Andrekos Varnava Explained

Andrekos Varnava
Honorific Prefix:Professor
Birth Name:Andrekos Varnava
Birth Date:1979
Education:Monash University, Melbourne University
Employer:Flinders University
Occupation:Writer and professor in british colonial history
Spouse:Helen Komodromou
Nationality:Australian/Cypriot

Professor Andrekos Varnava,,[1] is a dual national Cypriot–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. 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).

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 II terrorism.[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] 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]

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 in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession (Manchester University Press, 2012)[27]

Selected edited or co-edited volumes

References and notes

Notes

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Professor Andrekos Varnava . 2023-02-07 . Flinders University . en.
  2. Web site: Anon . Q&A with Andrekos Varnava . Early Career Researchers . Australian Historical Association . 25 August 2022.
  3. Book: Varnava . Andrekos . "What shall we do with Cyprus?": Cyprus in the British Imperial imagination, politics and structure, 1878–1915 . 2006 . PhD Thesis. Department of History Library . University of Melbourne.
  4. Web site: Anon . People: Professor Andrekos Varnava Professor College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences . Flinders University . 25 August 2022.
  5. Web site: Anon . Professor Andrekos Varnava, FRHistS . Google Scholar . 17 October 2022.
  6. Web site: Anon . People: Professor Andrekos Varnava Professor College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences . Flinders University . 25 August 2022.
  7. News: Varnava . Andrekos . Cyprus: a rendezvous with history? . 27 August 2022 . Neos Kosmos English Edition . University of Melbourne Arts: Department of History . August 2003.
  8. News: Mrjoian . Aram . THE PROMISE OF WERFEL'S MUSA DAGH: PORTRAYING GENOCIDE IN FICTION . 20 October 2022 . The Rumpus . The Rumpus . 20 June 2020.
  9. Book: Varnava . Andrekos . Coureas . Nicholas . Elia . Marina . THE MINORITIES OF CYPRUS Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion . 2009 . Cambridge Scholars Publishing . Cambridge, England . 9781443800525.
  10. Markides . Diana . Book review: British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878–1914: The Inconsequential Possession . The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History . 2010 . 38 . 1 . 171–173. 10.1080/03086530903538392 . 159686944 .
  11. Varnava . Andrekos . Harris . Trevor . Contemporary Issues in Historical Perspective . The Journal of Modern History . December 2018 . 90 . 834–862. 10.1086/700215 . 149636135 .
  12. Web site: Stephens . David . REVIEW: Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology, edited by Michael JK Walsh and Andrekos Varnava . Honest History . 18 October 2022.
  13. News: Chrysostomou . Annette . Rehabilitating the muleteers of World War I . 18 October 2022 . Cyprus Mail . Cyprus Mail . 29 May 2018.
  14. Web site: Clearchos A. . Kyriakides . The end of World War I and its impact today . Simerini SigmaLive . Simerini . 20 October 2022.
  15. News: Chrysostomou . Annette . Loyalties to empire during the Great War . 20 October 2022 . Cyprus Mail . Cyprus Mail . 12 January 2020.
  16. https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/04/04/cypriot-mule-corps-monument-unveiled/
  17. Varnava . Andrekos . Book Review: Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789–2009 . Genocide Studies and Prevention . 2016 . 10 . 1 . 121–123 . 10.5038/1911-9933.10.1.1403 . 1911-0359. free.
  18. Web site: Varnava . Andrekos . Armenians and the Allies in Cilicia, 1914–1923 . Reviews in History . Institute of Historical Research . 20 October 2022.
  19. Varnava . Andrekos . Book Review: Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789–2009 . Genocide Studies and Prevention . 2016 . 10 . 1 . 10.5038/1911-9933.10.1.1403. 121–123 . 1911-0359. free .
  20. Varnava, Andrekos. (2009). British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878–1915: The Inconsequential Possession. (Manchester University Press). 321 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-7903-0.
  21. Web site: Anon . REVIEW:ASSASSINATION IN COLONIAL CYPRUS IN 1934 AND THE ORIGINS OF EOKA . Anthem Press . 19 October 2022.
  22. Varnava . Andrekos . Border Control and Monitoring "Undesirable" Cypriots in the UK and Australia, 1945–1959 . Immigrants & Minorities . 2022 . 40 . 1–2 . 132–176. 10.1080/02619288.2021.1944855 . 243485384 .
  23. News: Smith . Evan . The Conversation . 11 October 2022 . The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited.
  24. News: Anon . The weird (and wonderful) things SA universities are studying . 11 October 2022 . The Advertiser . Nationwide News Pty Ltd.
  25. Smith . Evan . Varnava . Andrekos . Creating a 'Suspect Community': Monitoring and Controlling the Cypriot Community in Inter-War London . English Historical Review . 2017 . CXXXII . 558 . 1149–1181 . 10.1093/ehr/cex350.
  26. Varnava, Andrekos. (2009). British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession. (Manchester University Press). 321 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-7903-0.
  27. Varnava, Andrekos. (February 2017). British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession. (Manchester University Press). 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-8640-3.
  28. 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.
  29. Varnava, Andrekos. (2020). British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914–1925. (Routledge). 256 pp. ISBN 9781138698321.
  30. Varnava, Andrekos. (January 2021). Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA. (Anthem Press). 142 pp. ISBN 9781785275524.
  31. Edited by Andrekos Varnava and Hubert Faustmann (2009), Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond (I. B. Tauris). 282pp. 978-1-84511-657-6.
  32. 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.
  33. 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.
  34. Edited by Andrekos Varnava. (2015). Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias (Manchester University Press). 273 pp. 978-9780719097867.
  35. 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.
  36. Edited by Andrekos Varnava. (2017). The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society (Routledge) 310p. ISBN: (Hback) 978-1-138-69832-1.
  37. 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.
  38. 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.
  39. 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.
  40. 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.
  41. 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. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10849-5
  42. 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.

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