Paper short abstract:

This paper studies today's Turkish-Cypriot identifications with administration and desire for civil service positions as a residue from Cyprus' Ottoman, British, and postcolonial histories, arguing that old forms of sovereignty exert influence in the present in the form of an affective relic.

Paper long abstract:

This paper studies contemporary Turkish-Cypriot identifications with administration and desire for positions in the civil service as a residue from Cyprus' past Ottoman and British histories. Introducing the concept of 'sovereignty as a palimpsest', I argue that old forms of sovereignty exert influence in the present in the form of an affective relic.