‘The Pawns That They Moved Here and There’? Microacts, Room for Manoeuvre, and Everyday Agency in the 1974 Cyprus Conflict

Abstract

Oral testimonies from Greek Cypriots who lived through the Greek dictatorship’s 1974 coup d’état on Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion frequently present the narrators as mere pawns in a macro-scale historical drama, having little to no control over or understanding of the broader events unfolding around them. On one level, this rings true, as individual soldiers and civilians were rarely if ever able to dictate or perceive the broader trajectories of the conflict in which they found themselves. Yet this perspective belies the subtler reality that even in chaotic conditions and under deeply restricted circumstances people exercise agency and create spaces, however small, in which to operate as autonomous agents and to shape their own personal trajectories. Whilst they could not leave the chessboard, these ‘pawns’ actively moved themselves here and there, performing microacts that locally refracted official diktats and ideologies in mutable ways. Moreover, in the construction of their testimonies they assert further agency, assembling these microacts into meaningful narratives by placing them within broader historical frameworks.

Young People’s Construction of Identity in the Context of Southern Europe: Finding Leads for Citizenship Education

“…There is clear opposition to dictatorship, especially when young people mention states which they do not consider to be ruled in a democratic way. Southern European countries have an intensive history of dictatorships [26,27], and this might have an influence on the narrative these young people organize about what their contexts are and what they would like them to be politically. This is an important finding in a time when the political interest of young people is suggested to be decreasing [28].…”

“…It is the only country where respect for other cultures emerged among the three most-referenced values by different participants. Knowing the conflicting sociopolitical nature of this state [22,27], it seems only natural that young people's examples orbited around the meaning of their nation's divided nature. Again, from a positive perspective, much of the expression was in favor of a sense of community and unity but not without criticism of a European Union that is seen as incapable of promoting such values beyond discourse-and, therefore, perhaps institutionally responsible for a sense of detached identity.…”