Greek Cypriot Research Articles

Beyond comparisons: The complexity and context‐dependency of collective victim beliefs

AbstractSocial psychological research on collective victimhood has focused on just a few ways in which people think about the ingroup's victimization that imply certain assumptions and limit our understanding of collective victim beliefs. Additionally, different historical and sociopolitical contexts may make different collective victim beliefs relevant. This article examines collective victim beliefs expressed in open‐ended survey responses among six different groups: Northern Irish participants, Greek Cypriots, Hungarians, Poles, Jewish Americans, and Armenian Americans (N = 638). Qualitative content analysis revealed five broader categories with several collective victim beliefs each. General appraisals of the ingroup's collective victimization entailed centrality of ingroup victimization versus defocusing victimhood. More specific appraisals included context‐specific characteristics of the ingroup's victimization, perceptions of the perpetrator group (attributions of blame), and perceptions of other victim groups (comparative victim beliefs, including rejecting comparisons). The findings extend and challenge commonly studied collective victim beliefs, and propose novel theoretical directions.

Festivals for Inclusion? Examining the Politics of Cultural Events in Northern Cyprus

In Northern Cyprus, cultural festivals are increasingly popular. The routinely celebrated festivals transform small villages into colourful celebrations with lots of activities and great culinary experiences, offering opportunities for social contact between members of different generations. People meet in the streets, where traditional food and handicrafts are on display and traditional folk dance performances usually take place. Cultural events provide an important space in which older generations often nostalgically remember the past with others of their generation and share their memories with the young people. Bi‐communal interactions between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in these public spaces also help leave behind and bury the violence of the past, nationalistic dogma, and intolerance. Drawing on ideas from postcolonial theory, cultural studies, sociology, and scholarship on public art, this article develops a post‐postcolonial approach to explore the politics and value of Turkish Cypriot cultural festivals and the ways in which Turkish Cypriots are bridging differences with Greek Cypriots. Through observations, conversations, and interviews conducted with Turkish Cypriots from June 2014 to October 2017, the article also discusses the ways in which public art encourages dialogue and multicultural tolerance in Cyprus. The article argues that the rise of interest in Turkish Cypriot folk arts and multicultural tolerance, as propagated by Turkish Cypriots, should be understood in more complex terms than simply that of positive inclusion, as an ambivalence closely connected to the East/West division. Accordingly, the article illustrates that the coexistence of inclu‐ sion and exclusion are at the heart of Turkish Cypriot society.

Mosque Architecture in Cyprus—Visible and Invisible Aspects of Form and Space, 19th to 21st Centuries

A comprehensive analysis of Cypriot mosque architecture between the 19th and 21st centuries, from the Ottoman and British colonial periods to the present, does not exist. The phase after 1974, after the division of the island into a Turkish Cypriot, predominantly Muslim north and a Greek Cypriot, mainly Christian south, is especially insufficiently studied. This paper aims to interpret Cypriot mosque architecture and its meaning(s) through a comparative analysis, considering cultural, religious, and political developments. Based on an architectural survey and studies about Muslim Cypriot culture, this study investigates formal and spatial characteristics, focusing on the presence/absence of domed plan typologies and of minarets which, as visual symbolic markers, might express shifting cultural-religious notions and/or identities. Inconspicuous mosques without domes and minarets dominate until 1974. However, with the inter-communal tensions in the 1960s, the minaret possibly became a sign of Turkish identity, besides being a cultural-religious marker. This becomes more obvious after 1974 and is stressed by the (re)introduction of the dome. Since the late 1990s, an ostentatious and unprecedented neo-Ottoman architecture emphasizes visible and invisible meanings, and the Turkish presence in Cyprus stronger than before. The new architectural language visually underlines the influences from Turkey that North Cyprus has been experiencing.

