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Thousands of war-weary Canadians now being evacuated into Cyprus are following in the footsteps of others in a tradition that has endured since the dawn of civilization.

This Mediterranean island’s location as a strategic hub between Europe, Africa and Asia, has seen it flooded with visitors who have built its cosmopolitan culture and also been its greatest curse.

“We’re in the middle of everything,” says George Georgiou, a Cypriot cab driver. “It means we can be a tourist stop, we can host offshore companies, we can do anything.”

Indeed, the island has been a haven from hell for evacuees and refugees, including Jews transported here from Europe in the 1940s en route to the newly created state of Israel, and the tens of thousands now fleeing the Middle East.

It has offered refuge for ship-wrecked passengers, Western spies during the Cold War, and swash-buckling exiles through the centuries. It was settled by Greeks and Phoenicians. It was invaded by Arabs and Persians, Brits and Italians, Saracens and Turks, Ottoman Turks and present-day Turks.

These frequent visitors have left their cultural stamp in the way of architecture and monuments, music and language, and the examples proliferate throughout the island.

The omnipresence of English store signs and stunning number of Cypriots who can carry a conversation in the language is a constant reminder of pre-1960 British colonial rule. About a half-hour outside the port city of Larnaca lies a stunning example of foreign influence made from bricks and mortar.

On the highest mountaintop in the area lies a jewel of a Monastery, Stavrovouni Monastery of The Holy Cross, offering a panoramic view of hills and valleys sprinkled with olive trees, citrus groves, vineyards, palms and cactuses. The story of the monastery’s founding around 328 AD is a testament to the role geography has played in Cyprus’s history. St. Helen, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, was returning from her mission to the Holy Land to find and transport the actual cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

“The sea was rough so they needed to stop around Larnaca,” says Father Makarios, an Orthodox monk who lives at the monastery. “That night she received a message from God.” He says Helen founded a monastery on the spot after receiving an overnight visit from an angel and seeing a shining light above the mountain the next morning.

Makarios spends part of his day sitting quietly near an altar where there is a gilded gold cross, which the monks say contains in its centre a piece of wood from Christ’s original cross.

Another attraction in southern Cyprus hints at a more tragic characteristic of the island’s history. In 1191 during the Third Crusade, heavy storms forced an English fleet ashore at Limassol. England’s King Richard the Lionhearted followed his fleet there weeks later and captured the island. Cyprus became a key base for the crusaders in their battle to regain the Holy Land and the three-storey Kolossi castle was erected near the port.

Visitors to the castle will notice large slits in a stone awning above the front gates. The gaps were used to pour boiling oil onto the heads of would-be marauders who made it past the moat.

“This island was constantly conquered and exploited because of its position,” says a spokesman for the Cypriot foreign ministry. “Cypriot people are influenced by the fact they are constantly under threat. This makes the people on the island on the one hand afraid, and on the other hand constantly aware of international issues.”

The latest invasion came on July 20, and August 15, 1974. The Turks stormed in and captured the northern third of Cyprus, an area renowned for having the island’s lushest land and most picturesque scenes.

It has left a deep emotional scar. Last week flags were lowered to half-mast throughout Cyprus to mark the anniversary of the occupation.

More than two-hundred thousand Greek Cypriots fled to the south. They left their homes and their longtime Turkish neighbours, who remained behind to live in a newly proclaimed state recognized by no country except Turkey.

Cypriots were eager to fling open their doors to evacuees this week because they can relate, says the government spokesman: “We understand what it’s like to be a refugee. So many of us are.”

A number of Greek Cypriots make the pilgrimage north these days to visit their old houses and neighbourhoods. If Georgiou wanted to visit, the border checkpoint is a short drive from his house. He could be there within 15 minutes. But he won’t be visiting.

“I will never visit the north side because I can’t accept it,” said Georgiou, who was 10 when the invasion occurred. “To show an identity card or a passport, or pay extra insurance for my car, to visit my own country? “I’ll never accept it.”

EDITOR’S NOTE > Article by Alexandra Panetta reporting from Larnaca, Cyprus on July 23, 2006. Copyright 680 News, Canada. All rights reserved.