Professor Andrekos Varnava
Varnava in 2022
Born	1979 (age 45–46) Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
Alma mater	Monash University University of Melbourne (PhD)
Occupation(s)	Writer and professor in British colonial history
Employer	Flinders University
Spouse	Helen Komodromou

ProfessorAndrekos Varnava,FRHistS,FRSA (born 1979),^[1] is adual nationalCypriot–Australian writer and historian, who is best known for his work confronting controversial moments inmodern history and their consequences.

Professor Andrekos Varnava, was born in 1979 in Melbourne to parents ofGreek Cypriot descent, specifically his father fromFrenaros and his mother fromAgios Ilias, both from theFamagusta District.^{[citation needed]} He attended schools atSouth Oakleigh, where he became fascinated by the history ofWorld War 1 and2.^[2] History prompted him to identify more with his Cypriot heritage, challenging what it meant to beCypriot as distinct from being identified as either Greek or Turkish. Varnava went on to read History, modernGreek andEnglish Literature atMonash University, completing hisHonours degree in 2001 and moving on toUniversity of Melbourne, where he completed his PhD (in history) in 2006.^[3]

Varnava had visitedCyprus briefly a number of times, but in 2006 he took up a position as Assistant Professor in History at theEuropean University Cyprus, a position he held for two years. During this period, he married his wife and acquired dual Cypriot nationality in line with his dual heritage (Australian and Cypriot).^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Varnava returned to Australia when he accepted a history lecturer position atFlinders University, where he remains to this day. He has written books and lectured on British, European, and imperial history—with special attention paid to bothBritish andOttoman empires, and their influence on the Middle East. This was his main interest since the interaction of these two empires shaped the modern history of Cyprus. The nationalism during the late nineteenth century, theFirst World War and the consequentpost-World War IIterrorism andcivil war during the Republic period contributed to the changes and progress of the modern Cyprus.^[4]

Varnava set about publishing his work, writing over 70papers (articles and book chapters), 4monographs, and 16 edited collections.^[5] His main academic focus has been on the history of theBritish Empire, particularly its impact on Cyprus, unpicking the socio-economic effect of such themes asmartial races theory andvenereal disease, and socio-political themes such as extremenationalism andchauvinism. His prolific writing mirrored his academic career at Flinders, where he was promoted senior lecturer in 2012, was invited bySelim Deringil andVangelis Kechriotis to be a visiting professor atBoğaziçi University inIstanbul in 2012, elected as a Fellow ofRoyal Historical Society in 2014, promoted to Associate Professor in 2016, made an Honorary Professor atDe Montfort University in 2018, and promoted to full Professor in 2022. Varnava has co-authored works with such eminent scholars asPanikos Panayi, Michael J.K. Walsh, Evan Smith, Nicholas Coureas, Marinella Marmo, Hubert Faustmann andPhilip Payton, and published in his edited works the work of pre-eminent scholars such asJohn M. MacKenzie,Eric S. Richards,Joy Damousi,Robert I. Rotberg, Erol Kaymak, andAyhan Aktar.^[6]

In 2025 he will take up the position of Editor-in-Chief ofThe Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.

He was elected a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities in 2025.^[7]

As a PhD candidate at theUniversity of Melbourne in 2003, Varnava appealed to Greek and Turkish Cypriots to set aside their ethnic differences and to reunite their country by accepting that they were both perpetrators and victims of past violence.^[8] While in Cyprus, Varnava had become increasingly aware of the cultural isolation ofminority groups,^[9] which inspired him to organise a conference in 2007, focusing on challenges faced by minorities preserving their identity in a nationalistic state.^{[10][n 1]} In 2009, Varnava asserted thatBritish imperialism in Cyprus was critically flawed, unable to achieve its full purpose in making Cyprus a strategic stronghold for the Empire, creating instead the conditions for morenationalistic sentiments to take hold among the Greek Cypriot population.^[11] He followed this with research that blamed British humanitarianism for being selective and restricted by imperialism, particularly in relation to the formation of theFrench Armenian Legion andMusa Dagh refugees.^[12]

In 2014 and 2018, Varnava co-organised two conferences on WWI atNanyang Technological University in Singapore, and in his contributions he challenged popular narratives around Greek nationalism andEnosis, which had suppressed the role of Greek and Turkish Cypriots working together in the First World War along with implications of loyalty towards the British.^{[13][14][15][16]} In 2024 Varnava gave a speech at the unveiling of a plaque in the garden beside theFamagusta Gate, inNicosia, organised byΑchilleas Demetriades, in memory of the Cypriots who served in the Cypriot Mule Corps during the First World War.^[17]

In 2016, Varnava openly addressed the systematic killing of ChristianOttoman Greek population ofAnatolia in theGreco-Turkish War, which he argued was part of a programme ofethnic cleansing stopping short of actualgenocide.^[18] He is equally outspoken aboutArmenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire/Turkey in 1915 and 1916,^[19] praisingGöçek for calling it out, but criticising her for not making the distinction between genocide, in the case of the Armenians in 1915 and 1916, and ethnic cleansing, which he argues is a more suitable term for what happened after the war during theFranco-Turkish War.^[20]

His book published in 2021 (translated into Greek in 2024) describes the assassination of a leading Cypriot politicianAntonios Triantafyllides in 1934, attributing his murder to far-right-wing nationalist extremists he connects to the post-war formation ofEOKA.^{[21][22][n 2]}

In 2018, after publishing a seminal article inEnglish Historical Review with Evan Smith on the Cypriots in London during the inter-war years as a 'suspect community', Varnava won as Lead Chief Investigator anAustralian Research Council grant to head a team investigatingborder controls between Britain and Australia in the 20th Century. This was to examine "suspect migrant communities", and how past historical policies compare with contemporary practices, citing British and Australian political, and sometimes racial, influences.^{[23][24][25][26]}

• British Imperialism and Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession (Manchester University Press, 2009)^[27]

British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915 – The inconsequential possession (Manchester University Press, 2012)^[28]

• Serving the empire in the Great War – The Cypriot Mule Corps, imperial loyalty and silenced memory (Manchester University Press, 2017)^[29]
• British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914–1925 (Routledge, 2020)^[30]
• Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA (Anthem Press, 2021)^[31]

• Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond (I. B. Tauris, London, February 2009, paperback 2011),^[32]
• The Minorities of Cyprus: Development Patterns and the Identity of the Internal-Exclusion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, April 2009)^[33]
• 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)^[34]
• Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias (Manchester University Press, 2015)^[35]
• Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2016)^[36]
• The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society (Routledge Studies in First World War History, 2017)^[37]
• Australia, Migration and Empire – Immigrants in a Globalised World (Palgrave Macmillan, London 2019)^[38]
• Comic empires- Imperialism in cartoons, caricature, and satirical art (Manchester University Press, 2019)^[39]
• After the Armistice – Empire, Endgame and Aftermath (Routledge, 2021)^[40]
• Exiting war – The British Empire and the 1918–20 moment (Manchester University Press, 2022)^[41]
• New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, November 2022)^[42]
• Popular Culture and its Relationship to Conflict in the UK and Australia since the Great War (Routledge, 2023)^[43]

• Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
• Living people
• 1979 births
• Cypriot historians
• Australian historians
• 20th-century Australian historians
• Australian people of Greek Cypriot descent
• British Empire in World War I
• Writers from Melbourne
• 21st-century Australian historians
• Monash University alumni
• University of Melbourne alumni
• Academic staff of European University Cyprus
• Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
• Academics of De Montfort University
• Academic staff of Flinders University

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