Date of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Geoffrey Haywood

Abstract

Cyprus, at a crossroads of civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been heavily shaped and formed around third-party influences. The divisions that today have resulted in a de facto partition of the island with seemingly no solution, the “Cyprus problem,” can be traced back to not only the deep-rooted ethnic conflicts between the majority Greek Cypriots and the minority Turkish Cypriots, but to the various conflicting international influences fueling them. Since its 1960 independence, Cyprus has been framed in the context of unresolvable ethnic differences that foreign powers have capitalized on. As the conflict developed around the threat of making internal Cypriot matters broader international ones, the two ethnic communities have given little ground. Though politicians from various interest groups since before independence sought to find a solution to the divisions on the island, no formal political solution has yet been established. Despite this, the modern Cyprus problem has shown signs of thawing as the nation and its leaders begin to separate itself from its international context. Through a new framework, civil society has found solutions from their place in the conflict where international and political actors have not. However, they remain blocked by lack of legitimization by those same international actors. The Cyprus problem persists today due to the influence from these various outside interest groups, who, while trying to establish a peace, have incidentally become part of the persisting problem.

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The Cyprus "Problem": How Civil Society Has Found A Path to Peace in a Decades Old Conflict

Cyprus, at a crossroads of civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been heavily shaped and formed around third-party influences. The divisions that today have resulted in a de facto partition of the island with seemingly no solution, the “Cyprus problem,” can be traced back to not only the deep-rooted ethnic conflicts between the majority Greek Cypriots and the minority Turkish Cypriots, but to the various conflicting international influences fueling them. Since its 1960 independence, Cyprus has been framed in the context of unresolvable ethnic differences that foreign powers have capitalized on. As the conflict developed around the threat of making internal Cypriot matters broader international ones, the two ethnic communities have given little ground. Though politicians from various interest groups since before independence sought to find a solution to the divisions on the island, no formal political solution has yet been established. Despite this, the modern Cyprus problem has shown signs of thawing as the nation and its leaders begin to separate itself from its international context. Through a new framework, civil society has found solutions from their place in the conflict where international and political actors have not. However, they remain blocked by lack of legitimization by those same international actors. The Cyprus problem persists today due to the influence from these various outside interest groups, who, while trying to establish a peace, have incidentally become part of the persisting problem.