Going Back to Pre-conflict Identities: The Cypriot Diaspora in the United Kingdom

This study examines the creation of the Cypriot diaspora in the United Kingdom and how British Cypriots have embraced a pre-conflict Cypriot identity. Thousands of Turkish and Greek Cypriots were displaced as a result of ethnic conflicts in Cyprus during the 1960s as well as in 1974. This study, modelled as an interdisciplinary investigation, examines how scholars have viewed the Cypriot diaspora over time and consequently have created a history of this diasporic population’s shift in identity through memory preservation, collective community-building and ideas of home and belonging. Analysing previous research on the Cypriot diaspora and the data retrieved from semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study argues that the Cypriot diaspora in the UK has created a new home and sense of belonging similar to that during the pre-British protectorate period of Cyprus, and that this displaced population’s view of ‘Cypriot-ness’ has affected their ideas of home and belonging.