Search

Trauma and ambivalence are common aspects of the post-colonial condition and themes in Cypriot poetry. Yaşın's (1998) poem acknowledges the present de facto political partition of Cyprus since the Greek coup and Turkish invasion of 1974, with Michanikos' (1975) poem providing a complementary question as to the lack of necessity of this partition with references to the intercommunal violence of 1963-1964. These questions are linked to both a shared, albeit segregated, trauma from political tragedies and upheaval and a shared nostalgia either for a nationalist past or a bicommunal garden of Eden, the main cleavages of the island's separation. The question of history and nostalgia in Cyprus, as well as its own identities have been entangled in the context of British colonialism as well as Greek and Turkish nationalism. This article investigates the relationship between archaeology, nationalism, and colonialism in Cyprus, producing segregated archaeological narratives and hidden bicommunal and minority experiences. It outlines a history of Cyprus, its nationalisms, and their effects on intercommunal imaginaries (Ioannou 2020). It will then discuss how ideology has shaped archaeological research in Cyprus (Karageorgis 1969). Lastly, the paper looks at how archaeology has moved towards a more nuanced discussion of ethnicity, the possibility of a common history, and reconciliation through the use of spatial, non-ethnic frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christoforos Savva, one of the most significant Cypriot artists of the 1960s, was also a highly politicized individual whose leftist worldview paralleled his artistic development. Nevertheless, this side of Savva has not been thoroughly explored. Savva created two forms of art: cementografia and ifasmatografia. Ifasmatografies were based on the vernacular tradition of weaving, while cementografies used modern cement, which was coming to replace stone in building construction. Savva's art departed from contemporary nationalist art production, such as that of the painter Adamantios Diamantis, and it also diverged from the Western colonial/orientalist projections depicting a premodern Cyprus. Overall, Savva's oeuvre bore all the hallmarks of contesting both Cypriot nationalisms—the Greek and the Turkish—since it was inclusive and anti-nationalist in its essence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the Turkish government facing the 1964 Cyprus crisis applied the principle of negative reciprocity toward Greece and expelled Greek citizens living in Turkey. By doing so, Turkey aimed at pressuring Greece to bring the Greek Cypriot side to the negotiation table. Although Turkish policy proved to be a failure, the expulsions continued. The deportation resulted in the demise of the Greek minority in Turkey for the following reasons: first, there were intermarriages between the Greek citizens and the Greek minority; and second, Turkey's Greeks finally lost their hope of being treated as equal Turkish citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Greek-Cypriot media representations of national identities during negotiations on a United Nation Plan (the Annan Plan), aiming to reunite ethnically divided Cyprus under a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. The study analyzed thematically 57 editorials and lead commentaries published in all the daily Greek-Cypriot Press from the presentation of the Annan Plan in November 2002 to April 2004, at which point two simultaneous referenda were held. The study's findings are consistent with ideas that national identifications are not static and provides an in-depth exploration of exclusive forms of Cypriot identities vis-à-vis more inclusive forms and vis-à-vis hellenocentric identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Greek Cypriot nationalism has been in large part motivated by the misconceived idea of Cyprus becoming a modern, European society. Although Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, the perception of it by the European north as a culturally marginal Mediterranean society had not changed. This was amply demonstrated in 2013 when Cyprus applied to the EU for urgent financial assistance. It was forced to capitalize its banks through their customers' savings and, although this and other “corrective” measures were couched in seemingly rational economic terms, they were unmistakably a punishment and a civilizational lesson. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the importance of curricula and teaching practices in shaping the cultural identity and conflict perception in Cyprus. Topics mentioned include criticisms of official educational policies which are said to perpetuate attitudes that are detrimental to reconciliation efforts between Cyprus and Turkey, challenges encountered in implementing reforms to the education system, and debates over the content of history books in the country.

