Displacement, memory and home(less) identities: Turkish Cypriot women’s narratives

Abstract

This study is an analysis of the narratives of Turkish Cypriot women in the north of Cyprus who were displaced during the ethnic conflict between the 1950s and 1974. We have conducted 21 interviews with Turkish Cypriot women who were living in different parts of Northern Cyprus. We used oral history, both as a method and as an epistemological stance to re-phrase the near past of Cyprus and the Cyprus issue from the perspective of gender/women’s studies. The study follows the traces of modernity, patriarchy, and nationalism in women’s narratives, about the place, home, belonging and homelessness. The narratives describe Turkish Cypriot women’s experiences of being a woman in conflict and displacement (‘göçmen olmak’ in daily talk in Turkish) making a home out of a house and undertaking daily routines for their families. The study also reveals that ethnic conflict and displacement have empowered women to a certain degree.

Keywords:

• Cyprus conflict
• displacement
• home
• Turkish Cypriot women
• women’s narratives

Acknowledgements

This article is an outcome of an oral history project, entitled ‘Completing the Incomplete History of the Turkish Cypriot Community: Portraits Drawn through the Narratives of Women’ (BAP-A-07-10) sponsored by Eastern Mediterranean University. The project took place between 2008 and 2010 with the team consists of Sevda Alankuş, Hanife Aliefendioğlu and Pembe Behçetoğulları. In the second component of the project, interviews have been conducted with women who attended higher education and worked in public or private sectors during the British colony period and onwards. The very early version of this paper has been presented in Gender at Crossroads Conference and published (see in the reference list). An article based on the whole project in Turkish was published in Culture and Communication (see in the reference list). The project results have been presented in four different conferences: ‘Home, Displacement and Identity: An Analysis on Cyriot Women Narratives’. 2nd International Conference of Mediterranean Worlds: The Mediterranean of the Myhts, The Myhts of the Mediterranean. 3-6 June 2010. İstanbul Şehir University, Turkey. ‘Completing the Incomplete History of the Turkish Cypriot Community: Portraits Drawn through the Narratives of Women’. 11th National Social Sciences Cenference. 9-11 December 2009, Ankara, Turkey. ‘Kuzey Kıbrıs’tan Kadın Anlatılarıyla Gündelik Hayatın Dönüşümü ve Modernleşme (Transformation of Daily Life and Modernity in Narratives of Northern Cypriot Women)’ International Multidisciplinary Women’s Studies Congress 13-16 October 2009. 9 Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey. ‘Silent Witnesses of Ethnic conflict? An Analysis of Turkish Cypriot Women’s Narratives on the Conflict Times’, Association of Studies in Nationalities (ASN) 17th Annual World Convention, 19-21 April 2012, Columbia University, New York USA. First of all we are thankful wholeheartedly to the Turkish Cypriot women who opened their doors and their hearts. We also thank Eastern Mediterranean University and Ministry of Education for providing the research grand for our proposal. We are thankful to our friends who helped us to contact interviewees. These are Fatma Güven-Lisaniler, Gözde Gayde, Umut Bozkurt, Hüseyin Hürdoğanoğlu, Damla Nailer, Aktaç Altıok, Aysel Irkad, Kıymet Alibey, Filiz Besim and Vasvi Çiftçioğlu. Without their support we could not reach so many different women from different parts of the island. Our thanks also go to Pervin Avcı and Gözde Gayde who assisted during the interviews; and Gözde Gayde, Uğur Aslan, Burak Hücent, Didem Herdurak, Yaşar Maaşoğlu, Nahide Maaaşoğlu and Hamit Arpacı who transcribed the interviews. We are thankful to Valerie Goby, for English editing of two earlier versions of this paper. We are grateful to Üstün Reinart and Nur Betül Çelik for their assistance in language. They were extremely helpful and generous in their comments, and contributions. We would like to thank the journal editors, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Marizon Calapano, Pamela Moss, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive feedback during the editing process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanife Aliefendioğlu

Hanife Aliefendioglu studied sociology and social anthropology in Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. She has been teaching sociology of communication, media anthropology, cultural studies, and gender and media in Faculty of Communication and Media Studies in Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus.

Pembe Behçetoğulları

Pembe Behçetoğulları studied Journalism and Radio-TV and Film in Ankara University, Ankara Turkey. She has been teaching film studies, cultural studies, film analysis, and social history of cinema in Faculty of Communication and Media studies in Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus.