Opseis tou ellenikou ethnikismou sten Kypro: ideologikes antiparatheseis kai e koinonike kataskeue tes ellenokypriakes tautotetas 1974-1996 (review)

This is a courageous and insightful book on the political and ideological conflicts within Greek Cypriot society that emerged since the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. Mavratsas, a lecturer at the University of Cyprus, offers a refreshingly critical sociological analysis of the dynamic that shaped contemporary Greek Cypriot national identity and its social and political consequences. An underlying theme in his study is that the way Greek Cypriot national identity has been constructed is inimical to the establishment of a bicommunal, bizonal federation, which is the officially stated policy of the Republic of Cyprus as it seeks an accommodation with the Turkish Cypriots. The domination of the political landscape by the symbols of Greek nationalism (and its Turkish counterpart in the north) has stunted the development of a pluralistic, tolerant ideology that can accept and accommodate differences, a prerequisite for the maintenance of any modern democratic polity. The absence of such a “civic culture,” according to the author, is a major obstacle to the long-term viability of Greek Cypriot society. He argues that Greek nationalism, among other things, has undermined the emergence of a serious and dispassionate examination of social and political problems, thus keeping Cypriot society and culture woefully underdeveloped. In the author’s words, “Greek Cypriot nationalism has frequently been proved catastrophic for the concrete (social, economic, and political) interests of Greek Cypriots.” It did so by stressing the supremacy of the éthnos at the expense of the rights of individuals, a sign of the failure of the Enlightenment to sink deep roots within modern Greek culture. Mavratsas warns that, given the current state of affairs, it is impossible to set up a multi-ethnic state that could work and be peaceful.

Claiming to approach his subject from the vantage point of “value neutrality,” Mavratsas concentrates his analysis on the aftermath of the invasion. He shows that right after the tragedy there emerged with great force the ideology of “Cypriotism,” which prior to the invasion had been subdued by the nationalist forces. It was an ideology that projected the vision of a “Cyprus for the Cypriots,” which included the Turkish Cypriots, a Cyprus that would be politically autonomous, united and independent from both Greece and Turkey. Considering that after the invasion the priority of the Greek Cypriots was the reunification of the island, “Cypriotism” acquired a brief momentum that led to the acceptance in 1977 by Makarios of the principle of a “bizonal federation” as the goal to be pursued for an ultimate solution to the problem. Cypriotism was supported by AKEL, the communist party, and was given a concrete form by the “Neo-Cypriot Association,” a nonpartisan organization that tried to counter the ideology of Greek nationalism that was then blamed for the 1974 debacle. The “neo-Cypriots,” Mavratsas clearly demonstrates, were not advocating the rejection of Greek and Turkish ethnicity; rather, they claimed that ethnicity must not interfere with the citizens’ primary allegiance to the Cypriot state. The Cypriotists did not seek the elimination of ethnicity but instead its “depoliticization.” Based on that understanding, the neo-Cypriots stressed the importance, for example, of hoisting the Cypriot flag, rather than the Greek or Turkish flag, as a symbol of statehood. Furthermore, they maintained that the principal policy of the Cyprus Republic, in spite of Turkish opposition, must be the reestablishment at all levels of contact with the Turkish Cypriots. Such understanding, of course, went contrary to the dominant position of the nationalists, both Greek and Turkish—namely, that Cyprus is an extension of Greece (for the Greek-Cypriot nationalists) and of Turkey (for the Turkish-Cypriot nationalists). Both nationalisms rejected the neo-Cypriot notion of a and directed their energies toward destroying that ideal. In this sense they echoed the insistence of the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that “there are no Cypriots.”

The displacement of Greek Cypriot nationalism during the first few years after the 1974 invasion proved temporary and superficial. Since the middle of the 1980s, Mavratsas shows, Greek Cypriot nationalism returned with a vengeance displacing and marginalizing the ideology of Cypriotism. By the mid-1990s, Greek Cypriot...