On the Cypriot States of Exception

This article explores the politics of exceptionality in Cyprus. It focuses on the postcolonial constriction of Cypriot statehood—the framing of the sovereign itself as an exception—and how the emerging discourse of exceptionality unfolded a spiral of states of exception on the ground. Looking in and across a variety of Cypriot sites and regimes (north, south, sovereign base areas and buffer zone) the article examines what claims of exceptionality legitimate in political and everyday life as well as their ironic and paradoxical effects. Finally, it looks at how the Cyprus case informs debates on current theorizations of exceptionalism.