Radio War Nerd #337 — Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, Part 1 (Neolithic - Suez Crisis)
Recorded: July 8, 2022
Yes, Virginia, before Russia invaded Ukraine there was another European country that was invaded and carved up by a more powerful military — the year was 1974, the victim was Cyprus, and the invader was Turkey, NATO's second largest military, backed by the US. In part 1 of our Cyprus series, we look at the overwhelmingly ethnic Greek island-nation's long history under various colonial rulers up through the 1956 Suez Crisis, when Cyprus was still a British colony subjected to the wrath of the dying British Empire.
Maps
* Cyprus, eastern Mediterranean
*Cyprus today
Total time: 1:57:56
Comments (24)
My Theory of Hitchens is that someone, somewhere, had the goods on him, and that allowed this shadowy someone to activate CH as an asset after that fateful September morn.
hitchens was just a careerist. At times, especially early in his career, he was a decent writer. He just got worse and worse as time wore on. Probably the booze. The atheism shtick was the worst. Here's Finkelstein on Hitchens: https://www.counterpunch.org/2003/09/10/hitchens-as-model-apostate/
I think the CIA wrote Wiki's bio of Gary Webb. Good stuff on Hitchens, though he did write an entertaining bio of Kissinger.
Great episode guys, can't wait for part 2. Also, I am very much looking forward to episodes on the Greek Independence (1821) and the Greek civil war. I remember talking to Mark briefly @ Slatterys about Hitchens and his book on Cyprus, it made my day to see you are giving the RWN treatment to this issue. Thank you!
Another great episode exploding the myth of British 'enlightened' imperial rule. A myth still widely promoted. Take the "Commonwealth Games", for instance - we're just one big happy family with Lizzie II as head of the household! I was always kind of puzzled that Cyprus was represented there... Very much looking forward to the next episode.
Please stop butchering the Greek. It's killing me. I'll help if you like. (must repost, sorry if dupe)
Classic RWN episode, thank you
Btw - surely Hugh Grant doesn't say that jaw-dropping line in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"? I don't remember it anyway. Could it be from the comparably gruesome "Love, Actually", in which HG plays the Prime Minister...?
This was a great, great episode, thank you.
the lesson of the show: don't trust the web, save stuff to disk if it's important I was signing along with a lot of the tunes trying to gauge how loud I should be if no one else sang along lol. Those songs are really made for everyone to partake, like readymade karaoke
I must confess I was a Hitch-head when I was a sophomore in college trying to come off as an intellectual. Excellent show in Brooklyn last week boys. I thought you really added something with the live elements and audience engagement. Can't wait until the next one in NYC.
Cyprus, Greek War of Independence, Greek Civil War- I really love this new and essential modern Hellenistic arc. A lot of the independence series should just be spent talking about Byron IMHO. Absolute legend. I’ve also read a while ago that another reason Eisenhower et al. were on the right side of Suez is that it would have been terrible PR to support both the invasion of Egypt and the Hungarian uprising around the same time, which makes a lot of sense.
Great ep guys, including the teaser of more Greece-themed episodes and the Chopper reference.
Looking forward to more Greece-themed episodes!
Great episode guys. Looking forward to part 2
Today was a good day. Then I checked Patreon. Now it is a great day.
An interesting, ironic fact about Grivas is that during the "December events" of 1944 in Athens l, his organisation (X) was basically embedded with the British army in their intervention to crush the communist resistance forces.
I want to add, you guys should be very wary of Wikipedia entries related to Greek 20th century political history, especially WW2 and the Civil War, because they are heavily edited by far-right Greeks. As an example: "Georgios Siantos (nicknames: Geros "Old man", Theios "Uncle"; Greek: Γεώργιος "Γιώργης" Σιάντος; 1890 – 20 May 1947) was a prominent figure of the Communist Party of Greece (Greek: Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, romanized: Kommunistiko Komma Elladas, KKE) who served as acting general secretary of the party, Soviet puppet and as a leader of the National Liberation Front (EAM)/Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) Resistance movement during the German occupation of Greece in World War II." Which is unfortunate because there aren't a lot of good English-language accounts for that period.
So did they sacifice the cat to bury it with its master?
Too my great shame, and also amusement, Michael McFaul is one of the only notable alumns from my high school. I only realized it this year and I'm pretty sure I've seen him give a speech before.
Is the James Bond film John mentions “You Only Live Twice?” Bond fakes his death in that one to get from Hong Kong to Japan after his burial at sea.
We keep throwing shade at Virginia, why is this?
Northern Virginia
I had a law professor named Symeon C. Symeonides who is a Cypriot. He is a legal scholar who has done work on international and extraterritorial law, but I wonder if he or someone in his orbit would be useful to gather additional information on this situation.