Cyprus

The complex issue of the so-called Turkish settlers in Cyprus figures prominently in public debate on both sides of the divided island, as well as in international deliberations on the Cyprus problem. The political sensitivities that surround the issue combine with a lack of reliable information and data to mar these discussions. This report on the political integration of the ‘settlers’ in northern Cyprus seeks to contribute to more informed discourse and to stimulate further research on this important issue. An examination of the voting patterns of the Turkish ‘settlers’ since their arrival in Cyprus shows that an ethnic voting pattern prevailed until 1990. Since then, however, ‘settler votes’ have been distributed among a range of mainstream political parties, with a majority of votes going to conservative parties. The analysis also reveals that the claim that the ‘settlers’ in Cyprus constitute an extension of the official politics of mainland Turkey is erroneous. The report shows that the ‘settlers’ are more integrated into the Turkish-Cypriot political community than is often believed. Beyond Numbers also suggests that the discussion on the ‘settler issue’ would benefit from a distinction between those who are temporary residents (among them, numerous ‘guest workers’ and university students) and those who have obtained citizenship – and hence the right to vote – in the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC). While the ‘settler’ label only meaningfully applies to individuals within the latter category, the electoral lists examined for this report indicate that voters originating from mainland Turkey constitute no more than 20–25% of the total electorate in northern Cyprus. ‘Settler’ influence on politics in northern Cyprus is thus both less and less uniform than is often claimed. Mete Hatay is a Project Leader at the PRIO Cyprus Centre. In 2003 and 2004, he worked extensively with PRIO’s Public Information Project aimed at providing accurate and non-partisan information on the ‘Annan Plan’. He has for many years conducted research on different minority groups in Cyprus.

This report gives an overview of the depiction of the Indian community in Cyprus based on qualitative content analysis in local media. The themes discussed are education, business and investment activities, the insertion and experiences of Indian nationals in the labour market, culture, gender relations and integration initiatives. The analysis is based on a selection of articles published between April 2012 and April 2015 in Cypriot online and printed newspapers, news portals and blogs. A theme that emerges from the analysis is that of the invisibility of the local Indian community in Cypriot media. The analysis shows that local media demonstrates a very limited interest in the Indian community and Indian culture(s) as part of Cypriot society. The Indian community in Cyprus is not particularly numerous, nor consolidated and this explains, to a certain extent, why there are not many explicit references to the community in the local media. Another reason for the partial invisibility of the Indian community is the general lack of debate and engagement of the local media with migrant communities in Cyprus.

'The Turks of Cyprus constitute the biggest non-migrant Muslim community in the EU. So far no systematic research on their religious identity has been carried out. The religious attitudes of the Cypriot Turks are usually labeled with epithets such as “halfhearted” or “lax”. The deconstruction of this label would be one of the aims of the research. The main target of the proposed project is to identify the various constructions of religious identities among Turks in Cyprus (approx. 80% of the Cypriots are Greek Orthodox, while 18% adhere to Islam) between 1925 and today, against the background of the varying political circumstances. It is self-evident that the significant political and economic changes during the sample period have exerted a decisive influence on all aspects of identity, including the religious aspect. A non-normative approach allows identifying the religious aspects of identity constructions and their changes over time. The research design is as follows: The period under consideration is divided into three units: The period when Cyprus was a Crown Colony of the British Empire (1925-1960), the unstable interim period until 1974, and finally the period from the Turkish invasion till today. The research is based on sources such as local newspapers, grey literature and, for the recent period, qualitative interviews. The project combines synchronic with diachronic analysis. Three themes will be investigated throughout all periods: The evaluation of the Kemalist Revolution by the Cypriot Turks, the equation of “Turk” and “Muslim”, and the self-perception of Cypriot Turks as “Europeans”. In the proposed project, religion is understood as functional and substantive. The underlying assumption is that by means of a non-normative approach a sound picture of the varieties of religious identity among Turks of Cyprus will emerge. It is hoped that the proposed project will contribute to a deeper socio-cultural understanding of the Turkish Cypriot community.'

This report explores challenges to political participation of mobile EU citizens in Cyprus. It discusses electoral rights of non-resident citizens and non-citizen residents from the EU in European Parliament and local elections. The report also offers recommendations on how to increase political participation of mobile EU citizens in this country.

