Towards a Radical Politics Grassroots Urban Activism in the Walled City of Nicosia
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
This article presents the emergence and development of grassroots and self-organised activism in Nicosia. Following the thread of crucial actions, including the Occupy Buffer Zone (OBZ) movement, within the UN controlled area of the old town of Nicosia, we elaborate on a transforming political subjectivity, exploring its timeline, composition, demands, practices and potentials. Through everyday practice and direct socio-political and cultural action, activists contest the dominant narratives and the institutionalised ‘bi-communal’ co-operation towards a ‘communal’ identity and a new radical politics. They manage to produce common space of demand in the old town, while localising the global call for action inspired by the recent global uprisings. Finally, we examine the rise of burgeoning new dynamics in times of capitalist crisis and the new tasks ahead.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Keywords
Buffer Zone, Occupy movement, grassroots activism, political subjectivity, walled city of Nicosia, community
References
Agamben, G. (2005) State of Exception. Translated by K. Attell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Astrinaki, R. (2009) ‘(Un)hooding a Rebellion: The December 2008 Events in Athens’, Social Text 101, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Winter), pp. 97–107.
Augé, M (1995) Non-Places. An Introduction to Supermodernity. London/New York: Verso.
Badiou, A. (2012) The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings. London/NY: Verso.
Badiou, A. (2013) ‘Alain Badiou on the Uprising in Turkey and Beyond’. 19 June 2013. Available at: [http://cengizerdem.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/alain-badiou-on-the-uprising-in-turkey-and -beyond/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Benjamin, W. (1969) ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, in Arendt, H. (ed.), Illuminations. Translated by H. Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 253–264.
Bhabha, H.K. (1994) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Blake, C.E. (1981) ‘Graffiti and Racial Insults: The Archaeology of Ethnic Relations to Hawaii’, in Gould, R.A. and Schiffer, M.B. (eds), Modern Material Culture: The Archaeology of U.S. New York: New York Academic Press, pp. 114–116.
Constantinou, C.M. (2008) ‘On the Cypriot States of Exception’, International Political Sociology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (June), pp. 145–164.
Demetriou, O. (2013) ‘A Cultural Reading of the Cyprus Crisis’, Open Democracy, 15 April 2013. Available at: [http://www.opendemocracy.net/olga-demetriou/cultural-reading-of-cyprus-crisis], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Douglas, M. (2002 [1966]) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Abingdon: Routledge Classics.
Douzinas, C. (2010) ‘The Greek Tragedy’, Critical Legal Thinking: Law & The Political, 17 November 2010. Available at: [http://criticallegalthinking.com/2010/11/17/the-greek-tragedy/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Ellin, N. (ed.) (1997) Architecture of Fear. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.
Foucault, M. (1975) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
Glück, Z. (2012) ‘Between Wall Street and Zuccotti: Occupy and the Scale of Politics’, in Juris, J. and Razsa, M. (eds), Occupy, Anthropology, and the 2011 Global Uprisings. Fieldsights – Hot Spots, Cultural Anthropology [Online], 27 July 2012. Available at: [http://www.culanth.org/field sights/63-occupyanthropology-and-the-2011-global-uprisings], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Graeber, D. (2009) Direct Action: An Ethnography. Oakland: AK Press.
Hadjiyanni, T. (2002) The Making of a Refugee: Children Adopting Refugee Identity in Cyprus. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2011) ‘The Fight for “Real Democracy” at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street’, published in Foreign Affairs, 11 October 2011. Available at: [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/98542], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Harvey, D. (2008) ‘The Right to the City’, New Left Review, Vol. 53, pp. 23–40.
Harvey, D. (2012) Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London/New York: Verso.
Ilican, M.E. (2013) ‘The Occupy Buffer Zone Movement: Radicalism and Sovereignty in Cyprus’, The Cyprus Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 55–78.
Iliopoulou, E. and Karathanasis, P. (2012) ‘From a Buffer Zone to a Common Space: The Right to the City in the Landscape of Conflict’. Paper presented at The Right to the City: The Right to the State: Social Justice in War and Peace. International Conference: Home for Co-operation, Nicosia Buffer Zone, 21-22 September 2012.
Karathanasis, P. (2010) ‘Επίσημη Μνήμη και Γραφφιτι: Οι νοηματοδοτήσεις της πράσινης γραμμής της Κύπρου ως πεδίο διαπραγμάτευσης της συλλογικής μνήμης’ [Official Memory and Graffiti: The Meanings of the Green Line of Cyprus as Field for Negotiation of Collective Memory], Ουτοπία Τεύχος 89: Μνήμη, Θεωρία & Τέχνη (Μάρτιος–Απρίλιος), σς. 121–143 [Utopia, Vol. 89: Memory, Theory & Art (March–April), pp. 121–143].
Lefebvre, H. (1996 [1968]) Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.
