The Normalisation of Cyprus’ Partition Among Greek Cypriots Political Economy and Political Culture in a Divided Society Gregoris Ioannou The Normalisation of Cyprus’ Partition Among Greek Cypriots Gregoris Ioannou The Normalisation of Cyprus’ Partition Among Greek Cypriots Political Economy and Political Culture in a Divided Society Gregoris Ioannou School of Law University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK ISBN 978-3-030-50815-9 ISBN 978-3-030-50816-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50816-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration and images: Pafsanias Karathanasis, photographs taken during ethnographic fieldwork in Nicosia This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Ilektra A cknowledgements Many people have contributed in various ways, direct and indirect, to the writing of this book. I would like to thank all those with whom I have conversed in the last 20 years in the context of the peace movement. From my academic colleagues I would like to thank in particular Andreas Panayiotou, Theodoros Rakopoulos, Giorgos Charalambous, Antonis Hadjikyriacou, Olga Demetriou, Danae Karydaki, Athena Skoulariki, Sertac Sonan, Umut Bozkurt, Christos Mais, Pafsanias Karathanasis, Alexis Heraklides, Serephim Seferiades, Nicos Trimikliniotis, Serkan Karas and Niyazi Kızılyürek. I would like to thank Konstantinos Tzikas for translating the original Greek edition into English, allowing me to focus on the refining rather than the re-writing of the text and thus making the editing, updating and expanding of the manuscript an easier task. I would like to also thank the University of Glasgow for supporting me in this. As a book written not only from the perspective of social science, but also from the perspective of peace activism, it is inspired from and speaks to all those who believed and who continue to believe, acted and act for peace in, and reunification of, Cyprus, as envisioned by the late Costis Achniotis. Finally, I want to thank Evgenia Nikiforou, my partner in life, and wish our daughter Ilektra gets to experience a Cyprus that is better than the one our generation experienced. Glasgow, April 2020 Gregoris Ioannou vii c ontents 1 Introduction: History, Need and Choices 1 2 From Nationalism to Partition 1950–1975 9 3 Separation as a Lived Reality, as a Promise and as a Taboo 1975–2003 33 4 The Opening of the Checkpoints and the Unfulfilled Potential 55 5 Referendum 2004: The End of Innocence 73 6 The Ten-Year Battle Between Federation and Anti- federation 2007–2017 95 7 The Schools and the Universities, the Mass Media and the Deep State of the Republic of Cyprus of Emergent Necessity 123 8 The Shifts in the Greek Cypriot Bourgeoisie and the Equilibria in the Greek Cypriot Community 143 9 Conclusion: History, Responsibility and the Future 179 ix x CONTENTS Postscript: The Cyprus Problem as Viewed from the Outside 187 References 201 Index 217 CHAPTER 1 Introduction: History, Need and Choices © The Author(s) 2020 1 G. Ioannou, The Normalisation of Cyprus’ Partition Among Greek Cypriots, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50816-6_1 2 G. IOANNOU ‘If they choose to protect the rights of the Turkish Cypriots in a separate, inde- pendent entity, then they should be restricted to what is attributable to the exclu- sive economic zone of that unlawful entity. Therefore, they have no reason to question the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus.’ (Nicos Anastasiades, 2/1/2018, quoted in: Alphanewslive. (2018) ‘Anastasiades’ statement provokes reactions’ [Αντιδράσεις προκαλεί η δήλωση Αναστασιάδη για την ΑΟΖ] (3/1/2018) Alphanewslive https://www.alphanews.live/politics/antidraseis-prokalei-e- delose-anastasiade-gia-ten-aoz) This book is based on two decades of close monitoring on the evolu- tion of the Cyprus issue, of writing and political engagement and action against the partition. I am already over 40 years old and I originally wrote this text in Greek, at Kaimakli, a place in Nicosia, in which, on the 3 of the 4 sides of the horizon, a few kilometres in front of me, lies the dividing line of my country with its dead zone. I wish it was otherwise, so that today I would be able to write a book titled Overturning Partition, a feeling I also had during 2003–2004 as a postgraduate student of Political Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science while writing my dissertation on the then ongoing developments with the Annan Plan and the referendum. At that time, I had started with the working title The Peace Process in Cyprus, but in the spring of 2004 the title became Interpreting the Greek Cypriot No. I refrained from systematically continuing my academic engagement with the Cyprus issue and generally selected other topics for my scientific work over the last 15 years. But my political activism in the reunification movement and my public articles remained largely oriented towards exploring partition and aiming to contribute to its overthrow. This is something that does not stop with the publication of this book. However, since 2017 there was a decisive moment on the Cyprus issue, analogous to that of 2004, and since I think that the various pieces of analysis I wrote in various phases these 15 years have outlined an adequate framework of analysis, I felt it was time to put in place a comprehensive argument as a coherent whole. This book is addressed to a general audience and tries to avoid various academic conventions to keep the text as readable as possible for the average reader without specialised knowledge in the social sciences or in-depth knowledge of the Cyprus issue.