in: Divided Cyprus (ed. Yannis Papadakis, Nicos Peristianis and Gisela Welz)

The Political Origins of the Issue of Separate Municipalities in the Context of the Struggle for Cyprus 1957 - 1959,

Chap. 01 in: Diana Welston Markides, "Cyprus 1957-1963: From Colonial Conflict to Constitutional Crisis" (2001)

Any attempt to understand the rapid transformation of territories in the 21st century, reveals the inherent shifting of landscapes, the ‘movement’ of boundaries thus, a continuous struggle for their redefinition through conflicts and exclusions. Cyprus and its inherent division act as one of the frontiers to the EU. The aim of this workshop is to explore the construction and practice of such liminal spaces from an interdisciplinary perspective with particular
reference to Cyprus. What dictates the organization and management of
these liminal spaces?

While the issue of constructions of “others” from the perspective of established centres of power has received a significant amount of attention, constructions of “others” from the perspective of peripheral societies have not been adequately explored. This article examines this issue by comparing constructions of “the Balkans” articulated by Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Such constructions, are in turn, compared with those emanating from

This article examines the issue of political commemoration, focusing on the commemorations organized by different political parties in the two sides of divided Cyprus. It suggests a new analytical framework for the study of ritual in contemporary nation-states that moves beyond the usual examination of any single ritual on its own terms. The use of comparison, both within each side and between the two sides, reveals how political actors stage commemorations of different historical events in order to propose contesting historical narratives.

In contemporary Cyprus, the ascription of ethno-religious identity is highly political and juridical. Contrary to the submitted report of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC), this paper argues that the gist of the difference—and of the ‘Cyprus problem’—lies precisely with how groups and communities are described in official and popular discourse.