Peace-Making within the Green and Liminal Border of Cyprus

This article aims to critically explore the concept of the border and its dynamic self-undermining quality through the medium of literature, which is the space in which the very process of debordering is already at work. since 1974, Cyprus has borne the mark of division that physically manifested in a border, which extends from east to west and divides the island into south (greek Cypriot) and north (Turkish Cypriot). what is special about this border is the fact that it consists not of one wall or fence but two, creating thus an uneven strip of land which allows for an experience of the border not from either side of it but from within it. This article explores the symbolic significance of working and thinking from within the border – from within the “dead zone” – a perspective whose significance is also acknowledged by contemporary Cypriot poets. drawing from greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot literature (mainly poetry), i attempt to illustrate how the very space of the border acquires central stage and how – through the power of poetic representation – it turns from an apparatus of separation and division into a space of neutrality and liminality which prompts reflection, communication and life.