FES BRIEFING THE PERCEPTIONS OF CYPRIOT YOUTH MATTER Cihan Dizdaroğlu The potential of youth has become the subject of a growing research agenda among scholars and practitioners, parallel to a global rise in youth mobilisation. However, there are a num­ber of countries worldwide that have a tendency to underes­timate the political, social and economic agency of youth. Among these countries is Cyprus, where the voices of youth are persistently ignored in their respective communities and across the island. The theatrical term soliloquy, 1 referring to the‘act of talking to oneself’, best characterises the present situation for Cypriot youth. It is an unusual and difficult situation to be young in a country that has been divided politically for more than 55 years, and physically for more than 45 years. Myriad factors, including an education based on nationalist narratives, hearing negative experiences from elders, witnessing nationalist discourse in media and politics, and living with the physical scars of the past on a daily basis, have contributed to youth marginalisa­tion. Today’s Cypriot youth grapple with the past legacies and the present realities of a divided island. Despite the failure of countless peace-building initiatives, and criticism of the elite-level, closed-door,‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’ format of negotiations, there is a persis­tent hesitation to include the wider public— including youth and women— in the peace process(Lordos, 2009; Lordos, Kaymak and Tocci, 2009; Jarraud, Louise and Filippou, 2013; Pimond et al., 2019). As reflected in the first-ever Human De­velopment Report(HDR) on Cyprus written more than 10 years ago, politicians have not given youth any opportunity to unleash their energy or optimism on the peace process— they neglect to even consider their perceptions and demands. Instead, Cypriot youth have been relegated to the role of pas­sive bystanders(UNDP, 2009, pp.12 and 164). There has since been limited progress, and this relates both to the broader peace process and to each specific level of decision-making. 1 T he word‘soliloquy’ stems from the late Latin‘soliloquium’ mean­ing‘talking to oneself’, from Latin solus—‘alone’— and loqui— ‘to speak’. It is also used in the translation of‘Liber Soliloquiorum’, a Latin treatise by Augustine(Etymonline, 2020). There remains a need to focus on certain specific groups, i.e., Greek Cypriot youth and older Turkish Cypriots as these are the groups most resistant to reconciliation, and on improv­ing the quantity and quality of contact between communi­ties(Lordos, Kaymak and Tocci, 2009). In order to under­stand youth demands, the periodic investigation of youth attitudes and trends is critical to observe any shifts in hopes for the future, perceptions of the other community, readi­ness for the peace process and/or willingness to co-exist. This briefing draws on the main findings of the‘Moving Be­yond Soliloquy: Youth Perceptions on Politics, Peace and In­ter-Communal Contacts’ policy report, which was jointly published by the PRIO Cyprus Centre and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Both the report and this briefing detail the findings of telephone surveys conducted simultaneously in Cyprus by Noverna Analytics in the south and by Lipa Consultancy in the north, in each community’s native language. 2 2 This policy brief comprises three parts: youth and politics, inter-com­munal contacts among youth, and peace in Cyprus. The de­tails of the survey along with extensive policy recommenda­tions and action points, which are in line with the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 2250(2015) on‘Youth, Peace and Security’, can be seen in the detailed FES/PRIO policy report. 2 T he sample includes 250 Greek Cypriot youth and 250 Turkish Cypriot youth aged between 18 and 35 years old. The survey com­menced on 30 November 2019 in the north, and on 3 Decem­ber 2019 in the south, and concluded for both sides on 10 Janu­ary 2020. Coventry University’s Ethical Board provided the ethical approval for the survey. The survey is a part of a research project entitled‘The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding: The Cyprus Case| YOUPEACEBUILDER’, which has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Ma­rie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 796053. 1