Cyprus: Federation Under International Safeguards

Constitutional engineering to overcome ethnoregional cleavagesis being put to a severe test on Cyprus, where Greek and Turkishcommunities haltingly endeavor to salvage a divided state Threeyears after independence in 1960, the attempt to govern throughfunctional federalism ended in civil war. Intervention by Greeceand Turkey in 1974 resulted in a de facto partitioning of therepublic into two ethnically homogeneous areas. Under UnitedNations auspices, communal elites bargain for a consociationalsettlement, balancing national autonomy and individual rights.The solution requires international safeguards guaranteeinga new constitution and providing for "free cities" under a bicommunaladministration. Failure of the international community to actwill lead to a partitionist solution as manifested by a growingacceptance of Turkish Cypriot statehood.     

House prices and tourism development in Cyprus: A contemporary perspective

This study investigates the nexus between tourism development and house prices in the Republic of Cyprus over the period spanning from 2005Q1 to 2016Q4. Tourism indicators vis‐à‐vis tourism arrivals along with other explanatory variables (the domestic credit, the land area per person, and the consumer price index) are employed in a multivariate autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)‐bound test model. The empirical results indicate a significant evidence of cointegration. Indicatively, an observed adjustment of about 44% from short‐run to long‐run implies that the model is not relatively slow to adjust to disequilibrium. Importantly, a percent increase in tourism arrivals is observed to cause a rise in house price by about 37%. Expectedly, it is statistically observed that as the land area per person decreases, it is accompanied by a hike in house price. Also, the impacts of domestic credit offered to private enterprises and the consumer price index are different from the results in previous studies. As a policy guide, the government of Cyprus and stakeholder in the tourism and housing sectors should outline a strategy that will ensure the social welfare of people such that housing availability is not hampered by tourism activities.     

Winning Peace Frames: Intra-Ethnic Outbidding in Northern Ireland and Cyprus

Ethnic outbidding in divided societies can have dire political consequences, ranging from the derailment of peace processes to inter-ethnic warfare. This article investigates the conditions contributing to successful outbidding within the framework of protracted peace negotiations by using the contrasting cases of Northern Ireland and Cyprus. Evidence demonstrates that successful outbidders are able to exploit the fears of their communities with respect to inter-ethnic compromise while identifying appropriate strategies and opportunities for redressing these grievances. The article demonstrates that the degree of outbidding success over the long term derives from combining diagnostic and prognostic frames linked to credible political and constitutional strategies.     

Organisational Continuity and Electoral Endurance: The Communist Party of Cyprus

Many scholars have identified stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) as ardent supporters of Europe. This support has been explained as a result of positive developments in supranational integration that convinced these actors that Europe could facilitate the achievement of their territorial demands. Other work, however, leads to an expectation that SNRPs that mobilise within island regions that are geographically distant from the European centre of power (Brussels) will adopt more Eurosceptic positions. This article aims to test these competing hypotheses about the positioning of SNRPs on Europe. It does so by examining the attitudes of SNRPs in two island regions in the Mediterranean: Corsica and Sardinia. The findings suggest that SNRPs in both places cannot be adequately categorised as either Europhile or Eurosceptic. The article examines the role of several context- and actor-specific factors in shaping the complex positioning of island nationalists in Corsica and Sardinia on the issue of Europe.     

Linking the past and present through symbolic housing features: North Cyprus

Linking the past and present has been a major challenge in contemporary architecture as it raises the question of authenticity in design. While the influence of the past in residential architecture seems unavoidable, housing should also incorporate cultural features to uphold communication with their residents. Accordingly, this study suggests that the symbolic use of traditional features could be a useful approach to preserve the link between the users and contemporary housing. Based on deductive reasoning, this research has formulated the theory, and the results have verified the proposition. The case study focuses on the symbolic use of facade features of two recent periods of traditional architecture in Cyprus: the Ottoman (1571–1878) and British Colonial (1878–1960) in the contemporary mass housing facades. The results indicate that six facade features (arch, shutter, eave's brackets, cumba, window form and dimensions, overhanging elements, and horizontal separators) are the most preferred traditional features which, in view of a new interpretation, were used symbolically in the present mass housing facades.     

Prospects for Solving the Cyprus Problem and the Role of the European Union

Although the Cyprus problem is basically an international questionand a geopolitical issue, the problem's domestic aspects aredirectly related to its international dimension. Resolutionof the problem's domestic aspects, within the framework of afederal constitutional arrangement based on the high-level agreementsof 1977 and 1979, the relevant United Nations resolutions, andthe provisions of the European Union acquis communautaire isperhaps possible. A federal system is a compromise between aunitary state, as initially desired by the Greek Cypriot majority-community,and a confederation, as currently pursued by the Turkish Cypriotminority-community with the support of Turkey. Nevertheless,even though federation is the agreed framework for a solution,a sizable proportion of Greek Cypriots express misgivings abouta federal solution because they fear that what is actually beingdiscussed is a system lying between federation and confederation.A viable federal solution would create a pluralist democraticstate with a market-oriented economy in the Eastern Mediterranean.Given that the Republic of Cyprus is on its way to joining theEU, the EU could play a substantive role in promoting such anoutcome. From a geopolitical perspective, a united Cyprus, asa member of the EU, would be an asset to the EU and also contributeto stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean.     

