Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the ways in which Turkish Cypriot youth living in an unrecognised state now identify with the Mediterranean as a way of avoiding misrecognition as Greek Cypriot or Turkish, resisting categorisation by others, and connecting with European and Middle Eastern cultural heritages.

Paper long abstract:

Focusing on the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, this paper explores young adults’ experiences of identifying with the Mediterranean in the absence of an alternative recognised, uncontroversial term for themselves. Growing up with international embargoes, competing nationalisms, and existing as a “minority within a minority”, Turkish Cypriot participants described being incorrectly identified as Turkish, Greek Cypriot, or Greek. Caught between these politicised identities, many young Turkish Cypriots stress the importance of their Mediterraneanness, identifying with the sea, the climate, the laid-back culture, and the importance of family, food, and lemons. These popular stereotypes of the Mediterranean serve as useful images for Turkish Cypriots to reference when attempting to explain themselves and their culture, without having to explain the history and politics of the unrecognised Turkish Cypriot state.

This paper focuses on Turkish Cypriots in their twenties, particularly looking at the ways in which they relate to a Mediterranean identity as a way of demonstrating their proximity to both European and Middle Eastern cultural heritages, and to the challenging economic conditions being faced by youth elsewhere in the region. The term ‘Mediterranean’ also allows Turkish Cypriot youth to imply Europeanness without getting into the intricacies of their partial membership of the European Union. Throughout, the paper demonstrates the importance of a Mediterranean identity as an uncomplicated way of maintaining complexity, which ultimately allows Turkish Cypriot youth to resist categorisation by others in the absence of a recognised and uncontroversial national identity.