This research concerns the processes and practices of commemoration in Cyprus and how they impact the construction of Cypriot politics in both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus. I engage the study of politics of memory, which can also be explained as the struggle between the dominant ethno-nationalist commemorations and alternative commemorations on both sides of the divide. I deconstruct the practices of commemoration used by the various political regimes for nationalist purposes. I seek to uncover, through qualitative research methods, the alternative cultures of commemoration that are being developed in the name of peace, coexistence and reconciliation. Interviews and observations are used as part of the ethnographic analysis in order to understand how public commemorations take place and are understood in different sites of Cyprus where commemorative rituals occur. Discourse analysis is also used as a method for the analysis of commemorative texts and as a way of approaching and thinking about a problem expressed in scholarly or educational texts and media statements. A literature review on the politics of commemoration shows how the past is collectively remembered, shaped and revised under the guidance of the ruling class to benefit one group over the other as part of the cultural construction of memory in contemporary society. The thesis focuses the landscape of a key public space in the divided capital city of Nicosia, through web-memorializing with the aid of photography and through poems. A concluding chapter considers the power of alternative commemorations and the different possibilities that they can lead to the politics in the future of Cyprus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:699667 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Azizbeyli, Zehra |
| Publisher | Keele University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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