Alexios Alecou Communism and Nationalism in Postwar Cyprus, 1945-1955

Annotation

This book analyzes the eventsthat impacted the structure and competitive processes of the two dominantCypriot political factions while under the watchful eye of British rule. Basedon new archival research, Alecou addresses the social and political environmentin which the Cypriot Communists and Nationalists fought each other while at thesame time had to fight the British Empire. The differences between communistsand nationalists brought the two sides to a frontal collision in the wake ofthe events of the Greek civil war. The class conflict within Cypriot societywould at some point inevitably lead, in one way or another, to a clash betweenthe two factions. The civil war in Greece constituted another field of conflictbetween Left and Right, accelerating the formation of a bipolar party system inwhich the vertical division of the Greek community in Cyprus eventuallyexpressed itself.