european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
other part of the story, much less well known, is that which comprises the middle road. This is a place
where many Cypriots, both Turkish and Greek, desire to construct their own sovereign identities,
which may be influenced by both Turkey and Greece, but they do not desire a strict replica of either.
This is a very small piece of land in the Mediterranean and it has been concretely divided by a demilitarized
zone and maintained by troops from the United Nations for nearly a quarter of a century.
This fact has a substantial set of implications not only in that it separates the two largest ethnic groups
of the island, but also in that it influences the realities, perceptual and otherwise, that they construct in
reference to each other 7 . This situation closely mirrors what occurred when Germany was split into
east and west and what occurs with the two Koreas today. At present, the Greek population comprises
77% of the population and the Turkish is 18% 8 .
The Aftermath of Independence
Cyprus achieved its independence from Britain in 1960. But this came with a series of problems since
the two largest groups on the island had, from encounters that were sometimes violent, built isolationist
and prejudiced tendencies into their social and educational practices with regard to each other. The
constitution establishing the republic did not help matters any. The formal document referred to both
groups in the articulation of its principles, instead of ‘one people’. There was also no national
language. There was only the existence of groups that saw and defined themselves as being different
in their ethnicity, nationality, and identity, but in close proximity to one another. Their schooling
taught values strictly aligned with either Greek or Turkish identity, especially that of religious
education. Hence, there were no real structures built in to foster political or ideological compatibility
or tolerance between the two, only those serving as default political tools 9 .
Different groups on the island, some of which were illegal and of a caliber of vigilante, worked
to promote one cultural identity by undermining the legitimacy of the other and provoking civil unrest.
This started with the Greek population, but then spread to the Turkish population. Both sides accused
each other of being the antagonists of the situation and claimed defense, physically and in terms of
sovereignty. The implication here is that these underground organizations created the climate where
suspicion was prevalent and could easily be acted upon. Thus, from 1963-1974, there was substantial
civil unrest on Cyprus, but the culminating events came first with a coup de grace engineered in
Greece whereby the president of the Greek Cypriot Republic was overthrown. Though he was restored
to the office, Turkey followed with a military invasion of the northern half of the island in 1974,
claiming defense of sovereign Turkish Cypriot interests 10 . The ensuing conflict forced thousands of
Greek residents to flee south from their homes in the north. Prior to and subsequent to the invasion,
Turkish residents left their homes and communities in the southern half of the island for places with
greater Turkish populations in the north. This culminated with the establishment of a demilitarized
zone between the Northern Turkish population and the southern Greek population; a border that still
exists to the present day and is administered by the United Nations. The United Nations sent in a
peace-keeping force to maintain this border after the Turkish military agreed to halt their invasion and
withdraw to the northern half of the island.
At present, there is limited contact between the different groups across the borders, even where
the borders have been dismantled 11 . Though ordinary citizens have contact with each other, this has
not filtered through to the political structure of both sides of the island or to the educational structures
7
Richmond, O. (1998), Implications for making peace: building negotiating positions during the Cyprus conflict, Paper
delivered at ACGTA seminar in London (June 5, 1998)
8
CIA World Fact Book 2007, Cyprus, http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cy.html (accessed July 11,
2007)
9
Ioannidou, M. (1997). Curriculum as political text: the case of Cyprus. History of Education 26(4): 395-407.
10
Cyprus conflict narrative, http://www.cyprus-conflict.net/www.cyprus-conflict.net/index.html (accessed July 11, 2007).
11
BBC News. (2007). “Greek Cypriots dismantle barrier”, http://news.bbc.co.uc/2/hi/europe/6433045.htm (accessed July
11, 2007).
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