A moving field : Greek Cypriot refugees returning home

In this paper I explore the returning ‘home’ of Greek Cypriot refugees. The main text is accompanied by a pictorial narrative giving more background on some aspects of the return visits. The Larnatsjiotes are the former inhabitants of the small village Larnakas tis Lapithou, located in the occupied Kyrenia district in Cyprus. As a result of the Turkish invasion of 1974 Cyprus has been divided and a part of the Cypriots became refugees in their own country. Since April 2003 Greek Cypriot refugees have the possibility, for the first time in twenty-eight years, to visit their villages and houses in the north of Cyprus. These recent changes in the field forced me to rethink my research project, as well my initial field site (Nicosia) as my research focus (gendered memories). During my PhD research I will conduct fieldwork with both the former inhabitants of Larnakas, the Larnatsjiotes, and the present inhabitants of the village, Turkish Cypriots coming from two villages in the south of Cyprus. In this paper I focus on visits to my ‘new field’, the actual village of Larnakas tis Lapithou. Joining the Larnatsjiotes on their numerous visits to Larnakas gave me an insight in what ways they are recapturing their selves and how they express their sense of belonging to this particular locality. Previously the Larnatsjiotes had an image of the village that was necessarily romanticized and painted in by their discourse about loss. Now they began engaging in what can be called religious practices to transform their return to a pilgrimage.