Özet:

How is the party system of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) structured? Beyond the numerous works on the geopolitics of Cyprus, we know very little on the real functioning of TRNC’s political system, a self-proclaimed but non-recognized state since 1983, and on its political organisations. Thus, this article proposes a novel study of the formation of the party system and the evolution of political cleavages in Northern Cyprus between 1974 and 2014. It is based on three fieldworks organised between 2012 and 2014, on interviews with federalist and nationalist political leaders and on thick ethnographic observations of political campaigns. It shows that the creation of a multiparty system and the emergence of an electoral democracy coexist with the maintenance of a predominant nationalism. Cyprus’ conflict resolution stalemate and TRNC’s absence of international recognition have not impeded the development of a competitive party system and of internal mechanisms to legitimise power, which has led to an historical change in power in 2003. But the economic embargo and the partition of the territory influence TRNC’s social context and nevertheless explain the predominance of Turkish nationalism.

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