This article has two main aims. First, it aims to challenge the widespread narrative in Cyprus studies that presents ethnic identities as historically inevitable and natural. Rather, identities need to be conceptualized as socially constructed. The second aim of this article is to problematize the argument that ethnic or national groups are homogenous actors. It underlines the need to deconstruct these supposedly unitary actors by making use of a class-based conceptualization of the state. By using such a conceptualization, the article will focus on the period between 1878 and 1974. It will start with a concrete analysis of the class structure in the Cypriot society and then will trace how different classes in both communities positioned themselves vis-à-vis political structures of power and how these positionings paved the way to the division of the island. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the political relations between AKEL and the Turkish Cypriot community during the period 1941-1955. AKEL's post-1974 policies towards the Turkish Cypriots had led to a political misconception concerning its political relations with the Turkish Cypriot community for the period that preceded 1955. Undeniably, AKEL's attitude to the Turkish Cypriots had diachronically been much more liberal and tolerant than the approach expressed by many nationalist -- Right-wing politicians. However, AKEL's attempt to employ 'class rhetoric' in order to allure the minority into the 'Greek Cypriot national liberation struggle' had little effect upon the Turkish Cypriot masses. Contrary to the ideological and social divisions that cut across the Greek Cypriot community, the fear of enosis within the Turkish Cypriot community dominated political and ideological discussions. The political elite of the Turkish Cypriot community perceived AKEL not only as a 'national' threat but as an ideological menace as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the structures of both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot press in Cyprus in order to consider the role that gender plays in the construction and distribution of knowledge in Cypriot society. The question is whether columns published across the ideological spectrum in both the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot daily press challenge preconceived notions of gender in the broader communities or whether they reproduce and reinforce previously held patriarchal views of the roles of men and women as citizens in Cyprus. Such views, it is argued, have systematically marginalized women from visible participation in offering alternative futures for the Cypriot communities in Cyprus and relegated them to the position of secondary agents who more often than not play the role of bringing to fruition the imaginings of their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the reasons for the nonresolution of the Cyprus problem and for its legendary intractability. It starts by highlighting three distinct features of the Cyprus problem followed by a historical account, with emphasis on attempts at a settlement. The third and fourth parts examine the window of opportunity of 1999-2004 (Cyprus's European Union accession process and the Annan Plan) and the reasons for its spectacular failure, and the more recent negotiation (2008-10) that was initially promising but is now hanging from a thread. The last part focuses on nine reasons for the impasse that has made the Cyprus conflict impervious to reunification and resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hellenic Studies / Etudes Helleniques is the property of Centre for Hellenic Studies & Research Canada-KEEK and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As renewed talks for the reunification of Cyprus encounter familiar barriers, this essay urges the reader to consider the importance of language use in the Greek Cypriot community. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's work on speech and writing, it examines the political significance of Demotic Greek and the Cypriot Greek spoken every day, arguing that the conflicts of Greek Cypriot identity since decolonization are played out by the tension between the two forms of Greek. Demotic use invokes an essential Greek identity that excludes the Oriental, particularly Turkish, Other. However, its use remains primarily written even though it summons the classical philosophy and Greek Orthodoxy that celebrate speech, not writing, as the mode of self-expression. Paradoxically, the use of written Demotic presents a Hellenized version of Cyprus at the same time that it undermines one of the foundational principles of Hellenic culture. Cypriot Greek persists in speech, resisting the textual seduction and invasion by Demotic. It can, with its explicit, supranational diversity, be understood as a celebration of Cypriot difference that demonstrates the multi-faceted construction of identity on the island. Indeed, Cypriot Greek deconstructs the hierarchical opposition between Occidental and Oriental. In its difference from Demotic, Cypriot Greek invokes the polyculturalism of Cyprus, an instance of the diversity too often ignored and repressed in diverse locations across the Mediterranean and the Middle East with tragic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that Cypriot national minorities suffer from 'internal-exclusion' because the clash of foreign nationalisms (Greek and Turkish) and imperialisms (British, American, Greek and Turkish) in Cyprus has resulted in the domination of the 'Greeks' and 'Turks' despite the historical presence of other communities. This has also resulted in the failure to develop an indigenous Cypriot identity, one that crosses religious difference and has as its base the idea of Cyprus as a secular homeland that includes all its disparate national groups who call themselves 'Cypriots'. Not only have both Greek and Turkish Cypriot elite, by focusing on their intercommunal problem, practised assimilation into the majority of the minority since the independence of the island from British rule in 1960, but the institutional structures from which assimilation could be implemented were imbedded into the Constitution. In the Constitution the national minorities were termed 'religious groups' and forced to become members of either dominant community. Thus, by being denied their place as 'national' minorities and regarded as religious sub-groups of one of the two dominant communities, they have suffered 'internal-exclusion'. This has had adverse effects on their rights as well as their position in Cypriot society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses