Professor Andrekos Varnava, FRHistS,[1] is a
dual nationalCypriot–Australian writer and historian, who is best known for his work confronting controversial moments in
modern history and their consequences.
Life and works
Professor Andrekos Varnava, was born in 1979 in Melbourne to parents of
Greek Cypriot descent, specifically his father from
Frenaros and his mother from
Agios Ilias, both from the
Famagusta District.[citation needed] He attended schools at
South Oakleigh, where he became fascinated by the history of
WWI and
WWII.[2] History prompted him to identify more with his Cypriot heritage, challenging what it meant to be
Cypriot as distinct from being identified as either Greek or Turkish. Varnava went on to read History, modern
Greek and
English Literature at
Monash University, completing his
Honours degree in 2001 and moving on to
University of Melbourne, where he completed his PhD (in history) in 2006.[3] Varnava had visited Cyprus briefly a number of times but in 2006, he took up a position as Assistant Professor at the
European University Cyprus, a position he held for two years, where he married his wife and when he acquired dual Cypriot nationality in line with his dual heritage (Australian and Cypriot).[citation needed]
In 2009, Varnava returned to Australia to take up a position as lecturer in history at
Flinders University, where he remains to this day. He has written and lectured on British, European, and imperial history, with special attention paid to both
British and
Ottoman empires, and their influence on the Middle East. The interaction of these two empires shaped modern history of Cyprus particularly on nationalism during the late nineteenth century, the
First World War and the consequent
post-World War IIterrorism.[4] Varnava set about publishing his work, writing over 60
papers (articles and book chapters), 4
monographs, 16 edited collections, in the space of 17 years.[5] His main academic focus has been on the history of the
British empire, particularly its impact on Cyprus, unpicking the socio-economic effect of such themes as
martial races theory and
venereal disease, and socio-political themes such as extreme
nationalism and
chauvinism. His prolific writing mirrored his academic career at Flinders, where he was promoted senior lecturer in 2012, was invited by
Selim Deringil and
Vangelis Kechriotis to be a visiting professor at
Boğaziçi University in
Istanbul in 2012, elected as a Fellow of
Royal Historical Society in 2014, promoted to Associate Professor in 2016, made an Honorary Professor at
De Montfort University in 2018, and promoted to full Professor in 2022. Varnava has co-authored works with such eminent scholars as
Panikos Panayi, Michael J.K. Walsh, Evan Smith, Nicholas Coureas, Marinella Marmo, Hubert Faustmann and
Philip Payton, and published in his edited works the work of pre-eminent scholars such as
John M. MacKenzie,
Eric S. Richards,
Joy Damousi,
Robert I. Rotberg, Erol Kaymak, and
Ayhan Aktar.[6]
Contentious issues
As a PhD candidate at the
University of Melbourne in 2003, Varnava appealed to Greek and Turkish Cypriots to set aside their ethnic differences and to reunite their country by accepting that they were both perpetrators and victims of past violence.[7] While in Cyprus, Varnava had become increasingly aware of the cultural isolation of
minority groups,[8] which inspired him to organise a conference in 2007, focusing on challenges faced by minorities preserving their identity in a nationalistic state.[9][n 1] In 2009, Varnava asserted that
British imperialism in Cyprus was critically flawed, unable to achieve its full purpose in making Cyprus a strategic stronghold for the Empire, creating instead the conditions for
Hellenistic sentiments to take hold among the Greek Cypriot population.[10] He followed this with research that blamed British humanitarianism for being selective and restricted by imperialism, particularly in relation to the formation of the
French Armenian Legion and
Musa Dagh refugees.[11]
In 2014 and 2018, Varnava co-organised a conference on WWI at
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and in his contributions he challenged popular narratives around Greek nationalism and
Enosis, which had suppressed the role of Greek and Turkish Cypriots working together in the First World War along with implications of loyalty towards the British.[12][13][14][15] In 2024 Varnava gave a speech at the unveiling of a plaque in the garden beside the
Famagusta Gate, in
Nicosia, organised by
Αchilleas Demetriades, in memory of the Cypriots who served in the Cypriot Mule Corps during the First World War.[16]
In 2016, Varnava openly addressed the systematic killing of Christian
Ottoman Greek population of
Anatolia in the
Greco-Turkish War, which he argued was part of a programme of
ethnic cleansing stopping short of actual
genocide.[17] He is equally outspoken about
Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire/Turkey in 1915 and 1916,[18] praising
Göçek for calling it out, but criticising her for not making the distinction between genocide, in the case of the Armenians in 1915 and 1916, and ethnic cleansing, which he argues is a more suitable term for what happened after the war during the
Franco-Turkish War.[19]
His latest book published in 2021 describes the assassination of a leading Cypriot politician
Antonios Triantafyllides in 1934, attributing his murder to far-right-wing nationalist extremists he connects to the post-war formation of
EOKA.[20][21][n 2]
In 2018, after publishing a seminal article in
English Historical Review with Evan Smith on the Cypriots in London during the inter-war years as a 'suspect community', Varnava won as Lead Chief Investigator an
Australian Research Council grant to head a team investigating
border controls between Britain and Australia in the 20th Century. This was to examine "suspect migrant communities", and how past historical policies compare with contemporary practices, citing British and Australian political, and sometimes racial, influences.[22][23][24][25]
Books and monographs
British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession (Manchester University Press, 2009)[26]
British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession (Manchester University Press, 2012)[27]
Serving the empire in the Great War – The Cypriot Mule Corps, imperial loyalty and silenced memory (Manchester University Press, 2017)[28]
British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914–1925 (Routledge, 2020)[29]
Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA (Anthem Press, 2021)[30]
Selected edited or co-edited volumes
Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond (I. B. Tauris, London, February 2009, paperback 2011), [31]
The Minorities of Cyprus: Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, April 2009)[32]
The Archbishops of Cyprus in the Modern Age: The Changing Role of the Archbishop-Ethnarch, their Identities and Politics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, September 2013)[33]
Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias (Manchester University Press, 2015)[34]
Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2016)[35]
The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society (Routledge Studies in First World War History, 2017)[36]
Australia, Migration and Empire – Immigrants in a Globalised World (Palgrave Macmillan, London 2019)[37]
Comic empires- Imperialism in cartoons, caricature, and satirical art (Manchester University Press, 2019)[38]
After the Armistice – Empire, Endgame and Aftermath (Routledge, 2021)[39]
Exiting war – The British Empire and the 1918–20 moment (Manchester University Press, 2022)[40]
New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, November 2022)[41]
Popular Culture and its Relationship to Conflict in the UK and Australia since the Great War (Routledge, 2023)[42]
^Anon.
