Greek Cypriot Attitudes Toward Turkish Cypriots and Turkish Immigrants

Abstract

The authors examined the attitudes of 106 Greek Cypriots toward Turkish Cypriots and Turkish immigrants on Cyprus. The authors examined Greek Cypriot attitudes, willingness to cohabit with Turkish Cypriots and Turkish immigrants, and the reasons behind their attitudes in terms of their social-identity perceptions, victimization experiences, and human-rights concerns. A series of repeated measures analyses of variance showed that Greek Cypriots were more willing to cohabit with and had less negative attitudes toward Turkish Cypriots than they were with and toward Turkish immigrants. Women felt more victimized by Turkish Cypriots and Turkish immigrants than did men. Perceived differences in social identity predicted unwillingness to cohabit with Turkish Cypriots. Feelings of victimization predicted negative attitudes toward Turkish Cypriots. Differences in social identity and victimization experiences predicted unwillingness to cohabit with Turkish immigrants. Differences in social identity predicted negative attitudes toward Turkish immigrants. The authors discussed the findings in terms of support for realistic group conflict theories of attitudes and their implications for the coexistence of these ethnic groups in Cyprus and of other ethnic groups in multicultural societies.