Re-Reading A Divided City Through Social Actors & Media Archives: Nicosia 1960-2010

Each city has got a different story and a true life story. In divided cities it is possible to read this story on the items of conflict, physical and social division and separation. The city Nicosia which is the capital of Cyprus Island for a long time is a city which also symbolises a ‘divided city’. During this period Nicosia has experienced several political, social, structural and economical changes. Especially the Walled City was a centre with its physical and social structure, but the division wall which passes from the centre turned into the Green Line’s edge-border position. Because of the differentiations in the dynamics, which feeds the city, the socio-spatial structure of the Walled City has changed and this is reflected to the daily life. In the context, it is examined how Nicosia and people from Nicosia, perceived and explained the border line if it is a part of daily life and examined the socio –spatial changing. In this study different readings and personal observations; textual and visual archives and in-deep interview techniques are used to read Nicosia again, the intangible aspects of border-line, its impacts to daily life. The migration stories, lived lives, memories depend on the space and experiences of divided/whole Nicosia of Turkish Cypriots who think Cyprus is Nicosia and ,Nicosia is the Walled City take place in-dense at this work. As a result, in thesis; the notions of ‘division’, ‘line’, and ‘others’ are studied as well as the city’s transformation and the architecture’s shaping, in order to understand the reflections of it today. The ‘citizens and city’ and ‘city and media’ were performed a discussion platform for to develop, critical and intellectual practise.