1910-1923

I would like to share my family history and migration experiences. Three of my grandparents were Greek Cypriots from Nicosia, Famagusta, and Dali respectively. They legally moved to Egypt for a better life in the 1910s to 1923. Had it been illegal to do so, I’m quite sure they would have chosen another country. What they did not do upon arrival was claim welfare benefits off the Egyptian state. Both my grandfathers got jobs in Cairo because it was legal to do so. One was a waiter, the other worked for a small confectionery factory he ended up managing until his sudden death. Sadly, both died in 1956, before I was born.

My maternal grandmother fled Constantinople (Istanbul) and legally moved to Egypt in the early 1920s aged 17 because of the Anatolian genocide against ethnic Greeks. Had Egypt turned my yaya away, my mother and I would never have been born; nor would my four children and grandson. We owe Egypt our lives. I will be forever grateful that Egypt did not turn its nose up at my family because they were relatively poor, looked different, were Orthodox Christians, ate strange Greek/Cypriot food, and dressed the European way.

1960s

In the 1960s, my widowed grandmothers had to uproot for a 2nd time. We had to leave Egypt for security reasons during a time of anti-western and anti-Christian populist pan-Arabism, especially after the 1956 Suez crisis. To complicate matters, my father who had recently converted to a banned small Christian denomination was in grave danger. […]

1976 – now

I began my career working in IT for a large bank and then two other international organisations. I was rapidly promoted due to being at the right place at the right time during the IT computer boom, rather than intellect. After substantial training and getting extensive experience, I specialised in a niche area within IT, […]

2003

On Christmas day 2003 I went to the occupied areas to give a blood donation ‘gift’. Not out of love of the ‘TRNC’ pseudo state, or respect of its so-called ‘government’, but to symbolically pay a long overdue family ‘blood’ debt out of honour. Back in the early 1920s at great risk to themselves, Turkish […]

2022

My Greek accent and speech are now a mixture of Greeklish, Cypriot Greek, Constantinople Greek, Egyptian Greek, and British/American Greek. English, the language of business, international negotiations and politics is my first language. For reasons unknown I am sometimes asked if I’m a mainlander Greek ‘Kalamaras’ that lived in Australia. This is not the case. […]