‘Wall disease’: Unpacking the emotive geographies of post-conflict Nicosia

Abstract

Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided by the ‘Green Line’, separating the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities into the north and south of the island respectively. This paper focuses on the capital city of Nicosia, which is often referred to as ‘Europe’s last divided capital’. Despite the cessation of violence, flags, checkpoints, commemorative sites, watchtowers, and evidence of the conflict continue to permeate the urban fabric of present-day Nicosia. Thus, whilst Cyprus could be considered as being ‘post-violence’ politically, the conflict arguably continues to manifest itself throughout the urban environment. A significant body of research has explored the Cyprus conflict; however, rather less attention has been paid to the emotional impacts of living in a divided city. Therefore, this paper makes three original contributions. The first is to apply Tuan’s (1979) theory of landscapes of fear to a reading of Nicosia. The second is to advance our knowledge on the emotional geographies of Nicosia, focusing on how emotions and experiences are shaped and spatially manifested by this post-conflict landscape. This approach seeks to add depth to the understanding of the complex relationship between place, emotion, and conflict. The final contribution of this article is to highlight the role that qualitative research can play in moving studies of emotional geographies forward.