Decentring state categories: diaspora within a Palestinian geopolitical assemblage in Nicosia,Cyprus

With over 50% of Palestinians in diaspora, global constructions of what is Palestinian are central to Palestinian geopolitics. This article examines how the meanings and implications of the label “Palestinian” in diaspora are produced as Palestinians negotiate the politics of migration and citizenship while living in Cyprus. Using the concept of a geopolitical assemblage incorporates the role of state immigration control into a critical discussion of diaspora. Cyprus provides a complex context in which the momentary constructions of a Palestinian diaspora in relation to other geopolitical entities affects Palestinians despite their immigration or citizenship status in Cyprus.     

Games borrower governments play: the implementation of economic adjustment programmes in Cyprus and Portugal

Research on the Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) for Eurozone crisis countries has so far acknowledged the role of creditor countries and Troika institutions or has examined the economic effects or structural determinants of domestic implementation processes. The role of borrower governments as strategic actors within the ‘Troika complex’ has been neglected. Taking Cyprus and Portugal as cases in point, the article shows how reform-oriented borrower governments used the interaction with the Troika to overcome veto player opposition to programme implementation. Drawing on the two-level game and on negotiation theory, the study discusses borrower strategies in response to opposition from the court or parliament, and the costs of no agreement. Reform-oriented governments mostly used commitments to the international level or Troika pressure to pursue coercive strategies vis-à-vis domestic opponents. High costs of no agreement seem to be a necessary means to pass on political and market pressure through coercion.     

Electronic Eyes on the Green Line: Surveillance by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus

The 1974 Cypriot War divided the island of Cyprus into two parts with a narrow demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the opposing Greek Cypriot and Turkish forces. The volatility and violence in this zone, called the ‘Green Line’, necessitated a constant UN peacekeeping presence that was achieved mainly with manned observation posts (OPs). About 150 of these posts were established by 1975 to maintain stability and prevent flare-ups, including any lethal exchanges between the two sides. By the early 1990s, many of the countries contributing peacekeepers to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) had become tired of the stalemate and the lack of progress in negotiations (peacemaking), so they withdrew their troops from the force. This necessitated a reduction in the number of constantly manned OPs from 51 in 1992 to 21 in mid-1993. Further downsizing of UNFICYP by the UN Security Council in 2004 gave rise to a new approach to monitor the DMZ and produce actionable intelligence. Cameras were installed in hot-spots in the Nicosia DMZ and more responsive patrols were introduced as part of the new ‘concentration with mobility’ concept. This was the first time a UN peace operation used unattended cameras to monitor a demilitarized zone. This article examines the UN's difficulties and successes using the remote cameras, especially during important incidents. Other technologies that aided UNFICYP are also reviewed for lessons that might assist an under-equipped United Nations in its watchkeeping function.     

Silent lines and the ebb of memory: narratives of Our Wall in the island of Cyprus

This paper moves away from ‘‘orientalist’’ visions of the island of Cyprus as the island of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and looks at the wounds contemporary Cyprus still bears 36 years after its partition. The UN-controlled ‘‘Green Line’’ divides the island into a northern and southern side and its barbedwire and decaying infrastructure renders the violence of the partition and its traumatic consequences impossible to forget. This paper is about dividing lines and impenetrable walls separating territories and nations; it is about ways of remembering and forgetting and about possible routes of overcoming physical and psychological rifts through hopeful representations of friendly cohabitation. In particular it looks at the potential transformations of the Green Line through a reclamation project into a healing inter-communal memory space (Gritching 2010); and provides a close reading of the 1993 film-documentary Our Wall by Panicos Chrysanthou and Niyazi Kizilyürek underlining its significance and influence as counter-discourse to the silence and the re-memorialisation of the years before partition. Both the ‘‘Green Line project‘‘ and Our Wall underline the importance of memory-embedded representations in the emerging genre of ‘‘postcolonial utopianism’’ (Ashcroft 2009), as positive active tools to energise the hope for peace and reconciliation.     

The local news media impeding solutions to the Cyprus conflict: competing discourses of nationalism in Turkish Cypriot radio news

This paper, drawing on data from a news production study, carries out a critical discourse analysis of two stories produced by the Turkish Cypriot national news agency (TAK) and the stories produced by three local radio stations based on these texts. Both TAK and the three stations are partisan and used by owners and the elite for political self-promotion that supports what are broadly two different kinds of economic interests. One seeks to benefit from economic links with mainland Turkey and the other through relative independence yet continued isolation and separation from the Greek Cypriot-controlled Republic of Cyprus. Neither position favours unification with the Republic of Cyprus now highly popular with the majority of the population. To this end, stations recontextualise events to promote two different discourses of national identity, one that is Turkish and one that is based on an independent Turkish Cyprus. While listeners tend to accept that news broadcasts will reflect the viewpoints of owners and controllers, what is less understood is the way that even the most mundane and banal news stories are recontextualised to support these. It is this that is explored in this paper.