Aphrodite's troubled island

摘要

Most Greek-Cypriots date their island's "problem" to July 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the north. But Cyprus is one of those places that has too much history. The roots of its problem stretch much further back.rnIn medieval days Cyprus was the eastern bastion of Venice. In 1570-71 it was bloodily conquered by the Ottomans-the Venetian commander of Famagusta, Marcantonio Bragadino, was flayed alive after surrendering. The island remained in the Ottoman empire, with a Christian majority, until it was ceded to Britain at the 1878 Congress of Berlin (Disraeli, Britain's prime minister, noted that Bismarck's idea of progress was to seize somebody else's territory).