'The goal of my project is to produce a book manuscript and, concomitantly, to advance my career through academic and other professional achievements related to the promotion of my research. The subject of my book manuscript is the legitimization of political violence. It analyzes how political violence is viewed by a variety of constituencies (recruits, victims, third parties, and other subdivisions) in the period when it occurs as well as in later years. I do this through a paired comparison of Ireland and Cyprus. The political violence at question took place in the 1910s and ‘20s in Ireland and in the 1950s, ‘60s, and 70s in Cyprus, which is to say, amidst processes of anti-colonial contention and of post-colonial state consolidation. The focus of my analysis, therefore, is the legitimization of these events of political violence during these periods as well as in retrospect, within contemporary collective and historical memory. Drawing from the literature on terrorism, nationalism, ethnic conflict, social movements, colonialism, and collective memory, my approach develops a nuanced conceptualization of legitimization. In general, I argue that the legitimization of political violence is situational, emerging out of many parallel processes that integrate representations of violence and collective commitments (nationalism, morality, historical narratives, strategic logics, etc).'

Domestic work has been of particular significance in the Cypriot labour market and in particular its migrant workforce. Over the past two decades, thousands of migrant women have flown into the country to work as domestic workers for private households. Most of them stay in the country for several years, on a so-called “domestic worker’s” visa, a rather restrictive kind of permit that ties them to specific employers. A standard employment contract, prepared by the Migration Department lays down their wages, duties and rights; one of these being the prohibition to join trade unions. Throughout this process, potential domestic workers are normally aided by private employment agencies that act as intermediates with the employer – often at a very high fee. The overall setting aims to balance diverse and sometimes conflicting interests within a small economy and society, bound by its international commitments. To the external observer, however, Cyprus seems to be contradicting its own efforts. Its migration scheme appears in multiple ways susceptible to misuse. Stories about exploitation and abuse are indeed not uncommon. In many respects however, Cyprus’ case brings to the fore existing gaps and loopholes when the EU common standards are transposed into the national order.

The lasting separation between Turkish and Greek Cypriots on the small island of Cyprus has long been one of the contentious issues of the Eastern Mediterranean. Much effort and energy has been spent trying to find a comprehensive resolution to the dispute. However, the rationale behind the strategy of conflict resolution, which has been mainly based on negotiations between subsequent leaders, remains problematic. The lack of (or limited) direct involvement of societies, particularly disengagement of young people, who have lived in an ethnically divided country since they were born, has prevented mobilization of Cypriot youth in their search for communication and interaction. However, current peacebuilding efforts on the island still focus on reaching an agreement between leaders instead of finding ways to engage the youth of both sides, who are expected to live together despite the fact that they have never experienced it before. As McEvoy-Levy suggests “a peace agreement’s endurance depends on whether the next generations accept or reject it, how they are socialized during the peace process, and their perceptions of what that peace process has achieved.” As the most recent addition to the international community’s repertoire of conflict resolution methods, peacebuilding simply refers to a comprehensive process that tries to remove the root causes of a conflict. According to Lederach, the actors at the national and international top levels are involved in negotiation and peacemaking, while the grassroots, bottom-up level are aiming to promote peace and reconciliation at local and society level. Thus, the linkage between the top and grassroots levels, in which middle-level process aims to facilitate, is essential for an effective and sustainable peace. This research proposal aims to discover, observe and reshape the correlation between youth and peacebuilding particularly in the Cyprus case by borrowing Lederach’s approach on peacebuilding.

Volunteering as an integration method has been highly beneficial to any participant and the receiving society. However, there is a lack of knowledge and data about migrant volunteering in European countries. As a multi-agency cooperation project, SMART Volunteering aims to fill this gap by exploring understanding of volunteering among migrant women and the crucial roles of civil society organizations and business actors in creating the conditions conducive to social integration. The research works on broadening traditional concept of volunteering by highlighting its more strategic aspects . This summary report, collated by the European Network of Migrant Women, is based on the national reports in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom, written by SMART Volunteering partner organisations.

The project “GATE - Guardians Against Trafficking and Exploitation” aims to increase the capacity of the guardianship systems in 4 EU countries (Italy, Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands) to protect separated children against trafficking and exploitation. While the initiative is addressed to guardians as privileged interlocutors of separated children, it adopts what we call an “holistic” approach, in the sense that it considers the functioning of the guardianship system as a whole (e.g. legislative framework and its implementation, administrative procedures, professionals involved, networking between actors at local and national levels, existence and quality of training, financial resources available) as the important container/context within which guardians’ potentials can be valued and their roles strengthened. Thus, GATE refers simultaneously to guardians, to the guardianship system where they operate, and to the welfare services offered to protect separated children’s rights in each national context.

