This thesis aims to understand how owner-managers of SMEs in a developing country manage their organizations in a turbulent environment, and how they seek to create resilience in their organizations in this context. Specifically, this thesis investigates the major factors influencing the management strategies of infrastructure construction sector SMEs in North Cyprus. The primary data for the research was collected from owner-managers of infrastructure construction SMEs in North Cyprus that held a Class-1 classification in the sector, allowing them to participate in infrastructure projects in North Cyprus. Twelve SMEs with Class-1 classification are identified in the Building Construction Association of North Cyprus (CT-BCA), of which nine out of twelve consented to participate in the research. A qualitative research approach was adopted, with primary data gathered through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with these owner-managers; the collected data was then subjected to thematic analysis. The research found that the most influential factors influencing the management strategies of SMEs in North Cyprus were the macro characteristics of the socio-political environment, the individual characteristics of the owner-managers, and the characteristics of the infrastructure construction sector itself. These factors, which are linked in deep and nuanced ways, were discovered to impact the perceptions of the owner-managers and to affect their approaches towards the management of their SMEs. By evaluating the interaction between these factors, this research identified that infrastructure construction SMEs in North Cyprus operate in a complex system, where the approach to their management is identified as dissipative. Overall, the findings indicate that SMEs in North Cyprus take a reactive approach to management within this complex system, an approach that is itself related to ever-changing relationships between the key individual and environmental factors mitigating owner-managers' personal, sectorial and wider country circumstances. In this complex context, these SMEs cannot follow a systematic approach to management. Therefore, the resilience of these SMEs is found to lie in the adaptation of management strategies of SME owner-managers in the presence of disturbances, by experimenting and adjusting themselves in the existence of disturbances throughout their history.

This thesis aims to investigate the reddediyoruzdemonstrations that took place in the Northern Cyprus in 2016. As Turkey seems to be moving towards a totalitarian Islamist regime, this research aims to study the relation between the Turkish Cypriot community and Turkey. It seems that the relations between the two parties have been tense since the intention of Turkey to open a coordination office in North Cyprus to control the youth, sports and cultural activities with a power over the Turkish Cypriot institutions. The research explores the religious dimension of the tension between the two parties. Results have shown that the main concern of the demonstrations have been the Islamist policies of Turkey on Turkish Cypriots along with granting Turkey an unrestricted power over certain Turkish Cypriot institutions.

The Eastern Mediterranean marks the site of the Southern Neotethys Ocean that was created, then largely destroyed near the northern margin of Gondwana. Sedimentary and structural evidence is well preserved in the Girne (Kyrenia) Range, a several hundred kilometrelong, narrow, E – W-trending, broadly arcuate lineament that encompasses northern Cyprus and a submarine ridge that links southeastern Turkey (Misis–Andırın Complex). This study focuses on the Oligocene-Miocene sequence exposed on both flanks of the Girne (Kyrenia) Range, based on sedimentology, microfacies, Sr-isotope dating and structural analysis. Two related sedimentary basins are today separated by an E – W-trending high-angle, fault zone, the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Fault. The northern basin encompasses the Range, whereas the southern basin is located between the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Fault and an E – W trending fault lineament (Dar dere (Ovgos) Fault Zone), to the south of which is the Troodos Ophiolitic Massif. The Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Fault is interpreted as a convergence-related thrust fault that was active during the Mid-Late Miocene creating an E – W submarine ridge that separated subbasins to the north and south. The sedimentary sequence in the northern basin unconformably overlies Mesozoic platform carbonates and latest Cretaceous-Palaeogene pelagic carbonates with interbedded volcanics. Above basal conglomerates (probably derived from underlying Eocene debris flows based on chemical evidence), there is a fining-upward siliciclastic turbidite sequence (Late Oligocene), then biogenic calciturbidites and marls (Aquitanian-Langhian). The northerly basin is characterised by thin-, to medium-bedded, pale hemipelagic calciturbidites and marls (Serravallian; ~400 m thick), overlain by thick-bedded, medium- to coarse-grained lithic sandstones with carbonate concretions (Tortonian; ~250 m thick). The succession in the southern basin, which is more deformed by thrusting, begins with poorly dated pelagic marls (Early Miocene?), followed by regularly bedded siliciclastic turbidites (~1000 m thick), with abundant sole structures (Serravallian-Tortonian). Palaeocurrent evidence shows mainly E to W flow for the southern basin, and locally a generally E to W flow for the northerly basin, at least for the Late Miocene. Gypsum accumulated in local depocentres during the Messinian salinity crisis and was locally deformed by contemporaneous southward thrusting. Petrographic studies of the Serravallian – Tortonian sandstones indicate that the northern basin is richer in recrystallised limestone grains compared to the southern basin, which contains more abundant siliciclastic and ophiolite-derived material; this trend is also present in results from XRD analysis of clays. The likely source area was the Eurasian-African suture zone in the Tauride Mountains to the northeast. The greater detrital limestone abundance in the south may record relatively deep-level erosion of the source area, through ophiolites to an underlying Mesozoic carbonate platform. Two phases of clastic input are recognised from SE Turkey, the first related to Early Miocene continental collision, and the second reflecting Late Miocene suture tightening, both to the east of Cyprus within the Tauride Suture Zone. Based on the measurement and kinematic analysis of a large number (>1290) of faults, combined with a knowledge of the tectono-stratigraphy, the timing and nature of faulting is inferred. The majority of the faults are south-verging, high-angle reverse faults, while sinistral strike-slip faults dominate several areas of the Girne (Kyrenia) Range and the Dar dere (Ovgos) Fault Zone of the south. Most of the faults in the Girne (Kyrenia) Range are attributed to Mid – Late Eocene and Late Miocene – Early Pliocene phase of thrusting, followed by relative quiescence until Pleistocene uplift of the Girne (Kyrenia) Range. The Dar dere (Ovgos) Fault Zone is interpreted as a long-lived terrane boundary that accommodated sinistral movement during Late Miocene to Recent. In summary, the Girne (Kyrenia) Range reflects the diachronous closure of the Mesozoic Southern Neotethys Ocean, culminating in westward tectonic escape from continent-continent collision zone to the east, coupled with thick-skinned uplift that was triggered by collision with a crustal block to the south, the Eratosthenes Seamount.

