"The green line sea". Space and the consequences of a city partition: the case of Nicosia

The aim of this research is to understand the spatial and social configuration of divided cities, and the relation existing between these two aspects. The understanding of this interconnection is crucial if we are to shed light on issues concerning the construction of identity linked to territorial belonging in the specific case of contested territories. It is intended to analyse space as both a carrier and a receiver of meanings tied to conflict that characterises a given context. The main assumption is that in cities in which a division, whether materialised as a wall or not, marks the existence of a present conflict or the memory of a past one, people experience a definition of feeling of belonging and a construction of otherness in territorial terms. This research describes the consequences of a partition on the city in terms of functions and everyday life. The object of this analysis is to understand if divided cities lose something as a result of the partition and how the previously existing system transforms and adjusts to the new conditions. The founding elements of Nicosia’s partition clarify its peculiarity and its emblematic nature, and justify the choice of the case study from an analytical point of view, since the actual condition of the city makes it a very interesting case: it is physically split into two parts in which nationality, institutions, administration, language and religion are different. Therefore it is the perfect case to analyse the consequences of a division on urban unity. This issue can be analysed through the observation of everyday life in the divided space. I decided to focus on different aspects related to the management and the organisation of the city and also to the inhabitants’ relations and uses of space. These diverse areas of observation can be summarised into main points, each of which has been studied according to the more general frame of ethnographic research. These points are: urban development, city administration and institutions, infrastructures and communication systems, urban economy and trade organisation, and the broader issue of social relations. In order to obtain useful additional information to understand the relation between space configuration and social aspects of the everyday life in Nicosia, I conducted a visual analysis of the partitioned landscape. A border, on the urban level, divides objects and symbols that used to belong to both communities and which now define different and competing groups and identities. Therefore, the presence of a boundary that divides a city into two parts discloses and clarifies the artificial nature of identities based on place affiliation and the multidimensional nature of borders, which are not only material territorial lines, but also social, spatial and political constructions (Newman, 2001). Territory becomes part of the national identity and space acquires significance in narratives and discourses concerning the nation's history. The double function of the border, which generates identification on the inside and differentiation towards what is outside, has a strong reflection on spatial configuration. Divided space in Nicosia has become the materialisation of social cleavages and contributes to maintain patterns of mutual denial. Every material aspect of the borderscape – that is the peculiar landscape created by the presence of a boundary (Rumley & Minghi 1991) – can be used as a tool to understand both the process of identity creation/strengthening and the construction of memories related to national history and to the conflict.