Nostalgia, Myth, Nationalism: The Postcolonial Nostalgia for British Cyprus

Abstract

This study opens up a vista onto the notion popular among a growing number of Turkish Cypriots that the British colonial period brought modernist enlightenment to Turkish Cypriots. Having been subject to heavy Turkish immigration from 1974, the Turkish military intervention into the island, onwards as well as the dictating Turkish nationalism by Turkish authorities over the native politics and value system, Turkish Cypriots have harkened back nostalgically to the British colonization for the universal standards of metahistoric civilization. In doing so, Turkish Cypriots structured a nostalgic nationalist movement called Cypriotism, an identity of difference that stands in opposition to the so-called backward immigrants to the island from Turkey and Turkish nationalism. Using postcolonial nationalist theory this study critically analyses the constructions of nostalgic nationalism in local Turkish-Cypriot media in the light of historic landmarks and milestones.