The "Other" in Gazioglu's and Onoufriou's Novels: Cyprus, Nationalism and War

This paper examines the images of "others" in Turkish Cypriot author Ahmet Gazioglu's novel War and Love in Cyprus and Greek Cypriot author Andreas Onoufriou's novel The Native Land in a comparative perspective. Both novels focus on the war in 1974 that constituted a significant threshold for the two communities. Both novels comprise nationalist narratives. While for Gazioglu, Greeks (particularly the coup makers) and Greek Cypriots are the "others", for Onoufriou the "others" are Turkiye, Greek Junta, USA, UK and Greek Cypriot terrorist organizations. Onoufriou characterizes Turkish Cypriots as a friendly group constituting a part of the "people" yet emphasizes that they are a "minority". In Gazioglu's novel, for Turkish Cypriots the trustworthy actor is Turkiye and Greek Cypriots are identified with the suppression that made Turkish Cypriots suffer. In the literature, there is a growing trend to analyze novels based on the image of the "other" they present. Nevertheless, the number of studies comparatively analyzing the "others" in Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot novels is not yet satisfactory. This paper aims to fill this gap. This paper utilizes documentary analysis as its main research method. It follows a qualitative, descriptive and comparative methodology.