Past and Present Intergroup Contact and Conflict Among Inhabitants of Former Mixed Villages of Cyprus: The Role of Individual and Collective Experiences in Predicting Attitudes and Trust

Positive attitudes and trust towards former adversaries facilitate reconciliation and peace building. Both historical and current intergroup experiences such as intergroup contact and conflict predict intergroup attitudes and trust, but no previous research has investigated the joint effects of these experiences. Therefore, we study the interplay of positive intergroup contact preceding conflict, negative experiences of the conflict, and positive intergroup contact following conflict. Drawing on social representations theory and using a multilevel design, we highlight the importance of both individual and collective experiences. We examine the effects of such experiences on intergroup attitudes and trust among a large sample of Greek Cypriots (N = 802) and Turkish Cypriots (N = 718) from 54 formerly ethnically mixed villages in the context of a protracted and frozen conflict in Cyprus. Present‐day individual contact related to more positive attitudes and higher trust regardless of participants’ past experiences of conflict or contact. Furthermore, past collective contact experiences predict more positive attitudes and higher trust, whereas past collective conflict experiences predicted more negative attitudes and lower trust. Finally, present‐day contact closes the gap in trust between respondents with low and high past contact. Overall, both current and historical and individual and collective experiences matter.

The bewildered peasant: family, migration and murder in the Greek Cypriot community in London

Abstract Greek Cypriots became a key feature of early post-Second World War London. This article focuses on the case of the penultimate woman hanged in Britain, Styllou Christofi, who was executed in December 1954 for the murder of her German-born daughter-in-law, Hella. It outlines the emergence of the Cypriot community in London, tackles the image of the Cypriot in the British imperial imagination and investigates the hostility that this new community faced in Britain. The article investigates the nature of family in Cyprus and London and questions why Cypriots have received so little attention from historians, despite their numbers.

Ousting the Cypriot Ethnarch: President Makarios’ Struggle against the Greek Junta, Cypriot Bishops, and Terrorism

This study examined the politics and political involvements of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus in the early postcolonial era, with a special focus on the ecclesiastical coup that aimed for the ouster of Archbishop Makarios III, who was also the President of the Republic of Cyprus from 1960 to 1977. The findings indicate that the Greek junta, Greek Cypriot terrorists, and the three bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus joined forces to oust Makarios by forcing him to resign his presidency. These actors were displeased with Makarios because he tolerated Cypriot communism, refused to follow Athens’ manipulations in Cypriot politics, and promoted Cyprus’ independence by abandoning the pro-Enosis (unification of Cyprus with Greece) political line. The Greek junta tried to dictate policies to Makarios and asked him to resign as he refused to obey. Greek Cypriot terrorists engaged in violence to destabilize the island and oust Makarios. The three bishops summoned the Holy Synod and defrocked the Archbishop as he refused to resign his presidency. Importantly, this research came across with strong indicators that the Greek junta tried to utilize religion in trying to oust the Cypriot ethnarch as the three bishops, immediately after the junta’s failure to oust Makarios in 1972, asked him to resign his presidency. While his rivals failed to oust Makarios, at least until 1974, he called for an international synod and defrocked the three bishops. He managed to retain both posts until the end of his life.

The Polarization of Political Conflict in the Greek Cypriot Community in the 1940s–1950s: A Fight for Hegemony

The article examines the polarization of internal politics between Left and Right in the Greek Cypriot community in the 1940s and 1950s. By analyzing the ideological and political conflicts of this period it detects the mechanisms through which political polarization and radicalization increased. The emphasis on internal politics factors aims, inter alia, to stimulate critical thinking in political analysis that goes beyond the mere displacement of responsibilities and sources of bad luck in external actors and scrutinize the choices of national actors. The analysis of internal dynamics within the Greek Cypriot community can contribute to a (partial) deconstruction of the dominant narrative of this period which glorifies the nationalist Right via the EOKA armed struggle. The argument presented here is that political polarization and radicalization were instrumentally utilized by the Greek Cypriot nationalist Right to serve the purposes of internal dominance and hegemony in anticipation of the end of colonialism.

Fishy childhoods in space and time: intergenerational continuities and changes

ABSTRACT This article is based on research conducted in a small fishing community in Cyprus. It seeks to explore through an intergenerational and biographical approach how three generations of Greek Cypriot males belonging to fishing families create a meaningful sense of identity through their attachment to place and the fishing profession. The article analyses these three generations’ childhood experiences, their social relationships and the processes of learning and knowledge transmission at work, to trace inter- and intra-generational changes and continuities and to offer a more nuanced understanding of the younger generation’s sense of identity and belonging in light of ongoing structural changes. Findings pinpoint the centrality of place – land and sea – in all generations’ sense of belonging and a strong sense of attachment to fishing which is, however, impacting the younger generation’s professional orientations at an emotional level, given that fishing is no longer viable as a profession.

