Description
In August 1974 most of the inhabitants of Argaki, a prosperous Cyprus village, fled from their homes in the face of an advancing army. In a matter of days they had become war refugees. This book is an account of their experiences before, during, and after their flight from their village.
It begins with a description of Argaki before 1974, providing a background to the events of July and August of that year – the military coup against makarios and the subsequent Turkish invasion. These form the subject of the second part of the book, which ends with an account of the villagers’ flight from Argaki. The third part follows them through their painful realisation that they were not soon to return home, and describes their hand-to-mouth living and their gradual assumption of refugee identity.
Peter Loizos had made an anthropological study of Argaki before 1974, and is also related to some of its families. This has enabled him to combine the methods and approaches of an anthropologist with the personal insight of a family member, and his account of the villagers’ experiences is moving, vivid, and sympathetic. […]
