Seeking to Transform the Perceptions of Intercommunal Relations: The Turkish-Cypriot Case (2004-2009)

Abstract

Despite continual territorial division in Cyprus both the EU and CTP-led Turkish-Cypriot governments tried to normalize inter-communal relations. To this end, the CTP government revised radically Cypriot history textbooks. Although this revision received diverse political reactions, the pupils' perceptions of intercommunal relations through history teaching have not been examined so far. This article examines the results of revisions and argues that perceptions of intercommunal relations are significantly correlated with teachers' politico-ideological orientations. It also argues that pupils from native families are more likely to accept novel ideas of the new textbooks than the pupils from immigrant families. The existing process of political socialization of pupils restricts further conciliatory attitudes in intercommunal relations. The responses of Cypriot history teachers in secondary schools and a selected sample of their students to a questionnaire constitute the data.