Sustaining Legitimacy of Unrecognized Statehood: How Turkish Cypriot Elites Cope with Internal and External Challenges

ABSTRACT This article scrutinizes Turkish Cypriot elites’ legitimation strategies of sustaining internal legitimacy in the absence of international recognition and coping with challenges rising from the international context, parent state’s pressure and patron state’s meddling. The article links the sustainability of North Cyprus’ unrecognized statehood to two major factors. Firstly, parent’s counter-recognition policies and despair of repeatedly failing negotiations result in a backlash among Turkish Cypriots, forging internal unity. Secondly, the degree of political pluralism allows peaceful transfer of power amongst various elite groups, resulting in use of diverse and often conflicting legitimation strategies to better cope with legitimacy challenges.