Ethnic Protection Rackets: Turkish Cypriot Statebuilding before 1974

ABSTRACT For the ten years prior to the Turkish partition of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones, the Turkish Cypriot community lived in distinct ethnic enclaves governed by a parallel Turkish Cypriot administration. I argue that Turkish Cypriot elites formed a system of reciprocal relations with their community by acting as ethnic protection racketeers. With few material resources, but a demand for protection during intercommunal fighting, Turkish Cypriot leaders monopolised protection over and within enclaves, while also deterring co-ethnics from leaving their protection despite poor conditions. Ultimately, this influenced Turkish Cypriot preferences in UN-led talks, demanding to retain autonomy over specific territories they controlled, especially in providing security.

Language learning under the shadow of conflict: Teachers’ beliefs about teaching the language of the “other”

Attitudes and motivation play an important role in successful foreign language learning. However, in a limited number of unique contexts across the world language learning takes place despite a history of conflict between learners' native and target language-speaking communities. Cyprus is one of these contexts with a long history of conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots continuing to today. Previous research has indicated learning the language of the ‘other’ community can have several positive outcomes. However, little is known about the experiences of the teachers working in such conflictual contexts. To that end, semi-constructed interviews were conducted with five of the nine active Turkish Cypriot Greek-language teachers teaching in state schools. Findings indicate Turkish Cypriot Greek language teachers believe Turkish Cypriots learning Greek could contribute to establishing peaceful and harmonious relations between the two communities in Cyprus as well as provide numerous pragmatic benefits for the Turkish Cypriot community. Furthermore, according to the participants, learning the language of the ‘other’ community also, over time, improved Turkish Cypriots' attitudes towards the Greek language, its culture, and speakers as well as increased their motivation to continue studying the language in the future. Finally, school commemoration ceremonies and a lack of instructional materials and institutional support both stemming from the conflict on the island were noted as the major challenges faced by Turkish Cypriot teachers teaching Greek in Cyprus.

The Neurocognitive Study for the Aging: Longitudinal Analysis on the Contribution of Sex, Age, Education and APOE ɛ4 on Cognitive Performance.

Objective: The effects of normal cognitive aging on executive functions (EF), Verbal Episodic Memory (VEM) and the contribution of age, sex, education, and APOΕ ε4 in a group of old Greek Cypriots across a five-year period were investigated.Design: NEUROAGE, the first project on cognitive aging in Cyprus, is a prospective longitudinal study with a rolling admission process. Participants are assessed at baseline and retested every 24–30 months.Subjects: 170 participants completed all three testing cycles; 86 men and 84 women with ages ranging between 60 and 88 years (mean = 73.21, SD = 5.84); education, 2–20 years (mean = 9.07, SD = 4.27).Results: Α Repeated Measures Multivariate Analysis of Covariance was conducted with one between-subject factor: sex; two covariates: age and education, while Time (time 1, time 2, time 3) served as a within – subject factor. Time did not have an effect on mini mental status examination in Greek (MMSE), EF or VEM. Also, sex had no effect on MMSE, EF and VEM. There was no time by sex interaction. Age and Education significantly predicted the EF performance, F(1, 168) = 11.23, p < 0.05; F(1, 158) = 90.03, p < 0.001 and VEM performance, F(1, 171) = 17.22, p < 0.001; F(1, 171) = 61.25, p < 0.001. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between time and education, for EF, F(2, 167) = 7.02, p < 0.001. Performance of the APOE ε4 carriers did not differ on any of the above measures as compared to performance of non-carriers in this older adult group.Conclusion: Cognitively healthy adults maintained overall cognitive performance across the five-year period. Male and female participants performed similarly and the pattern of change over time was similar across the two sexes. Education was predictive of VEM and EF performance across time. Furthermore, those with higher education maintained higher levels of EF performance. APOE results did not differentiate performance at baseline. Implications of findings are discussed.

