site contents

Result of Religious & Ethnic Leadership

It is noticeable that during the period 1489 to 1570 Cyprus was ruled by the Venetians. And, throughout the period of Venetian rule, Cyprus was repeatedly raided and attacked by Ottoman Turks. The Venetians were supplying arms and weapons to the Greek population to fight the marauding Ottoman Turks. However, in 1570 the Ottoman Turks won over the island.

During the period of Ottoman’s rule certain improvements in the socio-economic condition could be noticed. Instead of remaining only surfer of the land, the Greek peasants could become the owners of the land they were cultivating.

The religious authorities were given the power to govern their own non-Muslim minorities; therby, the position of Orthodox Church was reinforced and brought cohesion in the ethnic Greek population. The Archbishop of Cyprus became the religious and ethnic leader in the true sense of the term. The Church became the guardian of cultural legacy of Greek which is noticeable even today. May be somewhat to a limited extent. The Church even was authorized to collect taxes on behalf of the rulers and hand over the same to the rulers although they were exempted from paying taxes.

However, during the period of early Ottoman conquest , the local administration aided and abetted by the Governor and Treasurer, were abusing the taxation rules and the local population were at their wit’s end .The heavy taxation inspite of the Sultan’s discomfiture and repeated intervention continued unabated since local administration were corrupt and arbitrary.

All these led to Cypriots seeking help to Western Europe for attaining liberation of their motherland. That’s how one can see number of bloody uprisings in the island during the period 1572 to 1668 and not surprisingly both Greek and Turk peasants took part in the uprisings. But, all these uprisings failed. Around 1660, to eliminate the mismanagement, the Sultan recognized the Archbishop and the Bishops as “The Protectors of People” and representative of the Sultan.