Marcuse, P. (2012) Blog #15 – ‘The Right to the City and Occupy: History and Evolution’. Available at: [http://pmarcuse.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/blog-15-the-right-to-the-city-and-occupy-history-andevolution/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Papadakis, Y. (2006) ‘Nicosia after 1960: A River, a Bridge and a Dead Zone’, Global Media Journal, Mediterranean Edition, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1–16.
Purcell, M. (2002) ‘Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant’, GeoJournal, Vol. 58, pp. 99–108.
Sitrin, M. (2012) ‘Horizontalism and the Occupy Movements’, Dissent: A Quarterly of Politics and Culture (Spring). Available at: [http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/horizontalism-and-the-occupy-movements], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Stavrides, S. (2010) ‘The December 2008 Youth Uprising in Athens: Spatial Justice in an Emergent “City of Thresholds”’[La revolte de la jeunesse athenienne de decembre 2008: la justice spatiale dans une “ville des carrefours” emergente’, traduction: Frederic Dufaux], Spatial Justice [justice spatiale] No. 02 (October [octobre]). Available at: [http://www.professionaldreamers.net/_prowp/wpcontent/uploads/978-88-904295-3-8.pdf], accessed on 2 April 2014.
Stavrides, S. (2011) ‘Στις Πλατείες: Επινοώντας ξανά το κοινό, Ανιχνέυοντας ξανά δρόμους προς τη συλλογική χειραφέτηση’ [On the Squares: Inventing again the Common, Searching again for Roads towards Collective Emancipation], in Από τους δρόμους στις πλατείες: Δημοκρατία Under Construction [From the Streets to the Squares: Democracy Under Construction]. Athens: ∞-Synecheia Press, pp.169–183.
Trimikliniotis, N. (2010) The Nation-State Dialectic and the State of Exception. Athens: Savalas (in Greek).
Tsichli, M. (2013) ‘The Cypriot Crisis and Exit from the Eurozone’, 20 April 2013. Available at: [http://www.antapocrisis.gr/index.php/articles/item/824-tsixli], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Turner, V. (1974) Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Van Gennep, A. (1960) The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Vradis, A. and Dalakoglou, D. (ed.) (2011) Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come. Οakland/Baltimore/Edinburgh/London/Athens: AK Press & Occupied London.
Zanou, K. (2012) ‘Κάτι Γίνεται στη Λευκωσία’. They “Occupy the Buffer Zone”! [Something is Happening in Nicosia. They “Occupy the Buffer Zone”!], MONO Magazine, No. 4 (March). Available (in Greek) at: [http://bit.ly/1pzTLNa], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Zibechi, R. (2010) Αυτονομίες και Χειραφετήσεις: Η Λατινική Αμερική σε κίνηση [Autonomies and Emancipations: Latin America On the Move]. Translated from Spanish. Athens: Alana Publications.
Astrinaki, R. (2009) ‘(Un)hooding a Rebellion: The December 2008 Events in Athens’, Social Text 101, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Winter), pp. 97–107.
Augé, M (1995) Non-Places. An Introduction to Supermodernity. London/New York: Verso.
Badiou, A. (2012) The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings. London/NY: Verso.
Badiou, A. (2013) ‘Alain Badiou on the Uprising in Turkey and Beyond’. 19 June 2013. Available at: [http://cengizerdem.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/alain-badiou-on-the-uprising-in-turkey-and -beyond/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Benjamin, W. (1969) ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, in Arendt, H. (ed.), Illuminations. Translated by H. Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 253–264.
Bhabha, H.K. (1994) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Blake, C.E. (1981) ‘Graffiti and Racial Insults: The Archaeology of Ethnic Relations to Hawaii’, in Gould, R.A. and Schiffer, M.B. (eds), Modern Material Culture: The Archaeology of U.S. New York: New York Academic Press, pp. 114–116.
Constantinou, C.M. (2008) ‘On the Cypriot States of Exception’, International Political Sociology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (June), pp. 145–164.
Demetriou, O. (2013) ‘A Cultural Reading of the Cyprus Crisis’, Open Democracy, 15 April 2013. Available at: [http://www.opendemocracy.net/olga-demetriou/cultural-reading-of-cyprus-crisis], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Douglas, M. (2002 [1966]) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Abingdon: Routledge Classics.
Douzinas, C. (2010) ‘The Greek Tragedy’, Critical Legal Thinking: Law & The Political, 17 November 2010. Available at: [http://criticallegalthinking.com/2010/11/17/the-greek-tragedy/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Ellin, N. (ed.) (1997) Architecture of Fear. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.
Foucault, M. (1975) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
Glück, Z. (2012) ‘Between Wall Street and Zuccotti: Occupy and the Scale of Politics’, in Juris, J. and Razsa, M. (eds), Occupy, Anthropology, and the 2011 Global Uprisings. Fieldsights – Hot Spots, Cultural Anthropology [Online], 27 July 2012. Available at: [http://www.culanth.org/field sights/63-occupyanthropology-and-the-2011-global-uprisings], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Graeber, D. (2009) Direct Action: An Ethnography. Oakland: AK Press.
