A shell of memory: The Cyprus conflict and Nicosia’s walled city

Abstract

There are important reciprocities between conflict and memory, which often become embedded in disputed places or territories central to ethnonational conflicts. In Cyprus, the conflict and the subsequent division of the capital city of Nicosia, has disrupted the relationship between place and memory, as populations faced upheaval and displacement. The inability to cross the border running through the city center, from 1974 until checkpoints opened in 2003, resulted in the intensification of many aspects of memory, including forgetting, nostalgia and screen memory as related to the city. This article will describe Nicosia’s historic walled city center as a shell of memory by examining the material reality of the city today and investigating subjective constructions whereby the graphic image of the walled city is used as a symbol. The contested walled city is a site that negotiates between remembering and forgetting, between past and present, and between inside and outside.