.\u00a0No direct flights, no direct trade, none whatsoever. To get there, you have to fly via Turkey or cross over from the south via the one single border crossing in Nicosia.<\/p>\n

Traveling through the north and talking to people there can break your heart.\u00a0These are decent friendly folks who just want to have their own lives.\u00a0They are not full of anger and grudges, and they are sad that so many Greek Cypriots are. They just want the grudges to be gone.<\/p>\n

This is not to take right-wrong\/good-evil sides. Greek Cypriots, I\u2019m sure, could cite any number of Turkish atrocities committed upon them.\u00a0It is to take a stand that barbarism belongs in a museum \u2013 that grudges need to be over.<\/p>\n

There is enough extraordinary beauty and history in Cyprus to go around. Yet Greek Cypriots refuse to share it with their Turkish counterparts. They engage in a total refusal to recognize the existence of Northern Cyprus, naming it in their maps “Area Under Turkish Occupation” \u2013 just like the Palestinian Arabs refuse to recognize Israel and call it the “Zionist Entity” instead.<\/p>\n

The capital of both Southern\/Greek and Northern\/Turkish Cyprus is Nicosia \u2013 a divided capital with a military “Green Line” running through the city as a border. The historic center of Greek Nicosia has been taken over by an obnoxious infestation of Thai and Vietnamese hookers \u2013 “students” who happen to be all female talking loudly and constantly on their cell phones or to each other.<\/p>\n

Greek Nicosia has an angry weird crummy energy.\u00a0Turkish Nicosia doesn\u2019t have this negative energy \u2013 and no Asian teeny-bopper whores.<\/p>\n

The rest of Greek Cyprus is not like this.\u00a0The energy is welcoming and friendly.\u00a0Brits and Germans flock to Paphos, Russians and French flock to Limassol, businesspeople from the world over flock to Larnaca and all are welcome.\u00a0It\u2019s primarily in Nicosia where the politicians congregate that hatred and vengefulness festers.<\/p>\n

Just past the Museum of Barbarism in Turkish Nicosia, there is an Adidas Superstore, a Samsung Digital Plaza with a wide selection of huge flat screen TVs, a Calvin Klein Jeans store, a very upscale Wine & Gourmet store, and a large billboard with a rotating sign advertising Jim Beam and Jack Daniels whiskey.<\/b><\/p>\n

Women are dressed normally and casually for 70-degree weather, not like tarts, just normal, and there\u2019s not a veil in sight, much less a burqa body bag. This is seriously Westernized Islam Lite. Turkish Cyprus is what we want a Moslem country to be \u2013 the Islamic opposite of fundamentalist Jihadism.<\/p>\n

Back in Paphos, I advised my Greek Cypriot friends not to be sucked into the vortex of mainland Greek idiocy. Greek Cyprus chartered a far different path economically than Greece, being far more free market, business-friendly, and avoiding back-breaking debt paying off public-sector unions.\u00a0The result is substantial Greek Cypriot prosperity.<\/p>\n

Yet, not as much as there could be. “Throttling the economy of Turkish Cyprus hurts you as well,\u201d I told them.\u00a0\u201cYou can both flourish. Make money, not war. You\u2019ll find out quickly how much money you and your fellow Cypriots in the north can make together once there\u2019s peace and respected independence between you.”<\/p>\n

At least they listened \u2013 especially to the “make money, not war” part.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m coming away from here with predominant memories of the beauty and potential of the entire island of Cyprus \u2013 of the vibrancy of the south, of the peacefulness and gentleness of the north. The classic port of Kyrenia is the picture I\u2019ll remember best:<\/p>\n

\"boatsThat and the view of Kyrenia from the top of St. Hilarion\u2019s Castle:<\/p>\n

\"veiw
\nIt\u2019s time for Greek Cypriots, who are flourishing, to let Turkish Cypriots flourish as well.\u00a0It is simply not Christian of Greek Cypriots to want of Turkish Cypriots to either control their lives or ruin their lives.<\/p>\n

Besides, it\u2019s time for the irony to end, the ridiculous irony of grudges, hatred, spite, and a museum of barbarism on Aphrodite\u2019s island of love.<\/p>\n

All photos of Cyprus taken by Jack Wheeler<\/em><\/p>\n

Upcoming Wheeler Expeditions \u2013 click for details on each:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 13-October 2: \u00a0Hidden Central Asia<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

October 8-October 18: Hidden Holy Land<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

November 3-November 10 & November 10-November 17: Himalaya Helicopter Expedition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Click here to get advance notice of expeditions you can join & stunning photos of Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventures<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jack Wheeler is the founder of\u00a0Wheeler Expeditions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Paphos, Cyprus. Let\u2019s begin our story with Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love, who was born here. Then we\u2019ll talk about Audrey Hepburn, Lazarus, Richard the Lionheart, Walt Disney\u2019s\u00a0Snow White,\u00a0and Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Othello\u00a0before we get to the Museum of Barbarism. The prologue to our story is that folks have been living in Cyprus for a really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":20243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[11624,2733,11626,4672,11630,11616,2476,11627,11618,11617,11620,11629,11628,11631,8758,11623,11625,11622,11615,7822],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/image1-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20242"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44627,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20242\/revisions\/44627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20242"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}