There's a whole, wide world out there! All around the world, people just like you are living interesting lives in places you have never heard of. Take a minute to get to know Cyprus, and find out what makes the cypriot people tick.
世界之大，無奇不有！同為地球村民，有些人住在你從未聽過的地方過著有趣的生活。花一點時間來了解塞浦路斯這個國家，看看塞浦路斯人的生活重心為何。
A closer look 說古論今
PHOTO: AP
Cyprus, like Taiwan, is a small island nation. And like Taiwan, it has a politically complex past and present. For thousands of years, the island of Cyprus has been controlled by the governments of different countries, including Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome and England. The country that has had the strongest influence on Cyprus is Greece. Large numbers of Greeks came to Cyprus beginning in 1200BC, so for thousands of years, the culture, language and traditions of Cyprus have been mostly Greek.
Because Cyrpus is located right between Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it has many cultural influences. This also makes it a very convenient place for countries to put their military, so countries have been fighting over Cyprus for centuries. Even now, the British government still uses Cyrpus for its military.
Cyprus also has Turkish cultural influences. About 18 percent of the population is Turkish. When Cyprus became an independant country in 1960, the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots shared control of the government. But since many Greek Cypriots wanted Cyprus to become a part of Greece, the Turkish Cypriots broke away from the Greek Cypriots and created their own illegal government in the north of the island. This was a violent and hostile time in the history of Cyprus, and although the two parts of the island are still not friendly, many people hope that they will be able to work together in the future.
塞浦路斯就像台灣一樣，是個小島國，而且和台灣同樣有複雜的政治現況和歷史。幾千年來，塞浦路斯被埃及、波斯、希臘、羅馬和英國等不同政權所掌控，但希臘對塞浦路斯的影響最為深遠。西元前一千兩百年，希臘人開始大舉進入塞浦路斯，幾千年下來，塞浦路斯的文化、語言及傳統，都與希臘息息相關。位於歐洲、中東和非洲交界處的塞浦路斯，亦受到許多不同文化的影響。其方便的戰略位置，更使它成為幾世紀來各國兵家必爭之地。時至今日，英國政府仍以塞浦路斯做為軍事據點。
塞浦路斯也受到土耳其文化的影響，人口有百分之十八是土耳其人。塞浦路斯在一九六○年成為獨立國家時，土裔塞浦路斯人和希裔塞浦路斯人共理朝政，但由於許多希裔塞浦路斯人希望塞浦路斯成為希臘的一部份，土裔塞浦路斯人便與希裔塞浦路斯人絕裂，在北方成立另一政權，造成塞浦路斯動盪衝突，雖然現在島上兩方仍不友好，許多人仍希望他們在未來能攜手合作。
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