Nostalgia for the British Era: Poststructuralist Critique of the Modernist Discourse of ‘Civilization’ in the Turkish Cypriot Media İbrahim Beyazoğlu Submitted to the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Media Studies Eastern Mediterranean University November 2016 Gazimağusa, North Cyprus 1 Approval of the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Prof. Dr. Mustafa Tümer Director I certify that this thesis satisfies the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Media Studies Assoc. Prof. Dr. Agah Gümüş Dean, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies We certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Media Studies. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuğrul İlter Supervisor Examining Committee 1. Prof. Dr. Nur Betül Çelik 2. Prof. Dr. Barış Bora Kılıçbay 3. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hanife Aliefendioğlu 4. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuğrul İlter 5. Asst. Prof. Dr. Pembe Behçetoğulları 2 ABSTRACT This study opens up a vista onto the notion popular among a growing number of Turkish Cypriots that the British colonial period brought modernist enlightenment to Turkish Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots were subject to heavy Turkish immigration from 1974 onwards as well as Turkish authorities mandating Turkish nationalism over the native politics and value system. In response, Turkish Cypriots have harkened back nostalgically to the British inheritance in their search for the universal standards of a “metahistoric” civilization. In doing so, Turkish Cypriots constructed a nostalgic nationalist movement called Cypriotism, an “identity of difference” that stands in binary opposition to the so-called “backward” immigrants to the island from Turkey, and to Turkish nationalism. Using postcolonial theory, this study critically analyses the media constructions of nostalgic nationalism in local Turkish-Cypriot media in the light of historic landmarks and milestones. Keywords: Nostalgia, Colonialism, Post-colonialism, Nostalgia, Nostalgic Media Constructions, Modernist Thought, White Mythology, the Turkish Cypriots, Textuality. iii ÖZ Bu çalışma, giderek artan sayıda Kıbrıslı Türk arasında popülerlik kazanan İngiliz sömürge döneminin Kıbrıslı Türklere aydınlanma getirdiğini varsayan modernist metinsel dokuma üzerine kavramsal ve analitik bir pencere açar. 1974 sonrası deneyimlenen Türkiyeli göçmenlerle yaşanan iletişim sıkıntıları ve adanın yerlileri ve değer sistemleri ile etkileşime geçen “buyurgan” Türk milliyetçiliği söylemleri, bu durumdan rahatsız birçok Kıbrıslı Türk’ün “tarihötesi” olduğu düşünülen İngiliz sömürge uygarlığı ve mirasının evrensel standartlarına nostaljik bir “geri dönüş” yapmasına yol açtı. Bu minvalde, geniş bir politik ve kültürel yelpazeye yayılan Kıbrıslı Türk Kıbrıslılık adlı nostaljik milliyetçi bir yapıyı, “bir ayırıcı hüviyeti” inşa edip söz konusu kimliği Türkiye’den gelip adaya yerleşen göçmenlere ve Türk milliyetçi söylemine karşı ikili zıtlık zemininde konuşlandırdı. Postkolonyal teoriyi kullanan bu tez sömürge-sonrası Kıbrıs Türk medyasının nostaljik milliyetçilik kurgularını, tarihi dönüm noktalarını ve kilometre taşlarını da gözden kaçırmadan, eleştirel bir incelemeye tabi tutar. Anahtar Kelimeler: Nostalji, Sömürge, Sömürge-Sonrası, Nostaljik Medya Kurguları, Modernist Düşünce, Beyaz Mitoloji, Kıbrıslı Türkler, Metinsellik. iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Eran the little man and my saintly friend Hakan Karahasan. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis is the result of contributions from many persons. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Tuğrul İlter for his patience, invaluable support and many fruitful conversations and his nuanced sense of humour. The members of my Thesis Monitoring Committee should not go forgotten. I owe sincere thanks to Dr. Pembe Behçetoğulları and Dr. Hanife Aliefendioğlu. I am also indebted to jury members for their helpful comments. I need to thank Dr. Nir Arielli for his supervision during my stay in Leeds. I am grateful to him because his presence improved some chapters of this work for the better. The mid-stages of the thesis were written in Leeds University and backed by Dr. Simone Pelizza and Dr. Catherine Coombs in substantiating historical backgrounds. I kindly thank Prof. Bruce Lincoln from the University of Chicago for his invaluable ideas. As one of my life long intellectual heroes, he has done me the great honour to comment on my work. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Prakash Kona, Dr. John Wall, Dr. Moriel Ram, Dr. Nurten Kara, Dr. Alaric T. Hall, Dr. Bülent Evre, Dr. Mike Hajimichael, Chrysostomos Perikleous, Prof. Elfriede Fürsich, Dr. Fodei Conteh, Craig Brown, Iacovos Psaltis, Chrysostomos Pericleous, Dr. Levent Kavas, Dr. Yücel Vural, Mertkan Hamit, and Regev Nathahnson for their reassurances. vi I also specially thank Hakan Karahasan for his ideas, empathy, and comfort in my most critical times. I cannot name a better fellow than him. I ought to appreciate Kamiar Yazdani. Without his Herculean labor, the formatting task would not have been easy. Very special thanks must go to Koray Salih, Ahmet Serdar Gökaşan, Emre Karahasan, Mustafa Şafakoğulları, Dr. Taçgey Debeş, Semih Ekşi, Ali Baturay, Çağıl Günalp, Aral Moral, Dr. Altuğ Işığan, Mete Hatay, Ulaş Barış, Gülen Uygarer, Ceren Özçaka, Gloria Jean’s Coffees Famagusta staff , Deniz Plaza staff for their encouragement, friendship and support. Certain sections of this thesis were supported by the ELARG-scholarships 2013 in Nicosia. I am grateful to the staff at British National Archive and Atatürk Kültür Merkezi. Finally, I appreciate my family. vii TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT................................................................................................................iii ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................viii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................xii 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 2 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH .................................................................. 20 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Text, Textuality and Textual Analysis ............................................................. 28 3 A COLONIAL TRIPARTITE: LOGOCENTRISM, POSITIVISM AND MODERNIST THINKING........................................................................................ 43 3.1 Introduction: The Anatomy of Logocentric Reason ........................................ 43 3.2 Fear of the Non-Self and the State of Flux....................................................... 51 3.3 Interpellating “The Third World” .................................................................... 55 3.4 History or His/story as a Gendered Discourse of Progress .............................. 56 3.5 Positivism as Metanarrative ............................................................................. 59 3.6 The Modern Odyssey ....................................................................................... 63 3.7 Colonial Bandwagon: Modern Science and Anthropology.............................. 68 viii 3.8 Colonial Worlding............................................................................................ 71 3.9 Positivism as Epistemic Violence: The Self-Other Relationship as the Context to Orientalism......................................................................................................... 74 3.10 Self and Subaltern in the Colonial and Postcolonial Situation....................... 76 3.11 Terra Incognita or "Here be Dragons" ........................................................... 80 3.12 The Politics and Strategies in the Construction of Identity in Colonial Discourse................................................................................................................ 89 3.13 The Critique of Logocentricity in Modernist Reason .................................... 92 3.13.1 Supplement .............................................................................................. 96 3. 13. 2 Différérance ......................................................................................... 100 3.13.3 The Difference Within........................................................................... 104 4 COLONIALISM, NATIONALISM AND CYPRUS ........................................... 109 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 109 4.2. History of Colonialism and Imperialism....................................................... 114 4.3 Colonial History and the British Empire........................................................ 118 4.4 The Legacy of the British Empire .................................................................. 127 4.5 British Cyprus ...............................................................................................