Normalizing far right party rhetoric: the impact of media populist frames and coverage on the electoral prospects of far-right parties in the case of Cyprus

ABSTRACT This article tries to identify the links between media and politics within the context of far-right politics. Populism provides such a conceptual link. In this article, we ask whether the way some media frame certain discussions, which are considered privileged issues for the far right, facilitates the diffusion of their narrative and ideas and thus normalizes their rhetoric among the population and improves their electoral prospects. We also examine the way the far-right party itself frames the same issues in order to identify whether there is a match between the two frames. Our case study is the Greek Cypriot far right party, ELAM. We argue that the populist representation of these particular issues by the media and the way the party positions itself on these same issues has facilitated the normalization of their political rhetoric, thus enabling it to penetrate into the mainstream political space and increase its electoral potentials.

Civil Society in Peace Referendums: Inclusion and Campaign Mobilization in Northern Ireland and Cyprus

This article asks whether civil society’s inclusion/exclusion in peace negotiations shapes their involvement in peace agreement referendum campaigns. It seeks to answer this question through a qualitative comparative analysis of the Northern Irish Good Friday Agreement and Cypriot Annan Plan experiences. It finds that civil society’s push for inclusion in Northern Ireland and in the Turkish Cypriot community was followed by their greater mobilization in the referendum that strengthened the overall “yes” campaign, while this did not take place in the Greek Cypriot community. Drawing on the literature on European integration referendums, it argues that peace referendums need to be preceded by inclusive negotiations.

Nationalism and Reconciliation in Cypriot Documentary Film, 1976–1987

This article examines the production of documentary films about the Cyprus conflict produced between the late 1970 and late 1980s. Two films have been selected for analysis: Cyprus: The Other Reality (1976, dir. Lambros Papadimitrakis and Thekla Kittou), an anti-nationalist documentary produced in the immediate aftermath of the Turkish incursion of the island, and A Detail in Cyprus (1987, dir. Panicos Chrysanthou), which looks back at the social effects of the incursion and the estrangement of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. Based on original interviews with their directors, this article gives an account of the production histories of the two documentaries and looks at their means through which they were distributed to the public. The article also examines the ways in which these two films represent the Cyprus conflict, in particular their engagement with the prevailing nationalist ideologies at work in both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities and the alternate concept of Cypriocentrism. Finally, this article examines the ways in which both films were politically suppressed following their release within the Republic of Cyprus.

Opening Pandora’s Box: How Does Peer Assessment Affect EFL Students’ Writing Quality?

Recent research has underlined the benefits of peer assessment (PA) as it helps learners write high-quality essays and increases their confidence as writers. In terms of this intervention study, 200 Greek Cypriot EFL learners’ essays (pre- and post-tests) were evaluated taking into consideration four aspects of writing quality after using either PA and teacher assessment (TA) (experimental groups, n = 100 students) or only TA (control groups, n = 100 students) in their writing classes for one year. This is one of the few studies, to the knowledge of the present researcher, which have performed text analysis of so many aspects of writing quality using such a—relatively—large sample (400 essays) in such a challenging setting (secondary education). Learners’ essays were evaluated in terms of accuracy, fluency, grammatical complexity, and lexical complexity using Atlas.ti. Findings indicated that learners who received PA and TA improved their essays more in terms of lexical complexity, accuracy, and some features of grammatical complexity and fluency than those who received only TA. The current study highlights the desirability of collaborative group work, in the form of PA activities, in the creation of opportunities conducive to promoting writing quality.

The Role of the Press in the From Turk to Turk Campaign in Cyprus Under British Rule

Abstract Turkish Cypriot newspapers played an important role in the construction of Turkish national identity during the From Turk to Turk Campaign in Cyprus in the late 1950s. The campaign involved the establishment of Turkish municipalities that were separate from the Greek Cypriot ones and the change of village names into Turkish and aimed at conducting all trade and other business relations exclusively between Turks in order for them to develop economically. This article examines the role of the newspapers that were published in Cyprus in 1958 and 1959, which is the period during which the From Turk to Turk Campaign was active.

