Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History, and an Island in Conflict

9. Researching Society and Culture in Cyprus: Displacements, Hybridities, and Dialogical Frameworks

176 I Floya Anthias NiNe Researching Society and Culture in Cyprus displACeMeNts, hYBridities, ANd diAlogiCAl frAMeworKs Floya Anthias Introduction: researching Cypriot Society when i first began the study of Cypriot society, i came to it as a sociologist with an interest in inequalities and otherness. The central plank in the literature i began to consider was the ethnic and national issue in Cyprus. it examined the historical, economic, and political underpinnings of nationalism in order to show its international dimensions. in much of this work, the local context, the imaginings and relations of the people themselves, was constructed as an effect of these “outside” interests and there was a tendency to see Cypriots as stooges and pawns rather than as political actors. Although there is clearly a place for an international relations approach to what is commonly known as the “Cyprus problem,” the day-to-day processes involved in the scenarios many of these writers set up were absent. They saw ideologies as monolithic and overdetermined and did not discuss the contradictions which open up potential for change. The growth of anthropological research on Cyprus in the last decade by Cypriot and other scholars internationally has moved the focus away from the dominance of the national issue to discussion of the reconfiguration of Cypriot society as a whole in relation to global and local social and cultural contexts. work has been undertaken on a rich array of facets of Cypriot society, connecting these substantively to broader theoretical and researching society and Culture in Cyprus I 177 political issues worldwide. issues of representation and recognition and narratives of identity and otherness have been important developments in this literature. it has now become recognized that postcoloniality is an important context for Cyprus. This recognition does not only mean that the history of colonial domination (by Britain most recently) is responsible for the tragedy of contemporary Cyprus, through the Zurich Agreement and its fatal aftermath, which extended colonialism from one country to three by legitimizing the military presence of the so-called guarantors, Britain, turkey , and greece. Nor does it only mean that colonialism has left its mark on the infrastructure of Cypriot society. postcoloniality extends beyond these facets and signifies the positioning of Cyprus ambivalently between the “west” and the “east,” combining within its borders the white hegemonic Christian and the Muslim other. And yet because of its colonial context and centuries of being on the margins—as the colonized, as the “small,” as that which is to be contained—its location in relation to the hegemonic west is once again ambivalent. its place on a map of the world testifies to this: nearer turkey than greece, the majority culturally and linguistically greek, classified in the category of the Middle east in cheap international telephone tariffs! And yet, of course, Cyprus has joined the european union and has rejected the most recent version of the Annan plan, which proposed a formula for reuniting the island on the basis of a bizonal federal system. This rejection in a referendum in April 2004 indicates that greek Cypriots particularly (and of course largely through the discourse and positions of their political leaders) are concerned about the ways in whichturkey’s role is legitimated further on the island through the maintenance of some turkish military presence, albeit a reduced one, and the failure to allow all refugees to have the right to return to their home. it does not, however, mean that greek Cypriots do not wish to find a bizonal and federal solution through which these issues of concern, and a number of others, can be resolved. There is no doubt that the ongoing national conflict and turkish and greek nationalisms have served to underplay the importance of the context of postcoloniality in Cyprus society. such postcolonial frames leave subject positionalities where identity politics is overstressed as a compensatory mechanism for the uncertainties and fissures in society. Cypriots are ambivalent about their value, and this is both produced and reflected in imaginings about belonging to the greek or the turkish nation. The concept “Cypriot” is divested of value in and of itself; it is an apology for not being complete, and a form of self-hatred and denial is sometimes witnessed. Mimicry of those who are seen as more modern, as more worthy or western, as more advanced is found in the attitude toward language in 178 I Floya Anthias particular, at both...