‘Empty returns’: home and its unmaking during Greek-Cypriot refugee women’s return visits

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus led to the division of the island between the Turkish-occupied north and the Greek-Cypriot Republic in the south. For approximately 30 years, the Greek and Turkish-Cypriot communities on the island were prohibited from ‘crossing’ to the other side. However, the relaxation of movement restrictions in 2003 provided an opportunity for many displaced persons from both communities to visit their former homes and villages once more. This paper explores the ways in which Greek-Cypriot refugee women experienced these return visits. It draws on oral history interviews to investigate how the physical return and re-experience of the refugee house has been significant to them and their understanding of home. The paper argues that the tension between the remembered and encountered home led to an inability to re-establish meaningful connections in terms of the refugee house, giving rise to a home-unmaking that questioned their association with it. The paper contributes to the existing literature regarding the ways in which home comes under question or is unmade, revealing how return and homecoming can damage previously associated meanings of home and have effects on how a dwelling is understood and experienced.