Andrekos Varnava facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Professor Andrekos Varnava
Professor Andrekos Varnava, 2022 courtesy of Theo Panagopoulos
Born	Andrekos Varnava 1979
Nationality	Australian/Cypriot
Education	Monash University, Melbourne University
Occupation	Writer and professor in British colonial history
Employer	Flinders University
Spouse(s)	Helen Komodromou

Professor Andrekos Varnava, FRHistS, is a well-known historian and writer. He has dual nationality, meaning he is a citizen of both Cyprus and Australia. He is famous for studying difficult parts of modern history and understanding their effects on the world. He often looks at events that people might disagree about.

The Life of Andrekos Varnava

Andrekos Varnava was born in 1979 in Melbourne, Australia. His parents were Greek Cypriots. His father came from Frenaros and his mother from Agios Ilias. Both villages are in the Famagusta District of Cyprus.

Early Life and Education

He went to schools in South Oakleigh. There, he became very interested in the history of World War I and World War II. Studying history made him feel more connected to his Cypriot background. He started to think about what it meant to be Cypriot. He saw it as different from being only Greek or Turkish.

Varnava went on to study History at Monash University. He also studied modern Greek and English Literature. He finished his Honours degree in 2001. Then, he moved to the University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD in history there in 2006.

Career and Research

In 2006, Varnava took a job in Cyprus. He became an Assistant Professor in History at the European University Cyprus. He worked there for two years. During this time, he married his wife. He also became a dual Cypriot national, matching his Australian heritage.

In 2009, Varnava came back to Australia. He started working as a history lecturer at Flinders University. He still works there today. He has written many books and given lectures on British, European, and imperial history. He pays special attention to the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire. He studies how these empires influenced the Middle East. This was his main interest because their interactions shaped the modern history of Cyprus.

He has published a lot of work. This includes over 70 papers (articles and book chapters). He has also written 4 monographs (detailed books on one subject). He has edited 16 collections of writings by different authors.

Academic Achievements

His busy writing career matched his success at Flinders University. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2012. In the same year, he was a visiting professor at Boğaziçı University in Istanbul. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2014. He became an Associate Professor in 2016. In 2018, he was made an Honorary Professor at De Montfort University. Finally, he was promoted to full Professor in 2022.

In 2025, he will become the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. This is a very important role in the field of history.

Exploring Difficult Histories

Professor Varnava is known for tackling tough historical topics. He encourages people to look at the past from different angles.

Uniting Communities

As a PhD student in 2003, Varnava spoke to Greek and Turkish Cypriots. He asked them to put aside their differences. He urged them to reunite their country. He suggested they accept that both sides had been involved in past conflicts.

While in Cyprus, Varnava saw how minority groups felt isolated. This inspired him to organize a conference in 2007. It focused on how minorities keep their identity in a country with strong national feelings.

In 2009, Varnava stated that British imperialism in Cyprus had problems. He argued it did not fully achieve its goals. Instead, it helped Hellenistic feelings grow among Greek Cypriots. He also researched how British humanitarian efforts were sometimes limited by imperialism. This was especially true for the French Armenian Legion and Musa Dagh refugees.

Challenging Narratives

In 2014 and 2018, Varnava helped organize two conferences on WWI in Singapore. He challenged common stories about Greek nationalism and Enosis (the idea of uniting Cyprus with Greece). He highlighted how Greek and Turkish Cypriots worked together in the First World War. He also discussed their loyalty to the British. In 2024, Varnava spoke at an event in Nicosia. A plaque was unveiled to remember Cypriots who served in the Cypriot Mule Corps during WWI.

In 2016, Varnava spoke about the killing of Christian Ottoman Greek people in Anatolia. This happened during the Greco-Turkish War. He argued it was part of a plan to remove a group of people from an area, which he called "ethnic cleansing." He said it was not quite a genocide. He also speaks openly about the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916. He praised historian Göçek for speaking out about it. However, he also suggested a difference between genocide (for Armenians in 1915-16) and ethnic cleansing (for events after the war during the Franco-Turkish War).

His 2021 book (translated into Greek in 2024) describes the murder of a Cypriot politician, Antonios Triantafyllides, in 1934. Varnava connects this murder to far-right nationalist groups. He links them to the later formation of EOKA.

In 2018, Varnava published an important article with Evan Smith. It was about Cypriots in London between the two World Wars. They called them a 'suspect community'. After this, Varnava won a grant to lead a team. They are studying border controls between Britain and Australia in the 20th Century. This research looks at "suspect migrant communities." It compares past policies with current practices. It also considers British and Australian political and sometimes racial influences.

Books and Monographs

• British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession (Manchester University Press, 2009)

British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession (Manchester University Press, 2012)

• Serving the empire in the Great War – The Cypriot Mule Corps, imperial loyalty and silenced memory (Manchester University Press, 2017)
• British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914–1925 (Routledge, 2020)
• Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA (Anthem Press, 2021)

Selected Edited or Co-edited Volumes

• Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond (I. B. Tauris, London, February 2009, paperback 2011)
• The Minorities of Cyprus: Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, April 2009)
• The Archbishops of Cyprus in the Modern Age: The Changing Role of the Archbishop-Ethnarch, their Identities and Politics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, September 2013)
• Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias (Manchester University Press, 2015)
• Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2016)
• The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society (Routledge Studies in First World War History, 2017)
• Australia, Migration and Empire – Immigrants in a Globalised World (Palgrave Macmillan, London 2019)
• Comic empires- Imperialism in cartoons, caricature, and satirical art (Manchester University Press, 2019)
• After the Armistice – Empire, Endgame and Aftermath (Routledge, 2021)
• Exiting war – The British Empire and the 1918–20 moment (Manchester University Press, 2022)
• New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, November 2022)
• Popular Culture and its Relationship to Conflict in the UK and Australia since the Great War (Routledge, 2023)