Mete Hatay is an External Associate at PRIO.
Mete Hatay
Senior Research Consultant
Mete Hatay is Senior Research Consultant at the PRIO Cyprus Centre. Hatay has been a political analyst and freelance writer since 1985, primarily researching and writing on the Cyprus conflict, Cypriot cultural history, immigration, Islam, and ethnic and religious minorities in Cyprus. Before joining the PRIO Cyprus Centre, he worked as co-director of a consultancy firm that provided media monitoring, social and commercial research, and public relations and communication strategy services for international organisations, including the EC Representation in Cyprus. He has taught at Near East University and Cyprus International University and served as a board member of the Turkish Cypriot Education Foundation. He is currently serving as a board member of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation and a member of the editorial board of The Cyprus Review.
Between the years of 2003-2004, he worked as a project development officer at the PRIO Cyprus Office as part of the ‘Public Information Project’ on the Annan Plan, the last United Nations proposal to reunify the island. As part of this work, he was involved in the preparation and distribution of booklets that explained the plan to a general audience. He also aided in the construction of a website, held public seminars, facilitated discussions, and made presentations on local and international TV and radio stations.
From 2003 to 2005, he was also part of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation’s Cyprus monitoring team, which was responsible for informing the Turkish public about developments in the Cyprus conflict and their effect on Turkey’s European Union accession negotiations. In addition, he presented the results of the team’s research in policy fora in Europe and the U.S.
Since January 2005, he has led PRIO-Cyprus Centre’s project on demography in Cyprus. Much of his work has concentrated on immigrants and settlers in the north of the island. His monographs Beyond Numbers and Is the Turkish Cypriot Population Shrinking? were published as PRIO reports. He has also been engaged in a large-scale EU 7th framework project on conflict and cultural heritage, as well as in another EU-funded program on internal displacement in the island. He works on Sufi Islam in Cyprus and is the regular reporter on Islam in Cyprus for the Muslims in Europe Yearbook. He is currently working with co-author Rebecca Bryant on a book manuscript about the period of Turkish Cypriot enclavement between 1963-74 and the later transformation of enclaves into an unrecognized state. Besides his regular appearances and commentaries in local media sources, Hatay has also published academic articles in venues such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, American Ethnologist, Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, and Cyprus Review.
Apart from popular and academic writing, Hatay is also a composer who has produced two albums, as well as music for numerous documentary films.
Latest publications
All publications
Earthquake Politics: A Reflection on Aftershocks in Cyprus
PRIO Cyprus Centre Policy Brief
Kıbrıs: Bitmeyen Yaz
Edited Volume
Külliye'ye Niye Karşıyım?
Popular Article in Havadis Newspaper
Cyprus
Book Chapter in Yearbook of Muslims in Europe
Cyprus
Book Chapter in Yearbook of Muslims in Europe Volume 13
Kavanoz mu, Direk Ticaret mi? (In Turkish)
Popular Article in Havadis Newspaper
Insel Unter Einfluss, Wie Ankara versucht, die Geschichte Nordzyperns umzuschreiben
Popular Article in Le Monde Diplomatique (Special Edition on Turkey)
Performing peace: Vernacular reconciliation and the diplomacy of return in Cyprus
Journal Article in Journal of Refugee Studies
To Kypriako kai to varia skia tis Ankyras (in Greek)
Popular Article in To Vima Newspaper
Varosha: Between Human Rights and Realpolitik
Report - External Series
Latest news
All news
FAIR project workshop takes place in Cyprus
The PRIO project “On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation” (FAIR) organized a workshop in Cyprus in partnership with the PRIO Cyprus Centre, PRIO Middle East Centre, and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, 19-21 October.
The History of PRIO and Peace Research: New Open Access Book
The new open access
book Lives
in Peace Research: The Oslo Stories explains how PRIO, the world's
oldest independent peace research institute, was founded and how it survived
through crises.
Mete Hatay Receives the Necati Özkan Award
Last night, PRIO Cyprus Centre Senior Research Consultant Mete Hatay received the Necati Özkan Award by the Necati Özkan Foundation for best researcher of the last three years.
2 New podcasts with Mete Hatay on Varosha and the Cyprus Youth
Varosha: Between Human Rights and Realpolitik
Last summer Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots opened up the ghost town of Varosha, a suburb of Famagusta, fenced off and uninhabited since the division of the island in 1974. In this podcast, Mete Hatay, Senior Research Consultant at the PRIO Cyprus Centre, provides interesting background information on the ghost town and discusses the political implications of the opening as well as ways forward.
