Rethinking the Collective Memory of the Turkish Cypriots

The collective memory of the Turkish Cypriots related to the inter-communal violence years between two major ethnic communities of the island is investigated through this research. This is an exploratory study of the Turkish Cypriot’s experiences of the inter-communal violence years between 1963 and 1974 related to the memory, history and place in Gazimağusa (Famagusta) and Lefkoşa (Nicosia) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, TRNC for two months in 2012; in addition, this research is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork that the data gathered through formal and informal interviews and participant observation in the older generation who have experienced the inter-communal fight years in the island. Furthermore, the younger generation is also crucial in this research to investigate the prosthetic memory in the Turkish Cypriot community. Thus, this research was composed to illustrate the Turkish Cypriot community is full of Milieux de Mémoire and Lieux de Mémoire in the shadow of prosthetic memory.