Varosha narratives: resisting reminiscence and contested futures on February 10

Varosha, the derelict coastal metropolis Famagusta in Cyprus stayed unpeopled beneath the Turkish army captivity after the enforced displacement of 40,000 Greek Cypriot inhabitants in the course of the 1974 warfare. Seen because the political bargaining chip for the peace negotiations, the town has been fenced off to its individuals aside from the latest openings to public visits since October 2020.

This 3-year ethnographic doctoral research (2018-2021) on Varosha narratives had two analysis inquiries to discover: how the Varoshians narrate their place attachment within the context of battle and the way these narrations operate as a way of communication. I carried out interviews with 45 displaced Varoshians; 35 with pre-1974 reminiscence, 15 with post-1974 ‘submit reminiscence’.

By way of the thematic evaluation of the verbatim transcriptions of those interviews and subject notes taken throughout quite a few participant observations, I found a story typology of the Varoshian’s place attachment: narrative of loss, the narrative of threshold, the narrative of transformation, and narrative of future. The operate of those place attachment narratives revealed as mnemonic resistance to oblivion and to oppression.

When Thursday, February 10 at 7 pm
The place On-line
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Occasion by Division of Turkish and Center Japanese Research