The Swinging Pendulum of Entangled Memories of the Cyprus Ethnic Conflict: Generational Remembering Among Turkish Cypriot Families

• In Event: Domestic and International Affairs

Abstract

An unresolved state of conflict has continued in Cyprus since the 1950s. Today, there are countless accounts of memory narratives about the Cyprus ethnic conflict. Drawing on the ethnographic research conducted in the Northern Part of Cyprus with native Turkish Cypriots, this paper endeavors to understand how different generations of Turkish Cypriot families remember the ethnic conflict and make sense of their experiences regarding the politicization of memory. In doing so, I argue that remembering becomes political through intentional, selective, and conscious acts of individuals. Concomitantly, memories are grounded upon the interrelation of past experiences, present life situations, and anticipated future imaginations. To interpret the differences and similarities in memory narratives, I ask: could divergent but entangled memory narratives be considered one of the constituents of the othering formations among the Turkish Cypriot community? This paper hopes to deliver a fresh dimension to the Cyprus ethnic conflict analysis by emphasizing that individuals’ memories are also inclined to function as ideological tools of some local and international political forces and hegemonic ideologies of specific eras. Thus, not only the native but also the settler Turkish Cypriots should be considered the primary power forces in historiography and conflict resolution discussions.

Author

• Beyza Hatun Kiziltepe, McMaster University