Aporias of identity: Bicommunalism, Hybridity and the `Cyprus Problem'
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836707079931 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Aporias of Identity
Bicommunalism, Hybridity and the ‘Cyprus
Problem’
COSTAS M. CONSTANTINOU
ABSTRACT
This article examines the predicaments and paradoxes of identity pol-
itics in Cyprus.It looks at the historical alliance of colonial practices and
nationalist rationales that brought about a static bicommunal system,
establishing the basis for inter-ethnic conflict, or what became known as
the ‘Cyprus problem’. The advent of modern governmentality, dividing
and classifying the Cypriot population, helped, in addition, to solidify
fluid and ambiguous ethno-religious boundaries,making it more difficult
for individuals to use ethno-religious identities flexibly and pragmat-
ically, including their use as a tactic to resist the policies of consecutive
regimes of power.The article suggests that the ‘Cyprus problem’ provides
a moral alibi for the pursuit of a range of problematic regulations and
practices against individuals caught between the dominant ethnic iden-
tities,even though there also exist windows of opportunity and resistance
on the ground. The article focuses on the genealogy and presence of
hybrid communities and syncretistic lifestyles, which complicate and
transgress the binary of Greek/Christian versus Turk/Muslim, and the
existence of which became progressively abnormalized or exoticized.
Keywords: colonialism; the Cyprus problem;ethnic conflict; homogen-
ization; hybridity; representation
Hasanpoulia, Hasanpoulia, flying like birds,
Dressed in different clothes everyday,
Greek today and Turkish tomorrow.
(Anonymous Cypriot poem)
I
In contemporary Cyprus, the ascription of ethno-religious identity is highly
political and juridical. It carries a heavy burden and provides a licence for
how individuals and groups are officially treated. It is worth starting with a
passage from a report, submitted by the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) to the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.This
passage rightly pointed out the complexity faced (or created) by the drafters
Cooperation and Conflict: Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association
Vol.42(3): 247–270. © NISA 2007 www.ps.au.dk/NISA
SAGE Publications,Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore
www.sagepublications.com
0010-8367. DOI: 10.1177/0010836707079931
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of the Cypriot ‘received constitution’, yet omitted the politicization and
exceptionalization of the communal identities that followed.
The communities in Cyprus were divided according to their religious beliefs
and not according to their ethnic origin, for reasons only known to the joint
committee established with the duty to complete a draft constitution for the
independent Republic of Cyprus, incorporating the Basic Structure agreed at
the Zurich Conference. It may be true that what distinguishes the communities
may not only be the factor of religion but also their ethnic origin.Whatever the
description of the community may be, the fact is that we cannot change the
description given by the drafters of the Constitution. Nevertheless, the gist of
the difference is not how the groups are described but whether their rights are
safeguarded. (CERD/C/299/Add.19, 1997, para. 68)
Contrary to the submitted report of the RoC, this article argues that the
gist of the difference — and of the ‘Cyprus problem’ — lies precisely with
how groups, communities and individuals are described in official and popu-
lar discourse. It is on the basis of such socio-legal representations that rights
are granted or denied, duties enforced, both north and south of the Green
Line.This situation is especially problematic and paradoxical where, as above,
religious beliefs and ethnic origins are conflated, or religious belief is rec-
ognized but not ethnicity,something that has serious power implications on
the ground. It means, crucially, that certain policies, discourses and prac-
tices are enabled in Cyprus,and others marginalized or disabled. Therefore,
I argue that the dominant bicommunal framework that is the colonial legacy
of the island has bequeathed an aporia to the bearer of Cypriot identity; an
aporia that requires sustained critical attention and reflection.1
The most disturbing thing about being a Cypriot is that one can only be a
Greek or a Turkish Cypriot. Postcolonial Cypriot identity is quintessentially
and inescapably hyphenated; and hyphenated across a fixed Greek–Turkish
axis. Being simply and singly Cypriot is a constitutional impossibility (RoC
Constitution, Article 2).Who is Turk or Greek has been decided on the basis
of religious beliefs and less, or not at all,on the basis of language or other cul-
tural markers. Maronites, Latins and Armenians had,collectively, to choose at
independence to be members of either the Greek-Cypriot or the Turkish-
Cypriot community. Gypsies did not bother to choose, so ‘Muslim’ Gypsies
were officially branded Turks and ‘Christian’ Gypsies Greek,despite their reli-
gious practices often being ambiguous. Naturalized Cypriots of whatever
national origin also had (and have), formally, to become Turks or Greeks; to
this effect, they are given up to three months following the act of nationaliza-
tion to make up their mind as to their ethnicity. Cypriots who married across
the Muslim-Christian divide before the advent of the civil marriage had to
change their religion (almost always the women) and, in addition, were
required by the state to change their ethnicity.Even today, the RoC constitu-
tion does not allow a married Cypriot woman to belong to a different ethnic
community to that of her husband (it is possible for her to belong to a differ-
ent nationality but not ethnicity). Citizens of the unilaterally declared Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) are, or are formally assumed to be,
Turkish Cypriots (TRNC Constitution, Preamble). Cypriot ethno-religious
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