Hadjiyanni, T. (2002) The Making of a Refugee: Children Adopting Refugee Identity in Cyprus. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2011) ‘The Fight for “Real Democracy” at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street’, published in Foreign Affairs, 11 October 2011. Available at: [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/98542], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Harvey, D. (2008) ‘The Right to the City’, New Left Review, Vol. 53, pp. 23–40.
Harvey, D. (2012) Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London/New York: Verso.
Ilican, M.E. (2013) ‘The Occupy Buffer Zone Movement: Radicalism and Sovereignty in Cyprus’, The Cyprus Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 55–78.
Iliopoulou, E. and Karathanasis, P. (2012) ‘From a Buffer Zone to a Common Space: The Right to the City in the Landscape of Conflict’. Paper presented at The Right to the City: The Right to the State: Social Justice in War and Peace. International Conference: Home for Co-operation, Nicosia Buffer Zone, 21-22 September 2012.
Karathanasis, P. (2010) ‘Επίσημη Μνήμη και Γραφφιτι: Οι νοηματοδοτήσεις της πράσινης γραμμής της Κύπρου ως πεδίο διαπραγμάτευσης της συλλογικής μνήμης’ [Official Memory and Graffiti: The Meanings of the Green Line of Cyprus as Field for Negotiation of Collective Memory], Ουτοπία Τεύχος 89: Μνήμη, Θεωρία & Τέχνη (Μάρτιος–Απρίλιος), σς. 121–143 [Utopia, Vol. 89: Memory, Theory & Art (March–April), pp. 121–143].
Lefebvre, H. (1996 [1968]) Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.
Marcuse, P. (2012) Blog #15 – ‘The Right to the City and Occupy: History and Evolution’. Available at: [http://pmarcuse.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/blog-15-the-right-to-the-city-and-occupy-history-andevolution/], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Papadakis, Y. (2006) ‘Nicosia after 1960: A River, a Bridge and a Dead Zone’, Global Media Journal, Mediterranean Edition, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1–16.
Purcell, M. (2002) ‘Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant’, GeoJournal, Vol. 58, pp. 99–108.
Sitrin, M. (2012) ‘Horizontalism and the Occupy Movements’, Dissent: A Quarterly of Politics and Culture (Spring). Available at: [http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/horizontalism-and-the-occupy-movements], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Stavrides, S. (2010) ‘The December 2008 Youth Uprising in Athens: Spatial Justice in an Emergent “City of Thresholds”’[La revolte de la jeunesse athenienne de decembre 2008: la justice spatiale dans une “ville des carrefours” emergente’, traduction: Frederic Dufaux], Spatial Justice [justice spatiale] No. 02 (October [octobre]). Available at: [http://www.professionaldreamers.net/_prowp/wpcontent/uploads/978-88-904295-3-8.pdf], accessed on 2 April 2014.
Stavrides, S. (2011) ‘Στις Πλατείες: Επινοώντας ξανά το κοινό, Ανιχνέυοντας ξανά δρόμους προς τη συλλογική χειραφέτηση’ [On the Squares: Inventing again the Common, Searching again for Roads towards Collective Emancipation], in Από τους δρόμους στις πλατείες: Δημοκρατία Under Construction [From the Streets to the Squares: Democracy Under Construction]. Athens: ∞-Synecheia Press, pp.169–183.
Trimikliniotis, N. (2010) The Nation-State Dialectic and the State of Exception. Athens: Savalas (in Greek).
Tsichli, M. (2013) ‘The Cypriot Crisis and Exit from the Eurozone’, 20 April 2013. Available at: [http://www.antapocrisis.gr/index.php/articles/item/824-tsixli], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Turner, V. (1974) Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Van Gennep, A. (1960) The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Vradis, A. and Dalakoglou, D. (ed.) (2011) Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come. Οakland/Baltimore/Edinburgh/London/Athens: AK Press & Occupied London.
Zanou, K. (2012) ‘Κάτι Γίνεται στη Λευκωσία’. They “Occupy the Buffer Zone”! [Something is Happening in Nicosia. They “Occupy the Buffer Zone”!], MONO Magazine, No. 4 (March). Available (in Greek) at: [http://bit.ly/1pzTLNa], accessed on 31 March 2014.
Zibechi, R. (2010) Αυτονομίες και Χειραφετήσεις: Η Λατινική Αμερική σε κίνηση [Autonomies and Emancipations: Latin America On the Move]. Translated from Spanish. Athens: Alana Publications.
Section
Articles
Copyright: © University of Nicosia, Cyprus
All rights reserved.
No restrictions on photo-copying.
Quotations from The Cyprus Review are welcome, but acknowledgement of the source must be given.
How to Cite
“Towards a Radical Politics: Grassroots Urban Activism in the Walled City of Nicosia”. 2017. Cyprus Review 26 (1): 169-92. https://cyprusreview.org/index.php/cr/article/view/82.