Abstract
AbstractAs an implication of the ethnically and nationally diverse nature of Mediterranean polities, identification-driven boundary-making strategies bear considerable relevance for their political processes, both in the contemporary context and in the historical past. By utilizing a Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), this study provides an interpretative exploration of Greek-Cypriot elite discursive framing strategies regarding Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot ethno-national identity during the Cypriot Civil War (1963–1967). The available historical interpretations of this period lead us to expect an exclusionary strategy of boundary contraction to be more prevalent than the inclusionary one of boundary expansion in the discourse of Greek-Cypriot elites. Through an examination of a sample of primary textual sources, the analysis disconfirms such an expectation, as elite figures primarily constructed broader, inclusive frames of ethno-national identity during the civil war. The relative absence of boundary contraction and the prevalence of boundary expansion indicate the applicability of Wimmer’s (2008) universalist approach to ethnic boundary-making, in contrast to the expectations that are built by the Cyprus-specific historical evidence. This study thus lays the groundwork for future research to delineate the discursive framing strategies of elite figures in Cyprus and beyond the ethno-nationally divided island.
Highlights
Past prognoses regarding the imminent collapse of the nation, both as a form of group identity and as a source of political legitimacy, have proven to be untenable in the modern context (Anderson 2006; Triandafyllidou 1998)
Contrary to the previous theorization, close inspection of the 25 textual sources reveals that boundary expansion – evidenced through Greek nationalism – is more prevalent that boundary contraction in the discursive framing strategies of Greek-Cypriot political elites during the Cypriot Civil War (Table 1), leading to the rejection of the guiding hypothesis (H1)
Wimmer’s (2008) universalist ethnic boundary-making typology proved to be applicable to the mid-20th century discursive practices of Greek-Cypriot political elites; certain contextually specific utterances unveiled the difficulty that is inherent in attempts to interpret clear linguistic borders between conceptually distinct identificatory ideologies (Loizides 2007, 174)
Summary
Past prognoses regarding the imminent collapse of the nation, both as a form of group identity and as a source of political legitimacy, have proven to be untenable in the modern context (Anderson 2006; Triandafyllidou 1998). Both before and after the epochal dissipation of modernity, the Mediterranean region, characterized by its national and ethnic diversity, has been the host of multiple shifts in group boundaries and political processes of identification (Boissevain 2013).
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