Re-engaging the self/other problematic in post-positivist international relations: the 1964 expulsion of Greeks from Istanbul revisited

Abstract

ABSTRACTBy critically engaging with the critical constructivist and post-structuralist accounts of foreign policy, this study examines the mass expulsion from Turkey of Istanbul Greeks in 1964 and 1965. As forms of radical post-positivism, these approaches provide ample insights to understand how this expulsion and the Cyprus conflict have become instrumental for reinscribing both Turkish national identity and the expelled Greeks as its inimical/threatening other. Noting that radical post-positivism focused on specific foreign policy cases in specific periods of time tends to overlook the role and significance of state-building processes in the configuration and negotiation of self/other interactions, this study argues that the gross violence in Cyprus in the 1960s was utilized to justify the economic, social and cultural marginalization of Istanbul Greeks as well as their premeditated expulsion. However, the Greek expulsion may be fully comprehended only when it is contextualized within the minority regime shaped throughout the formation of the Turkish nation state in 1923.