This paper investigates identity fluctuations in the 'Turkish-Cypriot' community and argues that identity descriptions do not necessarily overlap with ethno-cultural boundaries. Age and education-related identity fluctuations emerge as responses to variations in the socialization process. Although the notion of 'Turkish Cypriots' implies a unitary entity, a marked cleavage mainly between two identity categories is apparent. Self-descriptions based on civic conceptualizations of identity compete with ethno-national identity and transcend community boundaries. Therefore, despite an official 'ethno-national' identity being imposed, 'Cypriotness' suggests a model comprising individuals from various ethnonational backgrounds. Data come from a probabilistic sample of 415 Turkish Cypriots who ranked components of collective identity (Cypriot, Turkish, Moslem, and European) from the 'most important' to the 'least important'.

Since coming to power in the 'TRNC' in late 2003, the CTP government has initiated novel attempts at the official level towards redefining collective identity and the boundaries of the nation. Revisions to school history textbooks manifest the inclination to stress the importance of the territorial rather than the ethnic dimension of identity. This paper compares the old and new mechanisms of cultural indoctrination through history teaching and concludes that the strategy of the CTP-led government to redefine nation and identity is consistent with the notion of a united federal Cyprus in the sense that it incorporates the territorial element into the collective identity, demilitarizes history teaching and reduces 'self-other' confrontation.

Historically, conflict between the two communities in Cyprus has been characterised by the diverging demands of ethno-nationalists. The introduction of the Annan Plan for the solution of the Cyprus problem has fostered new trends in Cypriot politics and a new alignment of the political forces on the island. This paper argues that the conventional ethno-nationalist division and the left-right divide are no longer sufficient in understanding the conflict in Cyprus. The new dividing and unifying elements in Cypriot politics can be best understood through analysing the views of political actors on such issues as sovereignty, territoriality, identity and power-sharing.

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Despite continual territorial division in Cyprus both the EU and CTP-led Turkish-Cypriot governments tried to normalize intercommunal relations. To this end, the CTP government revised radically Cypriot history textbooks. Although this revision received diverse political reactions, the pupils' perceptions of intercommunal relations through history teaching have not been examined so far. This article examines the results of revisions and argues that perceptions of intercommunal relations are significantly correlated with teachers' politico-ideological orientations. It also argues that pupils from native families are more likely to accept novel ideas of the new textbooks than the pupils from immigrant families. The existing process of political socialization of pupils restricts further conciliatory attitudes in intercommunal relations. The responses of Cypriot history teachers in secondary schools and a selected sample of their students to a questionnaire constitute the data.