People in Cyprus come from all over. Greece, Turkey, Great Britain, Russia, Egypt. It’s one of the biggest charms of this island. However, some of the reasons for people’s arrivals can be tragic. One afternoon I was walking around, looking for somewhere to sit and enjoy the day, when I saw a stark reminder of this. A strange looking bronze sculpture atop a pinkish stone base, set into a small tiered square with pomegranate and cypress trees surrounding it. It looked like a nice place to sit. When I walked up and read the inscription in front, I realized it was commemorating the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide saw up to 1.2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) killed or displaced, from 1915 to 1923 (although most of it occurred between the spring of ‘15 to the autumn of ‘16). Tens of thousands of these refugees turned up in Cyprus. The monument in Larnaca commemorates not just the genocide, but the gratitude that the Armenian people feel toward the people of Cyprus for welcoming them in during a dark and desperate time in their history. It is placed in the spot where the first refugees to Cyprus arrived. 

Today, there are about 3,500 Armenian-Cypriots on the island, qualifying as a recognized minority and “religious group,” despite their distinguishing feature being ethnic, rather than religious. When asked to choose whether they identify more with the Greek-Cypriots or the Turkish-Cypriots, they chose the former community (for rather obvious reasons). Thus, they live mostly on the southern half of the island. They make up a small percent of the population here, but their presence makes the social fabric that much richer. Cyprus welcomes all.

-Rachel