Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:47:10.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Fraternal” Other: Negotiating Ethnic and Religious Identities at a Muslim Sacred Site in Northern Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

Rabia Harmanşah Open the ORCID record for Rabia Harmanşah [Opens in a new window]
Rabia Harmanşah*
Affiliation:
University of Cologne, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. Emails: [email protected], [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article shows how everyday religious practices inform the processes of social identification, complicate presumed ethno-religious categories, and mediate local cultural differences in face of political and cultural hegemonic practices. In the context of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a de facto state recognized only by Turkey, Turkish Cypriots and Turks are considered to share an ethnicity and religion. This “overlap” has been employed to justify Turkey’s military intervention and its political, economic, and cultural domination over the island. Yet the cultural diversities and “perceived” differences between and among these groups are exacerbated by power dynamics, nationalist agendas, and mutual biases. The article explains subtle discussions around “genuine” Turkish and Muslim identities, as well as the enforced coexistence and constructed brotherhood of Cypriots and Turks on the island. The competing accounts of the “correct” interpretation of Islam at a Muslim tekke reflect intragroup power asymmetries and the conflict between institutionalized Sunni-Orthodox and “heterodox” local Islam. The article focuses on two overlooked issues in the scholarship on Northern Cyprus—the relations between Turkish Cypriots and settlers from Turkey, and the role of religion in the political processes—as well as on literature on shared sacred sites and an analysis of competitive intracommunal interactions.

Keywords

Cyprusethnicityreligionnationalismshared sacred sites
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 334 - 352
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Albera, Dionigi. 2008. “Why Are You Mixing What Cannot be Mixed? Shared Devotions in the Monotheisms.” History and Anthropology 19: 37–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anıl, Engin. 1986. “Abudardar Pilavı.” Halkbilim Dergisi 86/3 (3). P. 30.Google Scholar
Apeyitou, Eleni. 2003. “Turkish-Cypriot Nationalism: Its History and Development (1571–1960).” The Cyprus Review 15 (1): 67–98.Google Scholar
Asad, Talal. 1986. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam.” Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown Univ.Google Scholar
Atalay, Talip. 2003. Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs: İdari Yapılanma ve Dini Eğitim. Konya: Mehir Vakfı Yayınları.Google Scholar
Attalides, Michael. 1981. Social Change and Urbanization in Cyprus: A Study of Nicosia. Nicosia: Zavallis Press.Google Scholar
Bağışkan, Tuncer. 2014. “Hz. Ömer Tekkesi.” Yeni Düzen, July 20. http://www.yeniduzen.com/hz-omer-tekkesi-81605h.htm. (Accessed October 1, 2019.)Google Scholar
Bağışkan, Tuncer. 2009. Ottoman, Islamic and Islamised Monuments in Cyprus. Nicosia: Cyprus Turkish Education Foundation.Google Scholar
Baker, Ulus. 1995. “Yüzeydeki Çatlak.” Birikim Aylık Sosyalist Kültür Dergisi (77): 12–17.Google Scholar
Barkey, Karen. 2014. “Religious Pluralism, Shared Sacred Sites, and the Ottoman Empire.” In Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites, edited by Barkan, Elazar and Barkey, Karen, 33–65. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckingham, Charles Fraser. 1957a. “Islam and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus.” Die Welt des Islams, New Series 5 (1/2): 65–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckingham, Charles Fraser. 1957b. “The Turks of Cyprus.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 87 (2): 165–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beratlı, Nazım. 2008. Kıbrıslı Türklerin Kökenleri ve Kıbrıs’ta Bektaşilik. İstanbul: Kalkedon.Google Scholar
Beratlı, Nazım. 1999. Kıbrıslı Türk Kimliği’nin Oluşması. Işık Kitabevi Yayınları, Lefkoşa.Google Scholar
