The Turkish Cypriot Bandits According To A Greek Cypriot Poet And A Turkish Cypriot Poet (1894-1896)

Bandits have always existed in most areas of the world. Nowadays we know the names of some of them. However since Eric Hobsbawm wrote his famous research book about bandits, they have become the main subject of historians, filmmakers, scenarists and literateurs. The bandits gained a great fame that they were the subject of some plays and poems when they were alive. In 1894, the event of bandits occurred in Cyprus. They were known as Hasan Polias. They had lived as fugitives for about 15 months. During this time the Cyprus Government applied some special measures, such as to enact new laws, to increase the number of police force and to imprison the friends and supporters of the fugitives. Finally, they were captured, judged and hanged. But they were so influential that two poems about their activities were written and published. One of the poems was written by Christodoulos Tsiapouras. The second poem belonged to Hafız Cemal. Both poems were published in 1996. The aim of this study is to reveal the effects of this event on Cypriots and the literature of Cyprus by comparing these two poems.