Politics of Victimhood and Hierarchies of Missing Persons in Cyprus

Abstract This article explores how Greek and Turkish Cypriot political leaders have politicized the issue of missing persons from the Cyprus conflict to further their respective agendas. Using transitional justice literature and drawing on interviews with relatives of the missing, it shows how Greek Cypriot leaders emphasized the 1974 Greek Cypriot missing persons as symbols of the unresolved dispute, while silencing the Turkish Cypriot missing persons, as well as the Greek Cypriot missing persons from the 1963–1964 intercommunal conflict. Turkish Cypriot leaders dismissed the issue of missing persons, both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, to promote the idea that the Cyprus conflict had been settled. They declared their missing persons dead and highlighted the community’s casualties. The article argues that both communities selectively highlighted or ignored victims, creating internal hierarchies of victimhood, showing that victim hierarchies occur not only between opposing groups but also within communities.