Spaces of Reconciliation: Youth Interaction through Art in the City
A new film by Mete Hatay (PRIO Cyprus Centre) and Orhan Eskiköy (independent director). This documentary follows groups of artists in Cyprus as they negotiate space within a divided city and find spaces for interaction and cooperation.
For 29 years, Cypriots were unable to cross the ceasefire line that divides their island. While for many Cypriots this lack of mobility began in 1974, the capital of Nicosia has been divided even longer, since intercommunal conflict first exploded in 1956. With the opening of the first checkpoints in 2003, there were immediate hopes of reunification that were then dashed when Greek Cypriots defeated a peace plan at referendum in 2004. Nevertheless, Cypriots continued to cross the line, visiting former homes, developing friendships, engaging in trade, forming business and artistic partnerships, and simply getting to know each other. This interaction only increased with the 2007 opening of the checkpoint dividing Nicosia's Ledra Street, historically a center for trade in the city.
Charles Michel visits Cyprus
Today at the Ledra Palace in Nicosia, Mete Hatay had the honor to meet with President of the European Council, Charles Michel. The meeting was facilitated by Elizabeth Spehar, U.N. Special Representative and Head of UNFICYP, who invited a small, bicommunal group to discuss current issues regarding the Cyprus Problem.
Mete Hatay awarded “best journalist of the year“ by the secondary school teachers and students of Morphou
Article only available in Turkish here: https://www.havadiskibris.com/mete-hataya-yilin-gazetecisi-odulu/?fbclid=IwAR1tqosL_Hb8ghAC32iMtxblTz3UTZrmE5bfOm-PFoDJ-mm4weIXr11DWfg
PCC Anniversary Celebration
To celebrate
the occasion, the PCC organized on 6 June an event in the Nicosia Buffer
Zone. The evening started with a panel presentation and discussion,
held at the Home for Cooperation, followed by a cocktail reception at
the Ledra Palace Hotel.
The panel discussion focused on the history of
PRIO and the PCC, outlining on the challenges faced in the process of
peace promotion in Cyprus and presenting the tangible outcomes of peace
research throughout the past decade. Panelists also discussed the
principles, vision and logic of Norwegian support for conflict
resolution, as well as of the contribution of the EEA/Norway grants
funding mechanism. The panel brought together the current and former PCC
Directors Harry Tzimitras, Greg Reichberg, Arne Strand and Gina Lende,
the Director of PRIO Kristian Berg Harpviken, Amb. Ingrid Schulerud,
Head of the EEA/Norway grants and the UNFICYP Force Commander, Maj. Gen.
Kristin Lund. The event was well attended by members of the diplomatic
community and international organizations, political party and civil
society representatives from both sides of the island, academicsand many
friends of the PCC.
PRIO Cyprus Centre: New Premises
Please note the Centre has relocated to the old part of Nicosia (within the Venetian walls). All other contact details remain unchanged.
New Website on Displacement in Cyprus
www.prio-cyprus-displacement.net
On 30 September, PCC launched a new website “Internal Displacement in Cyprus: Mapping the Consequences of Civil and Military Strife” (www.prio-cyprus-displacement.net) with funding from the EU, The website includes an interactive map with demographic details for over 400 towns and villages affected by displacement since 1958, personal accounts of displacement (based on interviews), a compilation of legal materials relating to displacement and property, and a documentary. The website will serve as a public platform for the presentation of PCC research on issues of displacement and property, in the years to come.
Latest events
FAIR Cyprus workshop on ethical considerations in peace negotiations’
The Grey Zones of Suspended Sovereignty: Turkey and the Rise of 'Wild Capitalism' in Cyprus
Film and Discussion: Spaces of Reconciliation
Nothing Is Agreed Until Everything Is Agreed: A Comparative Evaluation of the Comprehensive Settlement Approaches
Settlement, demography, and politics in north Cyprus
Return, Remixing, and Reconciliation: Lessons to Be Learned
Report finding presentation: The Post-Annan Generation: Student attitudes towards the Cyprus Problem
Good Governance in Europe and the Neighbourhood
Launch of Reports on 'Displacement in Cyprus: Consequences of Civil and Military Strife'
