page_title: Armenians in Cyprus
section_title: British Era (1878–1960)
hierarchical_section_title: Armenians in Cyprus / History / British Era (1878–1960)
caption_attribution_description: English: Armenian Quarter, Victoria Road of Nicosia, Cyprus in the 1930's.
context_page_description: Armenians in Cyprus or Armenian-Cypriots are ethnic Armenians who live in Cyprus. They are a recognized minority with their own language, schools and churches. Despite the relatively small number of Armenians living in Cyprus, the Armenian-Cypriot community has had a significant impact upon the Armenian diaspora and Armenian people. During the Middle Ages, Cyprus had an extensive connection with the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, while the Ganchvor monastery had an important presence in Famagusta. During the Ottoman Era, the Virgin Mary church and the Magaravank were very prominent. Certain Armenian-Cypriots were or are very prominent on a Panarmenian or international level and the fact that, for nearly half a century, the survivors of the Armenian Genocide have co-operated and co-existed peacefully with the Turkish-Cypriots is perhaps a unique phenomenon across the Armenian Diaspora. The emigration of a large number of Armenian-Cypriots to the United Kingdom has virtually shaped today's British-Armenian community.
context_section_description: With the arrival of the British in July 1878 and their progressive administration, the already small Armenian community of the island was particularly strengthened. Known for their linguistic skills, several Armenians were contracted to Cyprus to work as interpreters and public servants at the consulates and the British administration, such as Apisoghom Utidjian. The number of Armenians in Cyprus significantly increased following the massive deportations, the massacres and the Genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and the Young Turks. Cyprus welcomed over 10,000 refugees from Cilicia, Smyrna and Constantinople, who arrived in Larnaca and all its other harbours, about 1,500 of them made the island their new home. Industrious, cultivated and progressive, they brought new life into the old community and establish themselves as people of the arts, letters and sciences, entrepreneurs and merchants, craftsmen and photographers, as well as professionals who introduced new crafts, dishes and sweets to the island, thus contributing to Cyprus' socioeconomic and cultural development. The newcomers established associations, choirs, sports groups, Scout groups, bands, churches, schools and cemeteries throughout Cyprus. Armenians were the first locksmiths, mechanics, seat, comb and stamp makers, upholsterers, watchmakers and zincographers in Cyprus. They were the first to introduce the cinema, they significantly improved the craft of shoemaking and it was Armenians who first introduced Armenian bastourma, baklava, dried apricots, gassosa, gyros, halva, ice cubes, koubes, lahmadjoun, lokmadhes and pompes into the Cypriot cuisine. Armenians also introduced two techniques of embroidery needlework: the Aintab work and the Marash work.
  Law-abiding by nature, Armenian-Cypriots always had a high-profile with the British administration and many became conscientious civil servants and disciplined policemen or were employed at the Cyprus Government Railway and at Cable and Wireless. Throughout the 1920s–1950s, many worked at the asbestos mines at Amiandos and the copper mines at Mavrovouni and Skouriotissa, some of whom had been trade unionists. Some Armenian-Cypriots participated in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, the two World Wars and the EOKA struggle. Also, the Eastern Legion was formed and trained between December 1916 and May 1918 in Monarga village, near Boghazi, consisting of over 4,000 Diasporan Armenian volunteers who fought against the Ottoman Empire. Some Armenian refugees arrived from Palestine and Egypt. The Armenian-Cypriot community prospered throughout the British Era, by establishing associations. In many ways unique across the whole Armenian Diaspora, it was built just outside Nicosia between 1924–1926, after the generous and benevolent donation of the Egyptian-Armenian tobacco trading brothers Krikor and Garabed Melkonian, initially in order to shelter and educate 500 orphans of the Genocide, who planted the trees in front of the school in memory of their slaughtered relatives. From an orphanage (1926–1940), it gradually became a world-renowned secondary school with a boarding section.
caption: Victoria Road, Nicosia of the Armenian Quarter in the 1930s
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