Seeking Social Identity after the Ottoman Period in Cyprus: The Turkish Cypriot Community of Islam

Abstract

This study will analyze the Turkish Cypriot Islamic community, an organization established by Muslim Cypriot Turks after World War I. It is an important organization because it has the word, Turkish, in its name. The aim of the study is to show that this organization plays an important role in the formation of identity and organization of the Cypriot Muslim Turkish people in the framework of the theory of Social Identity. In the theory of social identity, people come together around their individual characteristics as well as their distinctive identities. This new center of affiliation is cognitively or emotionally united around common goals and objectives and appeals to a variety of methods to accomplish them. One of the first of these methods is to establish an organization, especially in the light of the intellectuals. This theory provides a suitable framework for analyzing the Islamic community of the Turkish Cypriot community established in 1924 in Cyprus. For this reason, it is preferred. Data interpretation and analysis in the study are interpreted by explanations and analytical methods on the axis of this theory.