This has occurred after the 1974 Turkish intervention that led to the partition of the island into two administrative regions: Republic of Cyprus (RoC) which is internationally recognized except by Turkey, and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) which is only recognized by Turkey.
The first part deals with the dispute over territorial issue in Cyprus, which was the basic reason behind ethno-national conflict in 1955-1974. The Greek Cypriots sought to realize enosis (union of the island with Greece), according to which Cyprus belongs to the Greek nation, as being Hellenic from the Ancient times. As a reaction, the Turkish Cypriots began to call for taksim (territorial partition of the island between two communities), emphasizing their rights over Cyprus as the heirs of the Ottomans. The result was a separation of two communities both politically and physically. After the failure of 1960 RoC as a bi-communal state, real borders between two communities began to appear. By 1963 majority of Turkish Cypriots were concentrated into defended enclaves where they established their own separate administration. By 1974 there emerged a Turkish territorial zone in the north and the Greek one in the south, which became ethnically homogenized by the population exchange between the two regions in the following year. By then, the Cyprus Question has been discussed around a greater extent with the issue of territory. For the Turkish Cypriot leaders, the intervention that provided necessary physical conditions in creation of a territorially divided federal state was a significant act to solve the Problem. However, the Greek Cypriot side viewed Turkey’s intervention as “invasion” and as the starting point of the Cyprus Question by outlawing the “constitutional regime”.
The second part deals with TRNC governments’ policy of citizenship and migration by examining the efforts to define northern Cyprus as a new homeland of Turkish Cypriots and the nature of recent migration from Turkey to Cyprus since 1975. From the beginning, TRNC officials actively lunched to define the profile of TRNC citizens, but this has been a hot topic between right and left groups for debate inside. In that debate, the issue of Turkish immigrants has a special place. The first group of Turkish immigrants was encouraged to settle down in North Cyprus, mainly due to the political and economic reasons and partially with a goal of providing ethnic balance. Others have migrated after 1980 to find a better job, which forms the majority of Turkish immigrants. Moreover, their status and numbers have been debated in all inter-communal peace talks in order to set the Cyprus Question and also among many left groups and politicians in North Cyprus. These made their presence contingent and insecure.
This study has two broad purposes: (i) to illuminate the scope of the debate over territory regarding the questions of identity and diversity in Turkish Cypriots’ perspectives; (ii) to look at the Cyprus Question from a north perspective by providing an accurate categorization of territory, diversity and citizenship for policy-implementation in its international dimensions. It argues that the de facto partition of the island makes the question of territory more complicated matter for both the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots also TRNC citizenship policy and the debate on migration; influence the public opinion about the Cyprus Question in North Cyprus.
The recent history of Cyprus has showed us a history of the debate on territorial partition of the island between Greek and Turkish communities since ethnic conflict began in 1955. This occurred around the historical claims of Greek and Turkish Cypriots over Cyprus. For the Greek Cypriot leaders, Cyprus has been Greek/Hellenistic from the ancient times. The Turkish Cypriot ones, on the other hand, claim that they have rights over Cyprus as the heirs of the Ottomans. For the Greek Cypriots it was the whole island, but for the Turkish Cypriots, some (northern) part of it. By the second half of the 1950s borders in Cyprus began to undergo significant transformations, when two communities which already had social and cultural borders gradually separated from each other with physical borders. Turkish Cypriot enclaves which emerged with the displacement of many Turkish Cypriots were the first structure with the borders. After 1974 there emerged two states with the defended border, the Green Line, a cease-fire line, dividing the island into two administrative and political units. The border has come to define Turkish Cypriot national space and society against the principal others, Greek Cypriots. After the Turkish Cypriot government opened the border between North and South for travel across the Green Line in 2003, the TRNC state find a chance to use effectively her border practices against her main other, the Greek Cypriot administration . It means that the Green Line that became de facto EU border by 2004 plays a determining role in redefining and reframing the Turkish Cypriots’ national space. The Green Line is also significant to determine citizenship status on the both sides of Cyprus, just only being open for RoC citizens, Turkish Cypriot natives and other EU and Western citizens. After opening the border in 2003, it is estimated that around 70.000 Turkish Cypriots gain RoC citizenship that is defined as European citizenship. The Greek Cypriot administration does not allow Turkish nationals and immigrants to cross the border, claiming their presence “illegal” by entering Cyprus from “illegal ports/airport”.
On the part of the Turkish side, what is clear is that the TRNC state maintains border practices. These practices are “instrumental to make citizen/bodies visible, and thus knowable and governable” and so here “the border itself redesigns contemporary citizens and citizenship” (Muller, 2010: 77 and 85). The TRNC border with the RoC shapes her own citizenry. In this respect, crossing the Green Line is also making a group of TRNC citizen immigrants, visible and consolidates their status as “illegal settlers”. Among the left groups of the north, it is discussed that having RoC citizenship and crossing the border differentiates the Turkish Cypriot natives from immigrants considered as “foreign”. Indeed, the creation of the border means for the Turkish Cypriot leaders to create a “national space” and “national society”. As in all nation-states, the Green Line that is the cease-fire line between South and North began to function as a checkpoint, which is necessary to define their homeland. It is “the external border” that bounds the Turkish Cypriot community and northern part of the island, but by 1975 there emerged “the internal borders” within TRNC society as a result of diversifying social structure after migration from Turkey. Although the right-wing political actors call Turkish immigrants as the part of Turkish Cypriot community on the basis of shared Turkish identity as being the part of the great Turkish nation, they feel socio-economic and political exclusion due to the dominant “islandness” culture, closed for outsiders. Especially at the social level, being Cypriot or not, has gradually been a defining difference among the immigrants and the natives. As a result, all designs for the position of Turkish immigrants in peace talks and public debates inside are making their presence on the island insecure. The social and political exclusion of the immigrants might be due to the fact that without the presence of the main Others, Greek Cypriots, immigrants became the outsiders for the native small, homogenous community. This is also related to the exercise of state power with controlled borders. They entered into the space of the natives across border, which make them as immigrant and guest workers. Thus, they have to live within the frame of “internal borders”. This should be considered by TRNC policy makers in developing and implementing policies on more integration of the immigrants and on the development of their social and economic position in the society. In this respect, the UBP which came to the power again in April 2009 might play a critical role in their integration in politics and society. This is because that majority of TRNC citizen immigrants voted for it. This trend continued in the 2010 presidential elections when their majority voted for PM Derviş Eroğlu, the leader of the UBP. Nevertheless, the existing structural reasons do not make us hopeful about their equal and fair integration in the system that is controlled by the natives to a large extent. Because borders since 1974 have separated Greek and Turk communities both physically and mentally, all attempts to settle down the Cyprus Question have to face with that reality. When we look at the results of the polls carried out in both sides, most of the participants say that they want to live in two separate regions or states without getting mixed with each other. This is more strongly emphasized by the young people. This provides a strong mental barrier which seems to be the main reason behind a potential rejection of any plan in referenda between two communities.
Yılmaz Çolak