Society and Identity in the former Ottoman World: Encounters between Cypriots and Armenians of the Légion d'Orient in Cyprus in 1917-18

On 25 April 1918, 2 French non-commissioned officers and 15 Armenians camped outside Lefkonico, a Cypriot village in the Famagusta district, a considerable distance from the base of the Légion d’Orient at Monarga village. In the evening, four Armenians on leave visited the house of an old Muslim woman asking for her daughter-in-law, reputed to be of ‘immoral character’. She was away, and when the Armenians refused to leave, three Muslims came to the old woman’s aid, but the Armenians attacked them with their bayonets. Then an Orthodox Cypriot trooper arrived, but the Armenians persisted, and while he went for reinforcements, much of the primarily Orthodox Christian village¹ descended on the house and roughed up the Armenians, who left before the police arrived. The villagers threatened to attack the Armenians at their camp, but the police subdued them. Then the police had to pacify the Armenians, who were fixing their bayonets to attack the villagers. Later, the police were notified about the serious stab wounds on the stomach of the 70-year-old Mulla, Osman Suleiman, who had initially aided the old woman and now required life-saving surgery.² How was this possible, given that elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire Christians and Muslim society had disintegrated?