Anonymous (FAMREF004) | Oral History Archive | HHFGCA

Anonymous (FAMREF004)

Interviewer(s):

Theo Xenophontos

Project:

Film as Mediator: Cultivating a Cypriot Canadian Community Audiovisual Media Archive

INTERVIEW LOCATION:

Scarborough, ON

LANGUAGE:

English

DATE:

May 10, 2022

Interview Summary:

The narrator was born in 1938 in a small village near the Troodos Mountains. He first left Cyprus for Britain during the 1950s due to the EOKA struggle and for educational reasons. He then migrated to Canada in the 1960s. In 1974, he served as the President of the Cyprus Relief Fund following the junta-engineered coup and Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

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Date and Location

May 10, 2022

Scarborough, ON

Interviewee(s)

Anonymous (FAMREF004)

Interviewer(s)

Theo Xenophontos

Languages

English

Reference ID

FAMREF004

Project

Film as Mediator: Cultivating a Cypriot Canadian Community Audiovisual Media Archive

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Categories

Associational Life

Canadian Society

Culture and Tradition

Working Life

Education

Historical Events

Homeland Activism

Migration

Tags

Australia

Cypriot Canadian 1974 Protests

Cypriot Canadian Economic Relations

Cypriot Canadian Identity

Cypriot Community of Toronto Inc.

Cyprus 1974

Cyprus Coup

Cyprus Relief Fund

EOKA

Junta

Postsecondary Education

Pre-1974 Migration

Religion

The Cypriot Brotherhood

UK

USA

Decades Referenced

1930s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

2000s

2010s

Locations Referenced

Cyprus; Troodos Mountains; Toronto; University of Toronto; Cypriot Community Centre (Thorncliffe); Australia; the United Kingdom; the United States of America; Ukraine

Occupation(s)

He worked as a chemist and lecturer at the University of Toronto. In 1974, he was the President of both The Cypriot Brotherhood and the Cyprus Relief Fund

Parents Occupation(s)

Names Referenced

Christine Amygdalidis (President of the Cypriot Federation of Canada); Martha Henty (Cyprus-Canada Chamber of Commerce); Theodoros Xenophontos

[00:00:18] Childhood memories of Cyprus

[00:02:40] Migrating to Canada for university

[00:04:04] Working as a chemist

[00:06:53] Leaving Cyprus during the EOKA struggle

[00:08:52] Schooling in Cyprus

[00:10:25] Adjusting to Canada

[00:11:45] The Cypriot Brotherhood

[00:12:48] Working on the Cyprus Relief Fund in 1974

[00:15:59] Involvement with the Cypriot Community Centre

[00:19:15] Assimilating into Canadian life

[00:20:26] Hearing news about the 1974 invasion

[00:21:47] The invasion uniting Greeks and Greek Cypriots

[00:24:08] Communicating with family in Cyprus

[00:26:32] Fading interest in audiovisual preservation

[00:30:24] Photographs aiding the remembering of the past

[00:30:59] Feeling more Canadian than Cypriot

[00:32:00] Hopes for the future of the Cypriot community

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No items found.

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