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THE GREEN LINE SEA” Space and the Consequences of a City Partition: the Case of Nicosia

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THE GREEN LINE SEA” Space and the Consequences of a City Partition: the Case of Nicosia UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale PhD - Urban and Local European Studies “THE GREEN LINE SEA” Space and the consequences of a city partition: The case of Nicosia PhD Candidate: Anna CASAGLIA Supervisors: Prof.ssa Elena DELL’AGNESE – Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Prof. Guido MARTINOTTI – Istituto di Scienze Umane – Firenze Prof. Julian MINGHI – University of South Carolina – Columbia Quest'opera è stata rilasciata sotto la licenza Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Per leggere una copia della licenza visita il sito web http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/3.0/ o spedisci una lettera a Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. This work has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. You can see the licence on this website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or write a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Više vjerujem u horoscop nego u nacionalosti I believe more in horoscope than in nationalities Maja Bajevi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to Elena Dell’Agnese, Guido Martinotti and Julian Minghi for their supervision, their suggestions, and for the passion for research they instilled in me throughout time. I am also grateful to Yannis Papadakis and Caesar Mavratsas, two extraordinary gatekeepers. Thank you for the warm welcome in Cyprus, the useful conversations and the theoretical and methodological help. Special thanks to: Mete Hatai, Steven Burke, Baris Burcu, Stefanie Polycarpou and the Prio Centre for the help they gave me in finding contacts in Nicosia. All the people I interviewed in Nicosia, who made this work possible. Roberta Marzorati for the supervision and the critical reading of this work, and most of all for her friendship and support. Martin Esposito, who started as a proofreader and ended as a friend, for the professional work and the ability to keep calm. Cyprus troupe Chara, Soteris, Guido, Zehra. Irreplaceable field buddies. The Polish Bikers Crew and Szarlotka. Kala Kathoumena and all the many people in both sides who contributed to my knowledge of the Cyprus problem and to my pleasurable staying in Nicosia. Italian troupe Anita and Daniela, since “sharing is caring” (even the acknowledgments). Michela, Gianluca, Valentina e Arianna, with whom I shared this path (and it wouldn’t have been the same without). Pietro, Simone, Susanna, and the other colleagues from “the 205”, for their patience and their encouragement. My family, thank you again and again: I hope this will pay back your help. Gaia and Gabriele for the laughs. Alessia, Gaia, Sandy, Titta, Ulisse, for the lovely breaks and because they are very special friends. Nicola, since surprises help to “laugh the life”. Fever Ray for the soundtrack. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword: The Green Line Sea 6 1. INTRODUCTION 7 Cities and segregation 8 In search of a paradigm 11 The case study 13 Research questions and methodology 17 Fieldwork and research techniques 24 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 31 2.1. Space in the urban sociological theory 32 2.1.1. The spatial analysis of Georg Simmel 35 2.1.2. Socio-materiality 39 2.2. Divided Cities 43 2.2.1. Classifications and models 45 2.3. Boundaries: linking the spatial and the social 54 LIVING IN A DIVIDED CITY: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 58 3. URBAN DEVELOPMENT 63 3.1. The Greek side 74 3.2. The Turkish side 79 3.3. The buffer zone 83 4. ADMINISTRATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS 89 4.1. The issue of double municipality 93 4.2. Infrastructures 97 4.2.1. The Nicosia Master Plan 99 4.3. Communication 107 5. ECONOMY AND TRADE 112 5.1. The Economic situation in South/North Nicosia 114 5.2. The Green Line Trade Regulation and the opening of the crossing points 119 5.3. The Ledra/Lokmaci checkpoint 125 6. INTERACTIONS 129 6.1. Drawing boundaries 134 6.2. The Crossing experience 137 6.2.1. Contact reactions 143 POWER AND POLITICS ON SPACE: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 153 7. IDENTITIES AND HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 157 7.1. Cohabitation in diversity and the rise of nationalisms 158 7.2. From Greekness to Cypriotness 163 7.3. “I’m a Cypriot, I’m a Turk, and I’m unlucky” 167 8. VISUAL ANALYSIS OF THE PARTITIONED LANDSCAPE 171 8.1. The borderscape 171 8.2. The landscape of conflict 178 8.3. Institutional landscape 184 8.4. Cultural landscape 189 8.4.1. Maps and names 190 8.4.2. Monuments and landmarks 193 8.4.3. Commercial symbols 198 CONCLUSIONS 201 APPENDIX 210 BIBLIOGRAPHY 217 Foreword: the Green Line Sea The title of this dissertation comes from a conversation I had at the beginning of my field research with a young