Cypriot Youth Views Matter: Comparison of Diaspora and Islander Youth’s Views on Peace

ABSTRACT

This contribution compares the perception of peace of Cypriot youth, who live on the island and in the United Kingdom, and is based on interviews with them. Even though Cyprus has a large diaspora community compared to its population, diaspora studies have been unable to garner attention to the role of the Cypriot diaspora in peacebuilding in their homeland. Ignorance of young people both on the island and in the diaspora has prevented the inclusion of Cypriot youth in politics and peace processes. However, the role and perceptions of young people either in diaspora or on the island are quite important to reach sustainable peace. Youth’s readiness for peace and willingness to co-exist would affect the outcome of a process. Accordingly, this contribution of the collection offers a two-part contribution to the literature: first, focusing on the neglected youth dimension in peace and conflict studies, and second, providing a comparative analysis of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot diaspora youth in the diaspora studies.

Acknowledgements

Cihan Dizdaroğlu would like to thank all Cypriot youth for sharing their thoughts with him during the interviews.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethical clearance for this project was obtained from the Ethical Review Board of Coventry University on the 8 March 2019.

2 Six main negotiation dossiers are ‘territory’, ‘governance and power sharing’, ‘economic affairs’, ‘property’, ‘European Union affairs’ and ‘security and guarantees’.

Additional information

Funding

This research project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions [grant number 796053].

Notes on contributors

Cihan Dizdaroğlu

Cihan Dizdarog˘lu is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Baskent University, Turkey. He previously worked as a Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University (United Kingdom) from 2018 to 2020.