History Education in Divided Cyprus: A Comparison of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Schoolbooks on the “History of Cyprus”

C Y P R U S C E N T R E
R
E
P
O
R
T
2/2008
History Education in Divided Cyprus:
A Comparison of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot
Schoolbooks on the “History of Cyprus”
Yiannis Papadakis

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Yiannis Papadakis holds a doctorate in social anthropology and is currently
Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the
University of Cyprus. He is author of Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus
Divide (I. B. Tauris, 2005), co-editor of Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History and an
Island in Conflict (Indiana University Press, 2006), and editor of a 2006 special issue
of Postcolonial Studies on Cyprus. The present report is the result of work carried
out during his employment at the PRIO Cyprus Centre in 2005–06 as Project
Leader on History Education.

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HISTORY EDUCATION
IN DIVIDED CYPRUS:
A Comparison of Greek Cypriot
and Turkish Cypriot Schoolbooks
on the “History of Cyprus”
YIANNIS PAPADAKIS
PRIO Report 2/2008

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IInstitutt for fredforskning
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
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ISBN 978-82-7288-274-6
Cover design: Hilde Sørby, Bardus Design
Photographs:
Yiannis Papadakis

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CONTENTS
CONTENTS ..................……………………………………………………………………….III
FOREWORD...................................................................................................................V
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1
GREEK CYPRIOT AND TURKISH CYPRIOT SCHOOL BOOKS:
REFLECTIONS OF ETHNIC NATIONALISM .................................................................5
GREEK CYPRIOT SCHOOL BOOKS........................................................................................5
TURKISH CYPRIOT SCHOOL BOOKS ...................................................................................12
THE NEW TURKISH CYPRIOT SCHOOL BOOKS: A PARADIGM SHIFT? ...............17
MEMORY, NARRATIVE AND HISTORY ......................................................................27
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................29

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FOREWORD
PRIOʼs mission in Cyprus is to contribute to an informed public debate on key issues
relevant to an eventual settlement of the Cyprus problem. We hope to achieve this by
disseminating information, providing new analysis and facilitating dialogue. The PRIO
Cyprus Centre wishes to stimulate research cooperation and debates between Greek
Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, as well as within each of the two communities, and in the
international society.
PRIO is therefore pleased to present PRIO Report 2/2008, written by Dr. Yiannis
Papadakis, the author of Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide (2005).
Papadakis has studied history text books, both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, and has
engaged with history teachers from the islandʼs two main communities during his research.
His comparisons are eminently interesting from both an academic and a political point of
view. With a solution to the Cyprus problem once more in sight, at least as a distinct
possibility, there are a range of challenges for peaceful coexistence that require attention
and debate. Cultures of education need to be seriously studied, and educational reform may
play a fundamental role in Cyprusʼs approach to globalization, and in the relationship
between the communities on the island. History education today and tomorrow will influence
how the coming generations in Cyprus will understand themselves and their relations to
others for many decades to come.
This is the seventh report from the PRIO Cyprus Centre since it opened in 2005, but the
first to specifically address education and how history is taught in the two parts of Cyprus.
The report builds on our tradition of critical examination and comparison of the situation in
the Cypriot communities.
The draft for this report went through an extensive peer review process to ensure that it
met the highest factual and academic standards. However, as always, the views expressed
in the PRIO Report are the authorʼs own. They do not engage PRIO as an institution.
STEIN TØNNESSON
Director
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
20 July 2008