Greek Cypriot who lives in Nicosia. I was having a coffee at a cafeteria in the old city, not far from the border, and started talking with the waiter and explaining the reason why I was there. I asked him for some information on the division line and the crossing, and he started telling me about his actual job – as music producer – explaining to me that his first production was called Green Line Sea because this was the way he and his friends, all of them born after the 1974 division, called the border. “Green Line” is one of the names given to the line of partition, as we will see afterwards, and the idea of a Green Line Sea identifies the artificial border with a natural one. Cyprus's borders consist of water, except for the division that splits the island into two different political entities. Therefore the Green Line Sea is the other side or, more precisely, the denial of the other side. The presence of a border that impeded people even to see half of the island for thirty years can lead to the negation of the existence of the other. A wall is a slab of concrete and therefore makes for the complete “othering” of the people on the other side. They become invisible, which makes it easier for people on each side to construct their own separate identities, and the identities of the “other,” free from real world views and interactions. […] The more invisible the other, the less real he/she is, and the greater is the perceived difference and feeling of threat (Newman 2005: 330). When I arrived in Nicosia the only things I knew about the situation were those I had read and studied in books, and this introduction to the local perception of the division struck me. Through the passing of time I realised that many different visions, opinions, feelings and representations of the division coexist, and that not all of them are related to the denial of the other. However, to date I have found this first metaphor especially suggestive and evocative, because it carries the idea of a past of total division and denial, but also the possibilities added by the recent changes – the opening and the attempts towards a reconciliation – which necessarily take place through the re-discovery of the other. Therefore, following the metaphor, through venturing into the sea. 6 1. INTRODUCTION The aim of this research is to understand the spatial and social configuration of divided cities, and the relation existing between these two aspects. The understanding of this interconnection is crucial if we are to shed light on issues concerning the construction of identity linked to territorial belonging in the specific case of contested territories. It is intended to analyse space as both a carrier and a receiver of meanings tied to conflict that characterises a given context. The main assumption is that in cities in which a division, whether materialised as a wall or not, marks the existence of a present conflict or the memory of a past one, people experience a definition of feeling of belonging and a construction of otherness in territorial terms. This research describes the consequences of a partition on the city in terms of functions and everyday life. The object of this analysis is to understand if divided cities lose something as a result of the partition and how the previously existing system transforms and adjusts to the new conditions. The topic of this dissertation is part of an interdisciplinary debate which includes sociologists, political and human geographers and international relations scholars, since it entails a range of different issues. «Theories from multiple disciplines are utilised because no single perspective is likely to capture fully the complex social and ecological aspects of urban ethnic conflict» (Bollens 2000: 11). Urban sociology is fundamental to placing divided cities in the larger scenario of contemporary cities and to understand their peculiarities and possible functional problems. Moreover, classic sociological theories concerning the urban system and development help us in the comprehension of partitioned cities phenomena. The latter could be easily dismissed as territorial manifestations of political issues or, even worse, considered mistakes in the urban evolution of a given location. Useful theorisations come from the field of human and political geography, especially concerning the relation existing between individual and collective identity 7 and boundaries (Newman 1999; Newman & Paasi 1998). Moreover, the geopolitical concept of human territoriality allows us to start elaborating the idea of a relational process determining the production of territory, which is the result of the social appropriation of space (Raffestin 1981; 1984). In turn, political analysis of urban partitions underlines the role of cities in ethno- national conflicts and try to systematise the case study researches according to diverse classifications of divided, contested and partitioned cities (Bollens 2000; 2007; Calame & Charlesworth 2009; Kliot & Mansfield 1999).
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