the character, recruitment, and achievements of the bicommunal movement in Cyprus, focusing on some of its most representative activities. It hopes to suggest both the strengths and weaknesses of this historically important initiative among Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and evaluate its significance in the light of the recent referendum and the openly expressed public opinion in favour of or against a new Federal Republic in Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information presented in this chapter is drawn from ethnographic fieldwork with Greek Cypriot elementary school children and illustrates the process by which national identity is constructed as primordial by teachers and children at school. In this process, the Turks become the primary Other, against whom a sense of Self is constructed. However, in-depth interviews with children outside the school show that their constructions of the Turks can be more complex and nuanced, and thus less stereotypical, especially when the children are encouraged to reflect on who the Turks really are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An island constantly subject to foreign rule, Cyprus has a history of continual struggle and negotiation with larger powers. After a succession of various occupations and rulers, Cyprus became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1571 and remained a Turkish province until 1878 when Britain assumed administration of the island. On 1 April 1955, the Greek Cypriot anticolonial group EOKA started a campaign of violence against British rule and the result was a four-year revolutionary struggle organized and led by right-wing nationalists. Cypriot communists and Turkish Cypriots were forbidden from joining the EOKA ranks. Fought to a standstill, the British withdrew in 1959, and negotiations led to the creation of the independent Republic of Cyprus on 16 August 1960. Within three years of independence, however, violent inter-communal conflict began as a result of a Greek Cypriot determination to modify the constitutional safeguards that had been incorporated into the agreements of 1960 in order to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority. This resulted in the withdrawal of the Turkish Cypriot community from their constitutional role and position and the establishment of a 'green line' dividing the two communities in Nicosia, the island's capital. These enclave borders and the neutral zone that divided the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot areas of the city were guarded by the British and subsequently by United Nations troops for the following ten years. Progress towards a solution was slow and was ultimately overtaken by the actions of the military junta in Greece who, in 1974, launched a suicidal coup to take control in Cyprus. Turkey used the Greek coup as an opportunity to justify an intervention on 'humanitarian' grounds in order to protect the Turkish Cypriots. As a consequence of their involvement in Cyprus, the over-extended Greek military government was humiliated and fell, and democracy returned to Greece. The consequences for Cyprus were catastrophic as the Turkish military occupied 37 per cent of the island. International opinion supported the initial Turkish action insofar as it served to protect the Turkish Cypriots, but condemned the brutality with which it was conducted and the invasion of half of the island in which it resulted. As a result, several thousand Greek Cypriots were killed, hundreds disappeared, and about 70 per cent of the island's productive capacity fell into the hands of the Turkish army. The Turkish Cypriots, who had suffered from 1964, felt themselves to be liberated. Two hundred thousand Greek Cypriots found their land invaded and themselves homeless, living in tents for the whole of the summer of 1974. After 1974, the Greek Cypriot side immediately launched a policy of negotiation in order to have some of what was lost returned. The occupied north, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, remains an unrecognized state and continues to struggle economically. It is currently recognized only by Turkey. In the politically turbulent years that followed 1974, the non-occupied south managed to rebuild itself materially and diplomatically and, more recently, to accede to the European Union on 1 May 2004 after a last-ditch UN-brokered reunification deal was rejected by an overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots in a referendum they felt was unfair. The Turkish Cypriots and Turkey supported the UN plan, as a solution would give Turkey the green light to go ahead with its European Union accession aspirations and grant the Turkish Cypriots international access and substantial financial support. The following dialogue attempts to read and critique some contemporary Cypriot phenomena in light of this tragic legacy of strife, division and a history of ethnic trauma. Speaking to the current situation of Cyprus, this dialogue, written over the course of a month, took place between Spurgeon Thompson, Assistant Professor of English at Cyprus College, Nicosia, Stavros St. Karayanni, currently Visiting Scholar at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver, Canada, and Myria Vassiliadou, Director of the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Intercollege, Nicosia, Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the relationship between history, memory and experience in Cyprus. Reference to the 1955–1959 National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) armed nationalist struggle; Relationship between Greek and Turkish Cypriots; Analysis of the EOKA struggle; Tension between official rememberings and personal recollections.

Most Cypriots before and since independence in 1960 experienced a double patriotism that contributed to the prolongation of the conflict between the two communities in their country. They identified with the island on which they lived as well as with the nation, Greece or Turkey, from which their ancestors had come. These patriotisms changed after the landing of the Turkish troops in 1974 when Cyprus was split into two distinct sections clearly based upon Turkish and Greek ethnicity. An attempt is made here to describe the resulting insecurity that played a significant role in preventing a resolution of the conflict in 1984-1985. For inductive, theoretical reasons a deliberate effort is also made to isolate ensuing "consequences" and hence to salvage old and slightly new generalizations that perhaps transcend this particular conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]