37nen el desarrollo de la aterosclerosis y la trombosis: un descenso de los niveles

The arrival of the Ottoman Empire into Cyprus in the late sixteenth century paved the way for social and demographic structure changes on the island. Adding a mass of Muslims to the native inhabitants of Cyprus was one of the important changes during the Ottoman administration. Another important reform with the arrival of the Ottomans was the ruling system as the Ottomans brought their traditional system, the Millet system, which treated people according to their religions. The Millet system was put into effect immediately after the Ottoman settlement to create a religiously pluralistic structure in order to exclude ethnic bonds between native and new inhabitants. Considering the ruling system was adopted in 1571, these Muslims, even after moving to the island, continued living under the traditional system of the Ottoman rule although Christians/Greeks composed the majority of the population of Cyprus. In conclusion, religion-based identity was constructed in order to categorize and separate people on the basis of their religious beliefs regardless of their political and socioeconomic status starting from the Ottoman period on the island. Political and socioeconomic statuses were afforded no notice under the Ottoman administration as “politically, culturally, and socially the significant fact is [that] there are two populations in Cyprus, one a Greek Orthodox majority, the other a Turkish Muslim minority” (Taeuber, 1955, p. 11).

In the case of religious-based separation, which created unequal stratification on the island (i.e., a tax concession for the Muslim community whereas non-Muslims were paying taxes related to their business), “welfare difference” had not really appeared in the peasants’ classes of either religious group during the Ottoman Empire period on the island. Because most of the peasants were located in the agricultural system of the Ottomans, there were no real social differences that appeared within peasant classes of both communities (cited in

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Kızılyürek, 2005a). Most peasants usually lived in mixed villages and shared the same social conditions and ways of acting together in their daily lives on most occasions such as wedding ceremonies. As a result, before ethnic identities were constructed in Cyprus, there was no social conflict based on ethnicity among Muslims and non-Muslims during the Ottoman Empire (Kızılyürek, 2005a). On the contrary, the mostly peasant classes of both ethnic groups were acting together for specific reasons, regardless of their religion and ethnicity. However, this stability only continued until both religious-based groups realized the importance of their ethnicity; it was only at that point that would they develop rival nationalist feelings.

Until the transformation from the Ottoman administration to the Republic of Turkey was completed, the Ottomans began losing power in many areas, including politics, economics and the military. Although most of the states, particularly in Western Europe, were gaining power and technology in these areas, the Ottomans could not compete with them and become a dependent state upon the West. Therefore, each of the European countries, such as Britain and France, began opening their consulates in the territories of the Ottoman Empire, including Cyprus. The settlement of these European consulates on the island was a result of the industrial revolution, during which the Christian bourgeoisie class of Cyprus turned the settlement process into an opportunity to build a close relationship with these foreign embassies (cited in Kızılyürek, 2005a, p. 211). Eventually, Cyprus itself was affected by every single process of the Ottoman Empire, including the economic evolution and devolution of the empire. However, one-sided developments caused another reason for the creation of inequalities between Turkish Muslims and Greek Christians on the island. While one ethnic group was attaining advantages from the European countries, the other remained under the influence of the current colonial power of the island. While the modernization process accelerated in the Greek Christian community, Turkish Muslims caught up with modernization almost a century later than Greek Cypriots. Parallel with

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nationalist movements in the Ottoman territory, modernization-based nationalist sentiments of the Christian/Greek community on the island paved the way for a gradual disconnect from the traditional structure of government and military-based government of the Ottomans. Besides the effect of modernization on the rise of nationalist feelings in Greek Christians of Cyprus, motherland Greece nationalist ideology also had a very important influence on developing nationalism in the Greek communities on the island. On the other hand, following the traditional system and order of the Ottomans pushed Turkish Cypriots away from obtaining benefits from the new modern world and its reforms until they realized the deficiency of nationalism, at which time they would become a subject of the nationalist attack of Greek Cypriots in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Because of the negative progress in the Ottoman territory, Ottomans declared some reforms called “Tanzimat Reforms” in 1839 in order to maintain their territorial sovereignty. The West also supported the declaration of Tanzimat reforms in order to provide more privileges to Christian communities within the Ottoman Empire after Christians entered the territory. More specifically, according to Tanzimat reforms, equality in most cases between different religious groups such Christians and Muslims was promoted. As Smith states, “Ottoman rule witnessed successive attempts to reform the basis of the empire (Tanzimat), including a resort to ‘Ottomanism’ through equality and citizenship for all subjects” (Smith, 1991, p. 103). Providing equality and citizenship for all subjects to non-Muslims paved the way for the creation and development of nationalist sentiments within ethnic groups under the Ottoman administration. In fact, this was a cause of the fall of the Ottoman empire in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Although the Ottomans were losing power, they continuously struggled with other empires in order to expand their territories, protect existing territories, and more. When the time came to struggle with one of the most powerful enemies of the Ottoman Empire, Russia,

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the Ottomans decided to ask for protection from one of the biggest colonial empires of the time, the British Empire. Thus, the British colonial power settled on the island to fulfill the purpose of protecting the Ottomans from Russia at the end of nineteenth century.