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INTRODUCTION
Depending on the sociohistorical context, the goals of history education may range
from the inculcation of national identity to the propagation of moral and political
positions, the exploration of otherness, the creation of empathy and presentation of
diverse viewpoints, or historical analysis and the promotion of critical thinking, among
others.1 However, in many societies, especially those divided through ethnonational conflicts,
history is often used to propagate a narrative focusing on the suffering of the nation and to
legitimate its political goals. The suffering of others is silenced, their historical existence is
questioned, and socio-cultural interactions are ignored. This has been how the “History of
Cyprus” has been presented in the history schoolbooks of the two parts of the island. A new
approach to history teaching has been undertaken since 2004 by a newly elected to power
Turkish Cypriot leftist party (CTP), an approach that (it states) aims to develop a culture of
peace while highlighting cultural interactions, internal divisions, and discontinuities. This is
an interesting development for reasons both theoretical and political. How is a history that
includes internal divisions to be written? And especially one that would indicate internal
violence within each side – in contrast to standard approaches presenting monolithic
constructions of Self and Other, where the Other is always the aggressor? What events,
periods, principles and perspectives ignored in earlier approaches are highlighted now? Can
there be a meaningful story from the perspective of more than one protagonist?
The standard nationalist historical narrative posits the nation as a homogeneous
primordial entity, while, significantly, the new Turkish Cypriot approach traces the emergence
of national identity in Cyprus during the 19th and 20th centuries following a social-
constructivist paradigm.2 This historical model has interesting implications for the notions of
memory and trauma, blame and retribution, as well as for allowing for the possibility of
making choices regarding political allegiance in the present. In contrast, the standard model
of history education employed in both parts of Cyprus has been obsessively pursuing what
has been called an “identification stance,” that is, “stories of national origins and historic
An earlier, shorter version of this report was published as: Yiannis Papadakis, “Narrative, Memory and History Education in Divided
Cyprus: A Comparison of History Books on the ʻHistory of Cyprus,ʼ” History and Memory, 20, no. 2, 2008: 128-148.
1
For comprehensive analyses of the methods and aims of history education see: Keith Barton and Linda Levstik, Teaching History for the
Common Good (New Jersey, 2004); Peter Seixas, ed., Theorizing Historical Consciousness (Toronto, 2004); Peter Sterns, Peter Seixas
and Sam Wineburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives (New York, 2000).
2
For a comprehensive discussion of the primordialist and social-constructivist models see Anthony Smith, The Nation in History:
Historiographical Debates about Ethnicity and Nationalism (Hanover, 2000).

