Multiculturalité à Chypre : réalité historique ou besoin politique

In the following article, an effort will be made in order to describe two different forms of multiculturalism in Cyprus. The first one, “ spontaneous popular” multiculturalism, refers to the form developed spontaneously by the people of Cyprus, mainly Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, within the every day’s contact and relations along the past centuries until 1974. The second one, the “ learned” form of multiculturalism, describes the multicultural reality that appears during the last decade – since the opening of check points – as a result of concrete policies of the state but also of private initiatives of several intellectual and political elites. The main argument of the paper is that while policies followed by the elites of the two communities before 1974 contributed in a systematic weakening of the “ spontaneous” form of multiculturalism, after 2004, these same elites develop policies and strategies in order to strengthen this time, the “ learned” form of multiculturalism.” This is“ the cypriot paradoxe”.Ioannou Yannis E. Multiculturalité à Chypre : réalité historique ou besoin politique. In: Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes. Volume 45, 2015. Hommage à Jacqueline Karageorghis. pp. 417-422