Past into Future: Cyprus’ Undivided Literature — Aydin Mehmet Ali and Stephanos Stephanides

Cyprus is one of those places in the world where the commonplace of coming to terms with the past in order to forge some possible future takes on a most acute significance. It may not be necessary to go back beyond a half-century or so to understand the way the past has been used by both Greek and Turkish nationalists to keep resentment, rejection, and indeed hatred of the other ethnic community alive. Still it does not seem too far fetched either to consider that, as often happens, such enmities are fed by a long previous history. Cyprus is strategically located between three continents