Publication of Taksim! Divided Cyprus 1964-2005

In Cyprus, independent since 1960, the aggressiveness of nationalist movements imported from Turkey and Greece led to inter-ethnic clashes, the separation of the Greek and Turkish (i.e. Orthodox and Muslim) communities, and finally to an attempted pro-Greek coup d'état followed by Turkish armed intervention, which completed the partition (taksim) of the island in 1974. At the time, around a third of Cypriots suffered one or more forced exoduses, and the island's social fabric was destroyed. From 1995 to 2004, the authors of this book listened to the population, especially on the Turkish side, which had been neglected by research until then. The testimonies gathered, from "people of little means", speak of the unhappiness of the tear as well as the fears and hopes of those trying to rebuild a common memory.
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This study illustrates the damage done by nationalism, based on religion and often artificially inculcated in the minds of populations who lived together, sometimes with difficulty, but without going to war with each other. On its own scale, the Cypriot case is no different from the Yugoslav disaster twenty years later: the danger lies not in the Other, but in nationalism playing with fire.