A qualitative research design was chosen in order to conduct an exploratory research on the question “In which way does Bicommunal Activism influence the Cyprus-Issue on Societal and Political Level?”. This approach allowed a less restricted and broader research (Maxwell 2008: 214ff) on a topic which offers limited literature on dynamics and opinions within the specific group of Cypriot bicommunal activists. This design allows to generate new hypotheses for future research, rather than to test a specific hypothesis (Maxwell 2008: 227f). To answer the question above, this investigation is constructed as a single-case study using two ethnographic techniques: Explicit interviews and participant observation. The latter is a method allowing the ethnographers to “undertake research and writ[e] about groups of ‚people by systematically observing and participating (to a greater or lesser degree) in the lives of the people they study.” (Madden 2010: 1). This was used to acquire foreknowledge on internal dynamics within the activists’ sphere.
Categories developed in accordance to my research question were the activists’ personal motives and self-perception, their perception of the Division, political leadership, and society, further their CSO’s work in the fields of politics and society, gender, funding, identity, and language. The guided interviews were partly standardized: The interviewee was able to answer the questions freely, which differed slightly in phrasing and order, but were the same in topic (Mayring 2002: 66). I was interested in typical activists who actively engage in the peace-process in Cyprus, hence a random sampling of the participants was not necessary (Lamnek 2005: 384). The interviewees were not chosen to be representative but rather selected through a snowball sampling (Cohen & Arieli 2011: 427). Due to the diverse scene and ways to participate in different CSOs as part of the peace-process, different actors representing different organizations were chosen to be interviewed. Thus, I wanted to ensure a synoptic view on the bicommunal sphere, rather than an in-depth analysis of one CSO.
After preliminary considerations, I chose to interview Evren Inancoglu – as being present in the Buffer Zone and involved in many projects; he later introduced me to other activists. Alecos Tringides was contacted because of his relations to the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES), where I had completed an internship. Through a collaboration on events, I was able to observe the participants closely, talk and engage with them. I tried to interview Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots, men and women, as well as old and young activists representing the groups in the public.
While living in Nicosia, I chose to set my focus on the rather young movement “Unite Cyprus Now”, which was very vocal and active during my stay. Further, I included two of the older CSOs, whose representatives I expected to have in depth knowledge on involvement in the peace-process; “Hands Across the Divide” is known to be successful in receiving recognition on their work, “Cypriots’ Voice” has, on the other hand, been present for a long time, however it has not developed any impact. The “AHDR” operating the “Home for Cooperation” I included, in order to gain perspective on influencing the peace-process apart from traditional negotiations. The buffer zone plays a special role in the work of activists and the “Home for Cooperation” is the core of most activities1, hence the team’s perception was valued important for this paper. The CSOs in Cyprus seem to fail at influencing the political decision-making within the negotiation process over the Cyprus-Issue. Further, they only attract a certain group of people, who are willing to participate in peace-rallies. Goal of this research is to unfold dysfunctional dynamics leading to the cycle of “Preaching to the Converted”, explaining why the activists’ groups are unable to gather enough momentum for change.
The interviews were recorded and transliterated – a word for word transcription was chosen2, remarks on intonation during the interviews were excluded, firstly because they are not relevant for the interpretation and secondly in order not to distract from the actual statements (Dresing & Pehl: 2013: 21f). The transcripts’ interpretation is based on the model of summarizing content analysis by Philipp Mayring (Mayring & Fenzl 2014: 547).
The interviews which have been conducted in the surroundings of Nicosia‘s Green Line, at a time, when negotiations had just failed in Crans Montana, which led to hopelessness and disappointment in the activist community. This strongly influenced the tone of the interviews. The results cannot claim to be representative; they are rather an insight into the very specific group of bicommunal activists, who have a high interconnectedness. Thus, the snowball method which I used to select my interviewees might have led to participants with similar experiences and perceptions of the Cyprus-Issue. However, since they are involved in different CSOs, targeting different societal and political problems, different problems have been addressed and different focuses have become apparent.
While a circular strategy in the research process (conduct and evaluation of interviews) would have been preferable for fine-tuning the guided interviews and deepening my foreknowledge (Meyen et al. 2011: 54), the limited time in the field and high financial costs prevented me from repeating these particular research steps. Also, despite having a small time-frame of one month preparing and conducting the interviews, I have spent an extended period of six months living in the field of research. The statements and descriptions of the Cyprus-Conflict match the participant observation which I did during my stay in Nicosia. Consequently, to an extent, I expect the results to be valid and generalizable. Originally, I had conducted nine interviews, of which I only transliterated the most valuable seven.
In this paragraph, I briefly want to highlight my sociological predispositions entering the field of research in Nicosia; this is relevant, because my findings and perception of the bicommunal sphere are constructed by my sociological background (Meyen et al. 2011: 33). I would consider myself as a European growing up in Germany’s middleclass. Supporting civil society activism and recognizing its benefits for society, I generally have had an optimistic and hopeful view on a possible reunification of Cyprus and a positive attitude towards Cypriot CSOs. This is fortified through having the reunification of East and West Germany in 1989/90 as part of the collective memory of my social environment.
The first contact to the activists I had at the “Home for Cooperation”, where I was warmly welcomed; hence I have positive and friendly feelings towards my interviewees. Part of my participant observation I conducted at events of the German FES; therefore, some of the events and seminars which I participated in had a social democrat perspective on political and societal issues. Considering all these influences, the discourses over unity and peace on the island normatively charged – while reunification is an official desideratum, the option of partition possibly settling the conflict, is a priori excluded. Hence, it is difficult to enter the sphere unbiased.