Besim, Mustafa, Ekici, Tufan, and Güven-Lisaniler, Fatma. 2015. “Labor Market Experience in a Pseudo-Home Country: Turkish Immigrants in Northern Cyprus.” Turkish Studies 16 (3): 411–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bora, Tanıl. 1995. “Türk Milliyetçiliği ve Kıbrıs.” Birikim Aylık Sosyalist Kültür Dergisi (77): 18–26.Google Scholar
Bowman, Glenn, ed. 2012. Sharing the Sacra: The Politics and Pragmatics of Intercommunal Relations around Holy Places. Berghahn Books: New York, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bowman, Glenn. 2010. “Orthodox-Muslim Interactions at ‘Mixed Shrines’ in Macedonia.” In Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Hann, Chriss & Goltz, Hermann, 195–219. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bryant, Rebecca. 2004. Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus. London, New York: I.B. Tauris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, Rebecca and Yakinthou, Christalla. 2012. Cypriot Perceptions of Turkey. TESEV Foreign Policy Programme. Istanbul: TESEV Publications.Google Scholar
Dayıoğlu, Ali, and Hatay, Mete. 2011. “Cyprus.” In Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Volume 3, edited by Nielsen, Jorgen et al., 137–151. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Elbasani, Arolda and Tošić, Jelena. 2017. “Localized Islam(s): Interpreting Agents, Competing Narratives and Experiences of Faith.” Nationalities Papers 45 (4): 499–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdengiz, Ahmet. 1994. “Kıbrıs Türklerinin Alevi Kimliği.” Halkbilimi (35–36): 22–26.Google Scholar
Gürsel, Kadri. 2012. “‘Kıbrıslı Imam’ Özeleştirisi.” Milliyet Gazetesi, June 18. https://www.milliyet.com.tr/dunya/kibrisli-imam-ozelestirisi-1555047. (Accessed June 30, 2020).Google Scholar
Halim, Ipek. 2007. “Hz. Ömer Tekkesi ve Olmazlar Listesi.” Star Kıbrıs, September 2. http://www.starkibris.net/index.asp?haberID=4324. (Accessed May 4, 2013.)Google Scholar
Harmanşah, Rabia, Tanyeri-Erdemir, Tuğba, and Hayden, Robert M.. 2014. “Secularizing the Unsecularizable: A Comparative Study of the Haci Bektas and Mevlana Museums in Turkey,” in Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites, edited by Barkan, Elazar and Barkey, Karen, 336–367. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmanşah, Rabia. 2014. “Performing Social Forgetting in a Post-Conflict Landscape: The Case of Cyprus .” Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Hasluck Frederick, W. 1929. Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hassner, Ron E. 2009. War on Sacred Grounds. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hatay, Mete. 2005. Beyond Numbers: An Inquiry into the Political Integration of the Turkish “Settlers” in Northern Cyprus. PRIO Report 4. Nicosia, Cyprus.Google Scholar
Hayden, Robert M. 2002. “Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites in South Asia and the Balkans.” Current Anthropology 43 (2): 205–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, Robert M., Tanyeri-Erdemir, Tugba, Walker, Timothy D., Erdemir, Aykan, Rangachari, Devika, Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel, López-Hurtado, Enrique, and Bakić-Hayden, Milica. 2016. Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites and Spaces. Routledge: London and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, David. 2012. “‘This is our little hajj’: Muslim Holy Sites and Reappropriation of the Sacred Landscape in Contemporary Bosnia.” American Ethnologist 39 (4): 751–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendrich, Béatrice, and Strohmeier, Martin. 2015. “Islam in Cyprus – Introductory Remarks.” Journal of Muslims in Europe 4: 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendrich, Béatrice. 2015. “Islamic Religious Education in Cyprus: Laws, Actors, Past and Future.” Journal of Muslims in Europe 4: 7–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, Ronald. 1993. Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean World, 1571–1640. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Kızılyürek, Niyazi. 2006. “The Turkish Cypriots from an Ottoman-Muslim Community to a National Community.” In Britain in Cyprus: Colonialism and Post-colonialism 1878-2006, edited by Faustmann, Hubert and Peristianis, Nicos, 315–325. Bibliopolis: Mannheim und Möhnesee.Google Scholar
Killoran, Moira. 1998. “Good Muslims and ‘Bad Muslims,’ ‘Good’ Women and Feminists: Negotiating Identities in Northern Cyprus (Or, the Condom Story).” Ethos 26 (2): 183–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtuluş, Hatice, and Purkis, Sema. 2014. Kuzey Kıbrıs’ta Türkiyeli Göçmenler. Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.Google Scholar
