Ronald Storrs and Mısırlızade Necati The Governor’s Encounter with the ‘Thirteenth Greek’
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Abstract
Relations between British colonial administrators and the Turkish Cypriots are commonly portrayed purely through the rigid framework of subservience and collaboration. Furnishing evidence through a micro-historical study of the relationship which developed in the late 1920s between Governor Ronald Storrs and Turkish Cypriot political leader Mısırlızade Necati, the paper proposes that this familiar portrayal is misleading and overlooks significant cases of conflict between the British authorities and prevailing Turkish Cypriot political forces. The argument is supported by a wider analysis of the two men’s formative experiences and in particular of the ‘public school spirit’ inculcated in Storrs as invariably in other British administrators also. Based upon such analysis it is suggested that such dispute went beyond the solely personal and that the conflictual relationship that arose in this instance was largely a consequence of the colonial inability to adequately adapt to the novel force of Kemalist nationalism in Cyprus.
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British imperialism, colonialism, Cyprus, education, Kemalism, nationalism, Turkish Cypriots
The Papers of Sir Ronald Storrs (1881-1956) from Pembroke College, Cambridge
BOX IV, Folder 1, Cyprus, 1927-1931, Letters
BOX IV, Folder 2, Cyprus, 1932, Letters
BOX IV, Folder 3, Cyprus, 1931. The Burning of Government House
State Archives of the Republic of Cyprus
Secretariat Archives (SA 1):
SA1/623/1928
SA1/698/1931
SA1/950/1926
SA1/1273/1922
SA1/1320/1928
SA1/1420/1930
SA1/1430/1930
SA1/1576/1929/1
National Archives of the UK
Records of the Colonial Office, Commonwealth and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, Empire and Marketing Board, and Related Bodies 1570-1990
(CO); Series: CO 67 (Colonial Office: Cyprus, Original Correspondence 1878-1951):
CO 67/182
CO 67/203
CO 67/219/14
CO 67/227/4
CO 67/233/14
CO 67/235/13
CO 67/237/11
CO 67/238/11
CO 67/239/14
CO 67/240/13
CO 67/244/8
Printed/Published Sources
Reference and Document Publications
United Kingdom: Records of the Colonial Office, Commonwealth and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, Empire and Marketing Board, and Related Bodies 1570-1990
(CO); Series: CO 883:
CO 883/6
CO 883/8
Cyprus Blue Book: 1930
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