Cyprus Blog Post 1
Cyprus’ National Identity and the Turkish Cypriot Other Definitions and Key Terms National identity is subjective and constantly evolving, every country is different. Cyprus’ national identity is different depending on who you ask, a Greek Cypriot, a Turkish Cypriot, or an outsider. The Greek Cypriots are the majority of Cyprus’ population and view the Turkish Cypriots as the “other”. Before getting into aspects of Greek Cypriot national identity and what makes the Turkish Cypriots the “other” a definition of a nation, national identity, and “other” need to be established. Anna Triandafyllidou (1998) uses the definition of a nation from Anthony Smith (1991) “a nation is a ‘named human population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members’” (as cited in Triandafyllidou, 1998, p. 595) combined with the idea that nation had to have a shared “sense of belonging” (Connor...