Exploring the Impact of Peer Assessment on EFL Students’ Writing Performance

Lately, researchers have expressed their concern for EFL students’ poor writing performance and exam failure. They have indicated that peer assessment (PA) can be successfully employed to support a better integration of teaching/instruction with assessment of progress in learning. Bearing this in mind, the current study employed a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design and aimed to explore the effect of PA on 200 Greek Cypriot EFL students’ writing performance. These adolescent learners attended two writing classes per week (90 minutes) for a full school year. Teachers received training in PA skills and then had to train their own students. Students were asked to use a PA rubric which was also devised by the researcher but negotiated between the students and their teachers during the training sessions. Paired T-tests were performed to investigate whether students in the control (n=100 students and 10 teachers) and the experimental groups (n=100 students and 10 teachers) enhanced their writing performance comparing their pre- to post-test scores. The study outcomes indicated that PA could have a moderately positive impact on students’ writing performance. The use of PA improved students’ writing performance in 5 aspects: mechanics, organisation, content, focus, and vocabulary and language use. In response to the need for more experimentation, this study provides recommendations for PA implementation in secondary school EFL writing classes which enable teachers to improve students’ writing performance.

‘Educating for peace’: conflict, division and social work education in Cyprus

ABSTRACT Social work practice and training in the context of political and ethnic conflict has seen renewed interest among scholars. Recent research has tried to shift focus away from simplistic interpretations of social work as an unshakably ‘benevolent’ profession. A recent emphasis on social work’s colonial legacies and the structural causes of political violence provide us with important new directions on how to rethink and reshape social work education and practice in these contexts. Cyprus presents a very interesting, yet under-explored, case study as it remains an island de facto divided, along ethnic lines. The division has resulted in the physical and political separation of the two most populous ethnic communities (Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots). United Nations (UN)-sponsored peace talks have gained momentum in recent years. This paper offers the first systematic exploration of the views of social work students across both sides of the divide. Through a mixed-method approach, students were able to express their thoughts and beliefs on ‘the other’ and on social work in the post-conflict realities. The study confirms the contradictory nature of social work education in Cyprus challenges the futility of nationalism and argues for the importance of bi-communal social work partnerships.

Revisiting the Conditions of Authenticity for Built Heritage in Areas of Conflict

This article examines the application of conditions of authenticity within the context of built heritage management in areas of political conflict, where heritage management can be seen as a political act rather than a means of protection. It focuses on values attributed to built heritage that can be targeted or reinvented by the dominant power in areas of conflict with minorities being powerless to intervene. The argument is built around the Agios Synesios Church in North Cyprus, which continued to be used by the Greek Cypriot minority following the island division in 1974. Although their way of life has been compromised, they have embraced forced change through using the church to maintain their ritual and religious practices; by doing so, they negotiate their values towards their heritage. In this case, the study shows that the conditions of authenticity are difficult to meet, given the means through which heritage management can be manipulated. Accordingly, the article aims to contribute to general discussions on the vagueness and enigmatic conditions of authenticity in areas of conflict. Different buildings in areas of conflict around the world suffer because of the political nature of heritage management, which makes the criteria of authenticity unviable.

The UK’s shifting diasporic landscape: negotiating ethnolinguistic heterogeneity in Greek complementary schools post-2010

AbstractAn estimated 65,000 Greek citizens migrated to the UK in 2010–2016, many of whom with the prospects of long-term settlement and with a view to provide better socioeconomic and educational opportunities to their children. Their arrival was felt across many sections of life both within and beyond the country’s pre-existing Greek-speaking communities. In this article, I present findings on how the arrival of Greek pupils, parents and qualified teachers diversified Greek complementary schools, which were previously run primarily by and for the Greek Cypriot community, and on the critical role language played in the process. Drawing on data from a set of semi-structured interviews with teachers and placing my investigation against the historical backdrop of migration from Greece and Cyprus to the UK, I show how teachers portrayed post-2010 migration as a much needed, albeit not always welcome, boost in ethnocultural vitality; how it helped to perpetuate the hierarchisation of standardised and non-standardised varieties of Greek and the stigmatisation of the multilingual and multidialectal repertoires of people with a Greek Cypriot background; and, how it put a strain on the ties that have historically brought the Greek and Greek Cypriot communities together in the context of the UK diaspora.