My best crack at a complicated history, thanks Jen!

Hi Barbara,

I’ve been working on a post about the complex political situation there and it’s a fairly controversial past. Essentially Turkey, in response to a Greece-backed coup d’etat attempt sent thousands of troops to the north in 1974 to protect the Turkish-Cypriot population there. (Though there are some who would disagree about their motivations.) The Greeks fled south and the Turks went north where Turkish troops remain to this day. (Both sides are separated by a UN buffer zone.)

The north declared independence in 1983 but remains unrecognized internationally, except by Turkey. The TRNC is completely reliant on the Turkey for economic support since international trade and commerce is severely restricted.

The closest attempt to reunify the island was in 2004 via referendum, however the south voted against reunification. A permanent solution now seems further away than ever. Cyprus has been the center of a very unique relationship between all of the parties involved and the EU, of which the south is a member.

Sorry for the long comment but hope this helps a bit. I want to delve into the feelings of the Cypriot Turks towards Turkey and hope to have a post about it soon.

While it varies, generally there is, like you mention, feta cheese, ‘kasar’ cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, runny eggs, watery cherry jam, honey, bread, sometimes ‘sucuk (spicy beef sausage), and *lots* of tea 🙂 In North Cyprus they also eat a cheese unique to the island called ‘hellim’. It’s often grilled or fried:

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=hellim+peyniri&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=688

Breakfast and dinner I’d say are the biggest meals of the day and always full of variety. From time to time Turks also have an expanded version of the traditional breakfast at dinner.