Preface
Note on Toponyms and Turkish Pronunciation
Introduction. The Aporetic State
Part I. The Border That Is Not One
Chapter 1. Building a "Border"
Chapter 2. Mastering the Landscape
Chapter 3. Planting People
Part II. Enacting the Aporetic State
Chapter 4. The So-Called State
Chapter 5. The Political Economy of Spoils
Chapter 6. Federalism as Fetish
Part III. The Aporetic Subject
Chapter 7. Victim and Citizen
Chapter 8. The Ambiguities of Domination
Chapter 9. The Politics of Dis/simulation
Conclusion. The Absurdity of the Aporia
Appendix: Turkish Cypriot Institutions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Rebecca Bryant and Mete Hatay develop the concept of the aporetic state to describe an entity that acts like a state even as nonrecognition renders it unrealizable. They argue that only by rethinking the de facto state as a realm of practice will we be able to understand the longevity of such states and what it means to live in them.
Rebecca Bryant is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. Mete Hatay is Senior Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Center.
"This book is an extensive and critical study on the KKTC’s and
Turkish Cypriots’ in-between/limbo history. It has a
well-structured content and theoretical framework, consolidated by
intelligible language and spot-on case analysis. Moreover, [Bryant
and Hatay] strive to overcome antagonistic dichotomies and
unilateral claims about unresolved Cyprus conflicts, such as
representing Turkish Cypriots as victims and Turkey as their
saviour by critically underlining the peculiarity of the building
of KKTC and its subjects. Thus, their critical and genealogical
approach to this frozen conflict contributes substantively to their
outstanding work in this field."
*Mediterranean Politics*
"Sovereignty Suspended is a treat. Organizing their analysis around
concerns with perceptions and (in)visibility, with recognition and
(non-)naming, and with agency and modes of getting by, Rebecca
Bryant and Mete Hatay have prepared two gifts for us: a riveting
historical ethnography of the Turkish Cypriot sovereignty project,
now embodied in the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and a sophisticated
analytical toolbox to think through questions of sovereignty well
beyond this ‘de facto’ state. What is particularly impressive is
that those two contributions are developed in close interaction,
giving the lie to the stereotypical division of labour between
authors whose contribution is said to be ‘theoretical’ or
‘regional’ respectively...[R]ead Sovereignty Suspended. This is a
big book: big on empirical insight, big on conceptualization...very
big on inspiration. It’s big on volume too, and worth every page of
it. "
*History and Anthropology*
"Part ethnography, part political theory, and part war memoir,
Sovereignty Suspended is a valuable addition for anthropologists
and scholars in adjacent disciplines working on issues of
statecraft, borders, and political uncertainty. The book’s
ethnographic and theoretical vigor is undeniable: it stems from,
and supplements, a long corpus of previous collaborative work by
the two authors."
*American Anthropologist*
"In a world in which such ambivalent, state-like entities seem to
have proliferated, the case of northern Cyprus offers many useful
lessons for understanding what statehood actually does-lessons that
the authors of this insightful and original book artfully extract
from a wonderful array of personal experience, documentary
evidence, and ethnographic observation."
*Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University*
"Sovereignty Suspended is an absolute joy to read and easily one of
the best books written on de facto states. Rebecca Bryant and Mete
Hatay use their extensive knowledge and years of research on the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to provide an extremely rich
and original analysis of the processes of de facto state-building:
how state-builders tried to make Turkish Cypriots perceptible and
recognizable to the world, how this has resulted in a state that
seems made up, and the resilient tactics that Turkish Cypriots have
developed to go on with their lives. But Bryant and Hatay are not
simply interested in state-building in de facto states, and their
analysis allows them to reconceptualize sovereignty as capacity, as
a form of institutionally realized agency. This is an important
contribution which should make this impressive book of interest to
anyone interested in state-building and sovereignty."
*Nina Caspersen, University of York*
"Sovereignty Suspended is a creative contribution to the cultural
turn in state theory, presenting an original approach to state
formation by focusing on the aspiration to statehood as a political
and social situation sui generis, involving distinct methodological
and theoretical problems for would-be citizens (as the authors call
them) and scholars alike."
*Carol Greenhouse, Princeton University*
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