The Reconstruction of the Public Sphere: The Hegemony of Nationalism

This chapter analyses the pivotal role of nationalism—which was translated into the political demand for union with Greece (enosis)—in the transformation of Cyprus’s political landscape; my examination covers the agents, the nature and the mechanisms through which nationalism spread in Cyprus. As argued in previous chapters, societal change involves more than economic reforms and the rise of new social strata; it involves perceptual changes. Therefore, the battle of ideas is crucial in processes of change. Greek nationalism was the defining ideology and mechanism through which the rupture with the traditional order of things took place at the level of ideas. Nationalism played an important role in the politicisation of Cypriot society and contributed to the development of anti-colonial sentiment and organisation. Ethnicity was politicised via nationalism and gradually replaced (and was mixed with) religion as the defining factor in identity, i.e., Greek/Turkish rather than Christian/Muslim.