International students experience stress and adaptation difficulties as they study in a new culture. This study examined how cultural distance, acculturative stress, and social support interacted to influence positive and negative emotional responses among international students in the northern part of Cyprus. Acculturation models and the stress-buffering hypothesis served as theoretical frameworks. The 2 research questions involved understanding whether international students experienced more negative emotional responses compared to students from the home culture and whether social support moderated acculturative stress and reactions to being in the northern part of Cyprus. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine differences in emotional reactions between home and international students while 2 hierarchical multiple regressions examined the moderation hypotheses. ANOVA results indicated that Turkish-Cypriots had more positive emotional responses than international students. Results did not support social support as a moderator for either international students' acculturative stress or their emotional reactions. However, results suggested that unmet expectations, less financial satisfaction, and less social support predicted acculturative stress, while being in a relationship, having higher Turkish proficiency, having unmet expectations, and experiencing higher acculturative stress predicted more negative emotional reactions. These results may help universities design programs to support the psychological adaptation of international students, which could ultimately facilitate student retention.

This thesis investigates the European Union (EU) effect on the economic activity across the Green Line in the divided Cyprus between 2004 and 2016. The primary focus is on the development and implementation of the EU's Green Line Regulation (GLR), which regulates and enables such activity from three aspects: movement of goods, services, and persons. In tracing the EU effect, this thesis provides a critical appraisal of the GLR on whether it provides an adequate legal framework for the economic activity in those three aspects and the extent to which it has contributed to the development of economic cooperation between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities across the divide. The analysis also pays an equal level of attention to the extent to which the EU effect has been mediated by the factors at the domestic level: the roles of legal framework, ethno-politics in political elites, ethno-politics in civil society, and governance. The investigation of this study is pegged in two academic literatures. The first one is the Europeanisation debate, which concerns with the EU effect in the domestic affairs of countries associated with the EU. This thesis borrows three mechanisms of Europeanisation from this debate in order to test the EU effect on the three aspects of economic activity across the divide in Cyprus: i) institutional compliance, ii) change of domestic opportunity structures, iii) cognitive change. The second academic literature is the liberal peace, which it proposes that greater economic interactions and development of economic interdependence between countries facilitate resolution of their conflicts. The insights from this debate is utilised for conceptualising the EU's GLR as a liberal peace project. While Europeanisation is portrayed as a 'process', liberal peace objectives are seen as the 'ultimate destination', which the 'vehicle' of the EU's GLR will drive the island towards it. This thesis argues that the GLR has only achieved a limited success and largely failed to contribute to the development of economic cooperation across the divide in Cyprus. This is mainly because the Europeanisation process have been heavily mediated and negated by the design shortcomings of the GLR as well as the factors at the domestic level, which are inherently linked to the politics of division. In this context, this thesis aspires to make contribution in both empirical and conceptual terms. The in-depth and critical investigation of the GLR as well as of the economic activity across the divide in Cyprus provides a much-needed contribution to the contemporary politics of Cyprus, which has been largely ignored by the existing academic literature. Additionally, the conceptual framework developed in this thesis allows exploring synergies between the theoretical literatures of Europeanisation and liberal peace and combines them with examination of new empirical evidence. This focus captures insights on how Europeanisation can be used as a 'tool' for pursuing liberal peace objectives in contested statehood, beyond what has been researched so far and also provides a blueprint for other similar cases of conflict.