GREEN LANES.                            The GREEK and the TURKISH

It may strike some readers as odd to join Greeks and Turks Loge to in section of this book, but until very recently, almost all Greeks and Turks in London were from Cyprus, and Cypriots, whether Greek or Turkish, share a common culture and history - if not religion.

Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, is peopled by a Greek-speaking majority (Greek Orthodox Christians) and a Turkish-speaking (Muslim) minority. The island came under British control in 1878, and in the 1920s Cypriots began to settle in Britain, attracted chiefly by work in the catering trade. By 1941 there were some 10,000 Cypriots in Britain, but it was not until the mid-50's that immigration really gathered pace, with most arrivals coming from the villages of Cyprus.

Greek Cypriot immigrants of the 1950s settled around Camden Town, where a small community had been established in the 1930s, whilst the Turkish Cypriots settled over a wider area across Islington and Hackney.

Most Cypriots found work in catering, the garment industry or in the manufacture of leather goods - trades that remain important sources of employment today.

Emigration from Cyprus was encouraged not only by economic opportunities in Britain, but by the violence that broke out in 1955 when the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) took up arms against the British authorities. EOKA's aim of uniting Cyprusewith Greece was opposed by Turkish Cypriots, and the consequent inter-communal violence further complicated the situation. A compromise was eventually reached, and on 19 February 1959 an agreement to establish Cyprus as any independent republic was signed in London by the British, Turkish and

manufacture of cater Boous employment today.

Emigration from Cyprus was encouraged not only by economic opportunities in Britain, but by the violence that broke out in 1955 when the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) took up arms against the British authorities. EOKA's aim of uniting Cyprusewith Greece was opposed by Turkish Cypriots, and the consequent inter-communal violence further complicated the situation. A compromise was eventually reached, and on 19 February 1959 an agreement to establish Cyprus as an independent republie was signed in London by the British, Turkish and Greek Governments; with the approval of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot representatives. However, it was not independence but the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 that checked Cypriot immigration to Britain, which peaked at 25,000 arrivals in 1961.

In 1974 troops from the Turkish mainland invaded Cyprus in response to the overthrow of the Cypriot Government in a coup d'etat backed by the mainland Greek junta? The Turkish occupation of the northern half of the island led to the displacement of about 180,000 Greek Cypriots from the Turkish sector, and 20,000 Turks from the Greek sector. Over 10,000 of these people left for Britain, where many had friends and relatives.

However, with no legal right of residence here, and the British Government unwilling to grant them refugee status, most have now been forced to retum to Cyprus.

However, with no legal right of residence here, and the British Government unwilling to grant them refugee status, most have now been forced to return to Cyprus.

Today Cyprus remains partitioned, but the rancour of events in Cyprus has mercifully been kept out of community relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in London. However, linguistic and religious differences remain, and a greater degree of social mixing is limited not so much by hostility as by the social inertia of two communities who are no longer forced to come to terms with each other through sheer necessity.

Cypriots moved out of Camden Town in the late 1960s and the 1970s, and today Cypriot Greeks and Turks live chiefly in Hackney,

Palmers Green,

Islington and, in particular, Harringay.

The census of 1991 recorded 50,684 Cypriot-born people living in London, and the Cypriot community can probably be numbered at around

100,000

(there are only about 650,000 people in Cyprus itself). In Cyprus the Turks make up about 20 percent of the population, and it is thought that they account for roughly the same proportion of Cypriots in Britain. In comparison with the Cypriot community, the number of mainland Grecks and Turks in Britain is relatively small, but there has been a significant increase in mainland Turkish immigration since the mid- 1980s.