"Q&A with Andrekos Varnava". Early Career Researchers. Australian Historical Association. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
^Varnava, Andrekos (2006). "What shall we do with Cyprus?": Cyprus in the British Imperial imagination, politics and structure, 1878–1915 (PhD Thesis). University of Melbourne: Department of History Library.
^Varnava, Andrekos (August 2003).
"Cyprus: a rendezvous with history?". Neos Kosmos English Edition. University of Melbourne Arts: Department of History. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
^Varnava, Andrekos; Coureas, Nicholas; Elia, Marina (2009). THE MINORITIES OF CYPRUS Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
ISBN9781443800525.
^Markides, Diana (2010). "Book review: British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878–1914: The Inconsequential Possession". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 38 (1): 171–173.
doi:
10.1080/03086530903538392.
S2CID159686944.
^Varnava, Andrekos; Harris, Trevor (December 2018). "Contemporary Issues in Historical Perspective". The Journal of Modern History. 90: 834–862.
doi:
10.1086/700215.
S2CID149636135.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (2009). British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878–1915: The Inconsequential Possession. (Manchester University Press). 321 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-7903-0.
^Varnava, Andrekos (2022). "Border Control and Monitoring "Undesirable" Cypriots in the UK and Australia, 1945–1959". Immigrants & Minorities. 40 (1–2): 132–176.
doi:
10.1080/02619288.2021.1944855.
S2CID243485384.
^Smith, Evan.
"The Conversation". The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
^Smith, Evan; Varnava, Andrekos (2017). "Creating a 'Suspect Community': Monitoring and Controlling the Cypriot Community in Inter-War London". English Historical Review. CXXXII (558): 1149–1181.
doi:
10.1093/ehr/cex350.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (2009). British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession. (Manchester University Press). 321 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-7903-0.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (February 2017). British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession. (Manchester University Press). 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-8640-3.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (February 2017). Serving the empire in the Great War – The Cypriot Mule Corps, imperial loyalty and silenced memory. (Manchester University Press). 272 pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-0367-3.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (2020). British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914–1925. (Routledge). 256 pp. ISBN 9781138698321.
^Varnava, Andrekos. (January 2021). Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA. (Anthem Press). 142 pp. ISBN 9781785275524.
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava and Hubert Faustmann (2009), Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond (I. B. Tauris). 282pp. 978-1-84511-657-6.
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava, Nicholas Coureas, Marina Elia. (2009). The Minorities of Cyprus: Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). 423 pp. 9781443800525.
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava and Michalis N. Michael (2013). The Archbishops of Cyprus in the Modern Age: The Changing Role of the Archbishop-Ethnarch, their Identities and Politics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) 331p. 978-1-4438-4929-6.
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava. (2015). Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias (Manchester University Press). 273 pp. 978-9780719097867.
^Edited by Michael J.K. Walsh and Andrekos Varnava. (2016). Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology (Melbourne University Press) 274p. 978-0-5228-6954-5.
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava. (2017). The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society (Routledge) 310p. ISBN: (Hback) 978-1-138-69832-1.
^Edited by Philip Payton and Andrekos Varnava. (2019). Australia, Migration and Empire – Immigrants in a Globalised World. (Palgrave Macmillan). 319 pp. 978-3-030-22389-2.
^Edited by Richard Scully and Andrekos Varnava. (October 2019). Comic empires- Imperialism in cartoons, caricature, and satirical art. (Manchester University Press). 456 pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-4294-8.
^Edited by Michael J. K. Walsh and Andrekos Varnava. (September 2021). After the Armistice – Empire, Endgame and Aftermath. (Routledge). 300 pp. 978-0-3674-8755-3.
^Edited by Romain Fathi, Margaret Hutchison, Andrekos Varnava and Michael Walsh. (January 2022). Exiting war – The British Empire and the 1918–20 moment. (Manchester University Press). 232 pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-5584-9.
^Edited by Yianni Cartledge & Andrekos Varnava. (November 2022). New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections. (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer). 357 pp. ISBN 978-3-031-10848-8.
[1]
^Edited by Andrekos Varnava and Michael J.K. Walsh. (2023). Popular Culture and its Relationship to Conflict in the UK and Australia since the Great War (Routledge). 142pp. 978-1-0323-9342-1.
Notes
^Cypriot minorities had been forced by nationalists to identify as either Greek or Turkish Cypriot in the aftermath of the schism following independence in 1960; the same nationalism that had been responsible for the diasporas of minorities post WWI in the first place. This view was not universally welcome.
^Triantafyllides' grand-daughter,
Stella Kyriakides, is a politician in Cyprus and European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety