‘The Pawns That They Moved Here and There’? Microacts, Room for Manoeuvre, and Everyday Agency in the 1974 Cyprus Conflict

Oral testimonies from Greek Cypriots who lived through the dictatorship’s 1974 coup d’état on Cyprus and subsequent Turkish invasion frequently present narrators as mere pawns in a macro-scale historical drama, having little to no control over or understanding of broader events unfolding around them. On one level, this rings true, individual soldiers civilians were rarely if ever able dictate perceive trajectories conflict which they found themselves. Yet perspective belies subtler reality that even chaotic conditions under deeply restricted circumstances people exercise agency create spaces, however small, operate autonomous agents shape their own personal trajectories. Whilst could not leave chessboard, these ‘pawns’ actively moved themselves here there, performing microacts locally refracted official diktats ideologies mutable ways. Moreover, construction assert further agency, assembling into meaningful narratives by placing them within frameworks.