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2
History Education in Divided Cyprus
turning points [that] can create a sense of group membership and allegiance and historic
societal achievements [that] can be used to justify contemporary social arrangements or
political actions.”3 This entails the use of the narrative form whereby a single actor, the
nation, is present from beginning to end as the storyʼs protagonist, which students are called
to identify with in all its glory or suffering. History is presented as a grand narrative of
national achievements and struggles, with the national community emerging as the only
possible choice of political allegiance. As will be more fully argued in the conclusion, this
approach collapses the vital (in historical terms) distinction between past and present and
denies the possibility of choosing the political community one can belong to in the present.4
The recent history of Cyprus has been marked by multiple conflicts and foreign
interventions, which provide the socio-political context within which the books under
discussion were produced. A basic outline of the islandʼs recent political history, highly
contested though it is, is necessary as background. A word of caution regarding the
limitations and methodology of this study is equally necessary. Discussing the history of
Cyprus is akin to stepping into a political and academic minefield, given that most works
were written by Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Greek, Turkish or British authors in periods
of intense violence. Most authors, implicitly or explicitly, used history for the legitimation of
their own sideʼs political objectives, and the rejection of othersʼ objectives.5 That I am not a
historian, but a Greek Cypriot social anthropologist, poses additional challenges. In this
report I employ a comparative approach as a critical device of defamiliarisation, and I use a
theoretical discussion to indicate the structural problems and limitations of the historical
narratives presented in history books by focusing on the underlying ideological principles
guiding their representations of history. For analysis of the history books, I have drawn on
UNESCOʼs guidelines for textbook research, which stress the importance of qualitative
analysis to “reveal underlying assumptions.”6 For this reason, this study focuses more on
books that present the whole of history from “beginning to end,” since this enables
3
Barton and Levstik, Teaching History, 45.
4
Barton and Levstik, Teaching History, 49, 62-63.
5
For general critiques of the British and Greek Cypriot approaches to the history of Cyprus see: Michael Given, Symbols, Power and the
Construction of City-Kingdoms of Archaic and Classical Cyprus (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1991); Michael Given, “Star of the
Parthenon, Cypriot Melange: Education and Representation in Colonial Cyprus,” Journal of Mediterranean Studies 7, no. 1 (1997): 59-82;
Yiannis Papadakis, Perceptions of History and Collective Identity: A Study of Contemporary Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Nationalism
(Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1993), 25-51. For general critiques of Greek Cypriot schoolbooks on the history of Cyprus see:
Loris Koullapis, “Ideologikoi Prosanatolismoi tis Ellinokypriakis Ekpaidevsis me Emphasi sto Mathima tis Istorias” [Ideological Orientations
of Greek Cypriot Education with Emphasis on the Lesson of History], Syghrona Themata, nos. 68-69-70 (1998-1999): 276-296; Loris
Koullapis, “The Subject of History in the Greek Cypriot Educational System: A Subset of the Greek Nation,” in Christina Koullouri, ed.,
Clio in the Balkans: The Politics of History Education (Thessaloniki, 2002), 406-422; AKTI, Ekthesi gia ta Vivlia Istorias kai Logotechnias
tis Ektis Dimotikou se Schesi me tin Proothisi tis Vias kai tou Ethnikismou [Report on History and Literature Books of 6th Grade Primary
Schools in Relation to Issues of Violence and Nationalism] (Nicosia, 2004). For general critiques of Turkish Cypriot approaches to history
and of schoolbooks see: Niyazi Kizilyürek, “National Memory and Turkish Cypriot Textbooks,” in Christina Koullouri, ed., Clio in the
Balkans: The Politics of History Education (Thessaloniki, 2002), 431-442; POST, Pilot Application for the History and Literature Books of
the 5th Grade of the Elementary School (Nicosia, 2004); POST, Textual and Visual Analyses of Lower Secondary School History
Textbooks: Comparative Analysis of the Old and the New Textbooks (Nicosia, 2007).
6
Falk Pingel, UNESCO Guidebook on Textbook Research and Textbook Revision (Hannover, 1999), 45.

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Introduction
3
examination of (the whole) narrative, the key analytical tool employed here.7 The key
principles of analysis adopted from the UNESCO handbook involve the examination of:
terms, context and boundaries; the representation of group identity; continuity, legitimacy
and exclusion; and historyʼs characters/protagonists.8
Three centuries of Ottoman rule in Cyprus were succeeded by British colonialism in
1878. The 20th century witnessed the gradual rise, first, of Greek nationalism and, later, of
Turkish nationalism, with Greek Cypriots supporting enosis, the Union of Cyprus with Greece,
and Turkish Cypriots demanding taksim, the partition of Cyprus. From 1955 the Greek
Cypriot struggle was led by an armed organization called EOKA [National Organisation of
Cypriot Fighters], and in 1958 Turkish Cypriots set up their own armed group called TMT
[Turkish Resistance Organization]. In 1960, Cyprus became an independent state, the
Republic of Cyprus, with a population of 80% Greek Cypriots and 18% Turkish Cypriots, an
outcome that frustrated both communitiesʼ political goals. Both ethnic groups continued to
pursue their separate objectives and in 1963 inter-ethnic fighting broke out in Cyprus. This
continued intermittently until 1967, with Turkish Cypriots bearing the heavier cost in terms
of casualties and around a fifth of their population being displaced. With the rise to power in
Greece of a military junta, the Greek Cypriot leadership gradually edged away from Union
with Greece and sought instead to preserve the independence of Cyprus from attempts by
Athens to dictate politics, and to solve the inter-communal dispute. While armed
confrontations between Turkish and Greek Cypriots ceased after 1967, a new conflict
developed – this time among Greek Cypriots. With the support of the Greek junta, a small
group of right-wing extremists calling itself EOKA B staged a coup in 1974 against the
islandʼs President, Archbishop Makarios, in order to bring about Union. This led to a military
offensive by Turkey dividing the island, followed by population displacements of most Greek
Cypriots to the south and Turkish Cypriots northwards. Greek Cypriots suffered the most in
terms of people killed, missing and all other social traumas of war and dislocation, with
around one-third of a total of 600,000 Greek Cypriots displaced to the southern side. Around
45,000 Turkish Cypriots were also displaced to the northern side. In 1983, the Turkish
Cypriot authorities unilaterally declared the establishment of their own state in northern
Cyprus, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which has since remained
internationally unrecognized except by Turkey. For much of the 20th century another conflict
persisted, this time within each ethnic group between forces of the Right and the Left, each
with its own record of violence against the Left.
7
All major Turkish Cypriot schoolbooks on the history of Cyprus in use until 2006 when this study ends are discussed here. The main
Greek Cypriot schoolbooks discussed are the primary level schoolbooks for 5th and 6th grade aimed at eleven- and twelve-year-old
students and the secondary level book for high school (Gymnasium). This book is a summary of all the other secondary level schoolbooks
that cover specific periods: Koullapis, “Ideologikoi Prosanatolismoi,” 281.
8
Pingel, UNESCO Guidebook, 24, 26, 27, 47.

