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Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger
 
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Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger (Paperback)

by Christopher Hitchens (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 178 pages
  • Publisher: Verso Books; 3rd edition (12 Aug 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1859841899
  • ISBN-13: 978-1859841891
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 48,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Books > History > North America > Post-war Period, 1946-Present
    #5 in  Books > History > North America > Inter-war Period 1919-1938
    #9 in  Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Inter-war Period 1919-1938

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Product Description

Review
"Hitchens's book deserves wholehearted praise. His research has been thorough, his style is invigorating and he has written a compelling account of a tragic episode from first to last." -- Times Literary Supplement "In his extensive, well-documented and even-handed book, Hitchens attempts, with remarkable success, to restore the recent history of Cyprus to its proper perspective." -- Christian Science Monitor

Product Description
In a compelling study of great-power misconduct, Christopher Hitchens examines the events leading up to the partition of Cyprus and its legacy. He argues that the intervention of four major foreign powers, Turkey, Greece, Britain and the United States, turned a local dispute into a major disaster. In a new preface for this 1997 edition, Hitchens reviews the implications of the Republic of Cyprus's applications for European union membership, the escalating regional arms race between Greece and Turkey, and last year's Greek Cypriot protests along the partition border.

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5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of recent Cypriot history, 14 April 1999
By A Customer
This is a book about international political intregue which reads almost like a spy-cum-action thriller. It is not fiction, however. To paraphrase Orwell, these things actually happened.

There are, as Hitchens acknowledges, those who will accuse him of creating a huge and unlikely conspiricy theory with this book. Yet, to those who care to follow him, there is plenty of confirmation for his conclusions. They make disturbing reading.

The Cyprus problem is not, he states, the result of ancient ethnic rivalries. Indeed, he notes how the old cliche that Greek and Turkish Cypriots have always lived peacefully together is actually true, and that, for example, during the American-backed Greek coup in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish military occupation of the island in 1974, Greek and Turkish Cypriots sheltered together and helped each other. Rather, Hitchens shows convincingly, the division of the island is the result of foreign power-games, led by the cynical foreign policies of Lyndon Johnson, Nixon and Kissenger, who used Cyprus as a pawn in an international political game without care for or reference to the inhabitants of that island.

Hitchen's book provides a necessary antidote to the increasingly common glib commentators in the media whose lazy research, and ignorance of history, makes them automatically see the Cyprus problem in terms of ethnic rivalries brought on by the Cypriots themselves. As Hitchens shows, in his highly readable account, the people of Cyprus are the least to blame for their 'problem'.

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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not the best on the subject, 29 Oct 1999
By A Customer
This is a very good book, originally written in 1984 and subsequently updated in 1997, describing the events leading up to the Turkish invasion and illegal military invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Hitchens quite clearly points the blame for the tragic events of 1974 (and the subsequent division of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus) on U.S. foreign policy, in particulary the partionist stance of Henry Kissinger who was keen to ensure that NATO maintained a foothold on Cyprus in the event of Britain's withdrawal. Christopher Hitchens provides a chilling reminder that the United States will stop at nothing to safeguard their own political and military interests, regardless of human life and suffering. The Cypriot people were torn apart by the constant interference of outsiders keen to ensure their own needs were put before those of the Cypriots and Turkey, being so heavily reliant on U.S. military and economic aid, were always going to be favoured by the U.S. Government over the Greeks, who were always regarded as being too unreliable. The U.S. achieved it's aim of ensuring a major NATO presence on the island by allowing Turkey to invade and its undisciplined soldiery to commit the appalling atrocicities againts the mostly innocent Greek-Cypriot population. It is a very good book but I have to say it has been bettered by the Brendan O'Malley and Ian Craigs' "The Cyprus Conspiracy", which sheds new light and brings new evidence to bear on the matter.
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16 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Old hat , little historical value added, 30 Nov 2000
By A Customer
C. Hitchens' approach is simplistic and deja-vu: The bad Junta tried to overthrow the good Archbishop and Turkey seized the opportunity. He does not consider the Archbishop's share in the responsibility for the Cyprus debacle. The historical context of tension between the Makarios and all Greek governments (including that of George Papandreou, who in the 1960s sought to overthrow Makarios) is simply ingored. Hitchens does not mention that the Byzantine Archbishop virtually provoked the '74 coup by demanding a withdrawal of the Greek National Guard from Cyprus. He hushes the fact that Makarios all but invited Turkey to invade Cyprus in his speech at the UN Security Council on the eve of the first invasion. In his speech, Makarios offered Ecevit a sound legal alibi for his so-called "peace mission" in Cyprus. In Hitchens' highly unattractive and manichaeistic world, Archbishop Makarios - a chief protagonist Cyprus tragedy - remains a holy cow beyond criticism.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Ruined Cyprus?
Christopher Hitchens earns his right as the author and narrator of this book to stricken from its pages the journalistic short-hand and gratuitous reference to "the Rape of... Read more
Published on 27 Jun 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of recent Cypriot history.
This is a book about international political intregue which reads almost like a spy-cum-action thriller. It is not fiction, however. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 1998

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