Street Naming and the Politics of Greek-Cypriot Identity

“Through a rich account of the conflictual process of naming Nicosia’s streets during the 20th century, this book illuminates the establishment and consolidation of opposing nationalisms in Cyprus from a different angle. Theocharous’ research contributes new, significant empirical knowledge on the symbolic practices within the politics of the ethnic conflict in Cyprus and constitutes a valuable addition to the literatures of ethnic conflict and urban space, the politics of identity, and Cyprus’ studies.” — Dr. Gregoris Ioannou, Reader in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK This book is the first to explore street names and street-naming in the formation of a Greek-Cypriot identity in the cityscape of Nicosia between 1878 and 1975. Rather than treating toponymy as a direct linguistic act of spatial orientation, the book approaches street-naming as a contested practice involving those shared symbols and representations used to depict official history and collective identity as part of a political process. It considers how street names are part of the symbolic politics of space, and how authorities transformed the streets of Nicosia into arenas of struggle for the control of symbolic and material space. It documents historical efforts over the course of a century to impose a ‘geography of forgetting’ to buttress national identity and to cast out the ‘other’ from space — both literally and symbolically — so as to achieve territorial dominance and political legitimacy. The book is another step towards the development of a global perspective on the critical study of street-naming, thereby refining and expanding our knowledge of the political dynamics involved in the process. In their commemorative capacity, street names belong to the politics of public memory and identity. Stella Theocharous is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Heraclitus Research Centre, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.