"Theoretical Background and objectives In the context of the combination of escalated sectarian conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and home-grown conflicts around real and perceived attacks on Islam and its symbols in the West (from Rushdie to Charlie Hebdo), increased numbers of Muslim youth in Western countries have embraced radical forms of Islam and have sometimes become actively involved in violence, both at home and abroad. Beyond impressionistic evidence on a few active radicals, extremely little is known about the incidence among countries’ Muslim populations of adherence to radical versions of Islam and support for religiously-motivated violence. To answer these questions, cross-national surveys across Muslim populations in different countries are necessary, but apart from the very descriptive surveys by the US American Pew Research Institute, which are moreover not publicly accessible for secondary analysis, no such information is available. Existing research also leaves another major question unanswered, namely to what extent religious radicalism is specific to current Islam or whether it is comparable to what we find in other contemporary religions, particularly within Christianity. This project wants to fill these voids. A first step was an analysis based on the SCIICS survey. This was the first representative survey study to compare religious fundamentalism and outgroup hostility between Muslims and Christians (Koopmans 2015), and as such it attracted worldwide media attention. While the study revealed large differences between the two religious groups even when controlled for a range of socio-economic and demographic variables, the limitation of the study to two Muslim ethnic groups as well as the fact that it compared Muslims of immigrant origin to autochthonous Christians limits the generalizability of its findings. Moreover, the SCIICS survey did not include questions about support for religiously-motivated violence and extremist religious organizations. Research design To overcome these shortcomings, we are conducting two studies: Religious Fundamentalism and Radicalization Survey and Jihadi Radicalization in Europe Database. The first project is a representative survey study of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and non-believers in 2017 in the following 8 countries: Germany, the United States, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Kenya. The choice of countries allows for a broad range of cross-national and cross-sectional comparisons. For instance, all three of the world’s Abrahamic religions are represented in our sample, allowing us to investigate similarities and differences between these three religious groups. In addition to comparisons across religious groups, we are also interested in examining variances within the religious groups. Therefore we sampled across different branches of Islam, i.e. Sunni Muslims (Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Kenya, and Cyprus), Shia Muslims (Lebanon) and Alevites (Turkey, Cyprus); of Christianity, i.e. Catholic and Protestant Christians (Germany, and the USA), Greek Orthodox Christians (Cyprus, Lebanon), Maronite Catholics (Lebanon) and the generally more conservative Christianity of Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya); and of Judaism, i.e. both Orthodox and Reformist branches (Israel and the USA). Our research design also allows us to investigate the role of immigration and integration experiences in religious radicalization. The study not only includes two Western immigration countries with strongly divergent immigrant integration policies (Germany and the United States), but also three countries with autochthonous Muslim and Christian populations (Kenya, Cyprus, and Lebanon). Furthermore, both in Germany and the United States, we oversample Christians of immigrant origin, thus extending the range of comparisons to a variety of immigrant and native groups and augmenting the possibility of isolating the role of immigration. Apart from the usual socio-economic and demographic control variables, the surveys included questions on religiosity, religious knowledge, fundamentalism, out-group hostility, intergroup contacts, discrimination, adherence to conspiracy theories, violence legitimation, and support for extremist groups. Moreover we employed a survey experiment to test the effect of religious scripture on religious violence legitimation. The broad range of variables and the experiment included in the surveys will enable rigorous hypotheses testing, which will help us uncover causal mechanisms behind religious fundamentalism and radicalization. In the second project Jihadi Radicalization in Europe Database, we aggregate profiles of Jihadist individuals from publicly available information. The main units of analysis of this database are people from four European countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK) who fit in any of the following characteristics: People (including their partners and children from the age of 15 who accompanying them), who have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or other conflict regions involving Muslims, acting out of their Islamist conviction (the so-called foreign fighters); people who have actively recruited others as foreign fighters or motivated others to join through propaganda activities; people who were involved in the aiding, planning or conducting of Islamist terrorist activity in Europe or were suspected thereof; people who supported, justified or glorified the use of violence in the name of Islam through propaganda activities; people who are members of jihadi-Salafist and Islamist organizations, which support the use of violence. The database will primarily consist of biographical and sociodemographic information on individuals, with the aim of identifying common characteristics. Using the sociodemographic data, we aim to investigate, what kind of people are more susceptible to radicalization, whereas we will use the biographic data to gain insights into contexts of radicalization. In addition to these characteristics, social contacts and networks of the individuals will also be registered, in order to analyze the social network structures. This information will be used to explore group-specific radicalization processes as well as to identify central influential figures within the networks. The relevant data will be gathered through an online and media research. A variety of sources of data will be used to collect relevant information such as newspaper articles, interviews, online-blogs, biographies, news databases such as LexisNexis®, and court proceedings, in order to gather as much data as possible on the individuals. The database can be understood as an aggregation of publicly available data on European Islamists."