P073. Mass violence and affirmative biopolitics: exploring the ‘Cyprus Problem’ with walking interviews and an integrated framework

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

Frozen conflicts are characterised by an unresolved ethno-political conflict of international scale, resulting in the formation of a de-facto state after an extensive period of atrocities. The narrow use of the term in research, restricted to post-Soviet settings, has resulted in a geographically and temporally limited understanding, primarily focusing on Eurasian territory and overlooking its parallels to the field of mass violence. Even less attention has been paid to directly addressing the thawing of these conflicts and the potential for restoration. To address this gap, this research focuses on Cyprus, a European country-island located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Decades of political tensions within Cyprus, also implicating Greece and Turkey, resulted in its military invasion in 1974, which permanently altered its geopolitical landscape by establishing the still-active Buffer Zone. Today, Cyprus remains a frozen conflict, divided between the Republic of Cyprus governing the southern part of the island and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Despite the unresolved ‘Cyprus Problem’, Turkish-Cypriots and Greek-Cypriots have managed to coexist side by side, albeit the suggestive scenery of barbed wire, armed militia, and war ruins. Walking interviews provide an opportunity to include such landscape, characteristic of a frozen conflict, in a way that paradoxically highlights its dynamic nature in the community’s identity. This project aims to explore if and how the Cypriot community of Nicosia managed to reconcile their relations after the conflict and its atrocities, despite the lack of a formal solution. The prevailing consensus is that peace is maintained through the presence of the Buffer Zone. However, I seek to further explore the extent to which Cypriots have managed to thaw this frozen conflict and prevent further violence also via Esposito’s affirmative biopolitics and Braithwaite’s work on restorative justice

Author

• Michelle Corallo, University of Manchester