Discovering Europe
Cypriot identities
Books by Neshe YasinTurkish Cypriot poet and other Cypriot writers 2008.
© Hegel Goutier
Neshe Yasin
Poet, female, Turkish Cypriot*
There is confusion over identity in Cyprus. There are vertical and horizontal definitions. There are religions: Christian and Muslim. And then there are nationalities: Turkish and Greek. The British asked people to define themselves. Some of the so-called Turkish Cypriots were black Africans, others probably Turkmen rebels brought here who adopted the Muslim religion.
In this country you can introduce yourself as Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, Cypriot, Greek, and Greek Cypriot. The way you define yourself is linked to your political perspective on the future. As a Greek person, you might be perceived as right wing. If you say Cypriot, you probably lean towards the left. Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot means in the middle. But how much Cypriot and how much Greek or Turkish do you actually mean?
Cypriot identity also means being committed to a geographical project of unity, or not. As an island, Cyprus has no other boarder than the sea. And all Cypriots like the shape of the country. Its form is copied in lapel pins and jewels. We keep the place where we lived in our memory but a lot of us were forced to forget this memory.
Identity is always expecting something. I am a poet. Some poets are looking for hybridity and consider that Cypriot is a hybridity. In languages, you find the same music. Words are even sometimes shared. You will find Italian words in all of our languages and similarly in the mind and character. We have the same memory. The way of thinking is quite similar. The family structure is quite similar, and the way people talk, the excitement.
In the villages, you have to help each other to survive. For example, on Turkish religious days, you used to give an animal to a Greek Cypriot to take care of and vice versa. All this came to an end with the conflict over nationality...
Giorgos Moleskis
Poet, male, Greek Cypriot*
There are so many identities in Cyprus. There are several religions: Greek orthodox, Muslim, Maronite, Armenian Christian and Roman Catholic. Linguistically speaking, all Christians were assimilated into the Greek language.
The Roman Catholics are linked to the Maronites from Lebanon. The Maronites use the Greek language but they have also kept their Maronite dialect which is spoken in some Cypriot villages. This language is mixed with Greek words, as well as with Turkish and Arabic.
My wife is Armenian, from Yerevan. The Armenians have a publication in Armenian and English. From 1996, each citizen has had to specify his or her religion.
The perception of a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot is not important. If you use a language, you use a culture. Greek culture for one and Turkish culture for the other. But everyone is part of the story. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots lived for centuries in the same village. One shepherd looked after their flocks. They shared everything, the land and the shepherd. As a student I remember visiting parents of a friend of mine. Greeks and Turkish were together sharing everything: land, cattle, playing in the same neighbourhood. The folk music, the folk dancing, the food were the same. The same friendship, the same hospitality, the way they cultivated their land. Everything was the same.
A part of identity is language, culture and tradition. But another part is everyday life.
* Based on interviews by Hegel Goutier
1 Comment
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#1 Romina wrote at 14.10.2008 02:58:
quiero saber a que virgen se le reza y si se utiliza algun objeto