Luke, Harry. 1957. Cyprus: A Portrait and an Appreciation. Harrap: London.Google Scholar
Loizides, Neophytos. 2015. “Settlers, Mobilization, and Displacement in Cyprus: Antinomies of Ethnic Conflict and Immigration Politics.” In Settlers in Contested Lands: Territorial Disputes and Ethnic Conflicts, edited by Haklai, Oded and Loizides, Neophytos, 168–191. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gazete, Milli. 2016. “KKTC’de Hazreti Ömer türbesi Yanında Kumarhaneli Otel İnşaatı.” October 7. https://www.milligazete.com.tr/haber/880184/kktcde-hazreti-omer-turbesi-yaninda-kumarhaneli-otel-insaati. (Accessed October 1, 2019.)Google Scholar
Moudouros, Nikos. 2019. “The AKP’s ‘Pious Youth in Cyprus’ Project and the Turkish Cypriot ‘Deviations.’” Journal of Muslims in Europe 8: 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevzat, Altay, and Hatay, Mete. 2009. “Politics, Society and the Decline of Islam in Cyprus: From the Ottoman Era to the Twenty-First Century.” Middle Eastern Studies 45 (6): 911–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevzat, Altay. 2005. Nationalism Amongst the Turks of Cyprus: The First Wave. Oulu: Oulu University Press.Google Scholar
Psaltis, Charis, Loizides, Neophytos, LaPierre, Alicia, and Stefanovic, Djordje. 2019. “Transitional Justice and Acceptance of Cohabitation in Cyprus.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42 (11): 1850–1869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purkis, Semra, and Kurtuluş, Hatice. 2013. “Spatially Segregated and Socially Excluded Turkish Migrants in Northern Cyprus: An Alternative Perspective.” İ.Ü. Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi 48: 1–22.Google Scholar
Ramm, Christoph. 2009. Turkish Cypriots, Turkish ‘Settlers’ and (Trans)National Identities Between Turkish Nationalism, Cypriotism and Europe. Inaugural Dissertation, Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.Google Scholar
Skendi, Stavro. 1967. “Crypto-Christianity in the Balkan Area under the Ottomans.” Slavic Review 26 (2): 227–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Şen, Mustafa. 2018. “Intra-Religious Encounters and Formation of the Religious Field in the Post-Soviet Central Asia.” Paper presented at Käte Hamburger Kolleg Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe, Center for Religious Studies at Ruhr Universität, Bochum, July 9.Google Scholar
T24 Bağımsız İnternet Gazetesi . 2011. “Kıbrıs’tan Erdoğan’a: Sen kimsin be adam!” February 6. https://t24.com.tr/haber/kibristan-erdogana-sen-kimsin-be-adam,126081 (Accessed October 1, 2019.)Google Scholar
US Department of State. Cyprus 2018 International Religious Freedom Report. 2018. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CYPRUS-2018-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf. (Accessed October 16, 2019.)Google Scholar
Yaşın, Neşe. 2013. Şiirle Hatırlamak: Kıbrıslıtürk Şiirinde Paradigma Değişimi. Lefkoşa: Söylem Yayınları.Google Scholar
Yeşilada, Birol. 2009. “Islam and the Turkish Cypriots.” Social Compass 56 (1): 49–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeşilada, Birol, Noordijk, Peter, and Webster, Craig. 2009. “Religiosity and Social Values of the Cypriots.” Social Compass 56 (1): 15–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düzen, Yeni, 2018. “Hz. Ömer Yakınlarındaki Çalışmalar…İzinsiz mi, değil mi?” March 6. http://www.yeniduzen.com/hz-omer-turbesi-yakinlarindaki-calismalar-izinsiz-mi-degil-mi-99666h.htm. (Accessed October 1, 2019.)Google Scholar
Alemdar, Şakir. 2012. Imam of the Hala Sultan Tekke. Interviewed by the author, July 1. Larnaca.Google Scholar
Atalay, Talip. 2011. Head of the Religious Affairs Department of TRNC. Interviewed by the author, September 5. Nicosia.Google Scholar
Halim, Ipek. 2011. Lecturer at the Eastern Mediterranean University. Interviewed by the author, May 30. Kyrenia.Google Scholar
Alemdar, Şakir. 2012. Imam of the Hala Sultan Tekke. Interviewed by the author, July 1. Larnaca.Google Scholar
Atalay, Talip. 2011. Head of the Religious Affairs Department of TRNC. Interviewed by the author, September 5. Nicosia.Google Scholar
Halim, Ipek. 2011. Lecturer at the Eastern Mediterranean University. Interviewed by the author, May 30. Kyrenia.Google Scholar