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Chapter 1
GREEK CYPRIOT AND
TURKISH CYPRIOT SCHOOLBOOKS:
REFLECTIONS OF ETHNIC NATIONALISM
Despite their different political goals, the two nationalisms that emerged in Cyprus
shared the same form, namely, an ethnic nationalism9 stressing common history,
descent, language, culture and religion with the people of the “motherlands” Turkey
and Greece. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were only taught the history of Greece
and the history of Turkey respectively, while the history of Cyprus was only relatively
recently introduced and with considerably less time allotted.10 On the Greek Cypriot side,
the history of Cyprus has been presented as an extension of the history of Greece, and on
the Turkish Cypriot side as an extension of the history of Turkey.11
Greek Cypriot Schoolbooks
The general framework and basic principles of the Greek Cypriot schoolbooks are derived
from the dominant model of the history of Greece. This model posits three key periods:
ancient Greece, medieval Greece (the “glorious Byzantine Empire”), and modern Greece
(the creation of the Greek state during the 19th and 20th centuries). Emphasis is placed on
ancient Greece as the beginning of history, succeeded by “foreign domination” until the rise
of the Byzantine Empire (treated as a glorious “Greek” empire) and finally liberation from the
“Turkish yoke.”12 “Hellenism” is the transcendental, transhistorical category informing this
historical discourse, which posits the historical continuity of Hellenism from ancient to
modern times. Turks emerge as Hellenismʼs barbaric archenemy according to this historical
narrative. The cover of the Greek primary school history textbook (Image 1) on the history of
Greece starkly illustrates this. It presents a group of Greek fighters against a background of
Turks holding Greeks captive, while one Turk wields a curved sword ready to behead them.
9
Anthony Smith, National Identity (London, 1991).
10 See Koullapis, “Ideologikoi Prosanatolismoi”; and Kizilyrek, “National Memory.”
11 See Koullapis, “The Subject of History”; and Kizilyrek, “National Memory.”
12 For comprehensive critical discussions of Greek history schoolbooks see Anna Frangoudaki and Thalia Dragona, eds, “Ti einʼ i Patrida
mas?” Ethnokentrismos stin Ekpaidevsi “[What is Our Country? Ethnocentrism in Education”] (Athens, 1997). For critical comparative
discussions of Greek and Turkish schoolbooks see: Iraklis Millas, Eikones Ellinon kai Tourkon: Scholika Vivlia, Istoriografia, Logotechnia
kai Ethnika Stereotypa [Images of Greeks and Turks: Schoolbooks, Historiography, Literature and National Stereotypes] (Athens, 2001);
Loris Koullapis, “The Presentation of the Period 1071-1923 in Greek and Turkish Textbooks Between 1950-2000,” International
Textbook Research 24, no. 3 (2002): 279-304.

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