Markers of Turkish Cypriot History in the Diaspora: Power, visibility and identity

Abstract

This paper attends to the diasporic experience of Turkish Cypriots settled in the UK within the larger context of the relationship between memory and history. Two competing accounts of modern Cypriot history are compared. The first is the rendition of the events of 1974 by leading cultural and political organizations in the Turkish Cypriot diaspora community. The second is the narration of the same events produced by the individual memories and choices of the lay members of the diaspora. The friction between these two accounts is symptomatic of the tension between officialized national history and individual memories and perceptions of the past. The author first examines some of the key characteristics of diasporic identity formation in relation to an individual's sense of self. The social and political dynamics of the same process, which include references to both home and host societies' relations with the diaspora community, are also discussed. The core of the debate concerns the role of history and perceptions of the past in the mediation of communal and individual identities on the one hand, and between diasporic and other forms of national identities on the other.