Narrative, Memory and History Education in Divided Cyprus: A Comparison of Schoolbooks on the “History of Cyprus”

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot history schoolbooks adopted a similar model of ethnic nationalism focusing on the suffering of the Self and presenting an essentialist, unchanging view of national identity. However, the new books that recently appeared on the Turkish Cypriot side follow a social-constructivist model of history, which presents nationalism and national identity as emerging under specific historical conditions rather than as given. They avoid homogenizing assumptions by presenting internal differentiations, and indicate instances of internal violence and suffering of others. These changes have significant implications regarding notions of blame and trauma, and allow for identity to emerge as a political choice.