During football season, Buckeye fans in central Ohio sometimes refer to the state to the north as, well, “that state up north.” A much more serious version of this intentional slight is playing out on the island of Cyprus. On the plane to Larnaka, I sat next to a Cypriot woman who taught me a few Greek words. Hello, thank-you, and so on. She asked where on the island I was planning to visit. When I mentioned a couple of towns in the north, her face darkened. “You mean the occupied territory.”

Cyprus is a small island, roughly 150 miles from east to west and sixty miles from north to south. It is strategically situated at the far east of the Mediterranean Sea at the crossroads between Europe, Africa, and Asia. (Only sixty-five miles from Syria!) As a result of its central location, Cyprus was fought over and ruled by nearly every great empire—the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Athenians, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines, Knights of Templar, Franks, Venetians, Ottomans, and British—and I’m likely leaving a few out.