Abstract

North Cyprus, which has experienced perennial conflict since 1963, has recently been witness to heated debates revolving around the role of Islam in making and re-configuring Turkish Cypriots’ social and political landscape. The reason behind such debates derives from the historical narrative established on a Kemalist-secular understanding of religion among the Turkish Cypriot community vis-à-vis the conservative-Islamist narrative. This article is an attempt to analyse and explore the role of religion in the Turkish Cypriot community and how these two established narratives have, in recent times, come under discussion with the ascendancy of the Justice and Development Party in neighbouring Turkey. Within this context, this article will explore the roots and reflections of these two key narratives on politics and society in North Cyprus, and will argue that the recent public debates among the secular and Islamist Turkish Cypriot elites are not very new, only external dynamics have become more influential nowadays. As a corollary, we will also scrutinise the role of religion through semi-structured interviews conducted with key political elites, opinion leaders and Turkish migrants’ associations in North Cyprus.

摘要

北塞浦路斯自 1963 年以来经历了长期冲突，最近见证了围绕伊斯兰教在制造和重新配置土族塞人中的作用展开的激烈辩论’ 社会和政治格局。此类辩论背后的原因源于建立在土族塞人社区对宗教的凯末尔世俗理解的历史叙述，相对于保守的伊斯兰叙述。本文试图分析和探讨宗教在土族塞人社区中的作用，以及这两种既定叙事如何在近来与邻国土耳其的正义与发展党的优势受到讨论。在这种背景下，本文将探讨这两种关于北塞浦路斯政治和社会的关键叙述的根源和反思，并认为最近世俗和伊斯兰土族塞人精英之间的公开辩论并不是很新鲜，只有外部动力在当今变得更有影响力. 作为推论，我们还将通过对北塞浦路斯的主要政治精英、舆论领袖和土耳其移民协会进行的半结构化访谈来审视宗教的作用。