The use of toponyms, or place names, as instruments of political power and territorial sovereignty remains a significant issue globally and within the context of the division of Cyprus. Geographers specializing in critical toponymy, such as Maoz Azaryahu, Derek Alderman, and Reuben Rose-Redwood, argue that place names serve as tools for exercising political authority over space, history, and collective memory.
Recent actions by U.S. President Donald Trump, including the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and the restoration of the name Mount McKinley to a peak known as Denali since 1975, have highlighted how states use renaming to assert influence. While such decisions often lack international recognition, they reflect a historical pattern of regimes using toponyms to claim territorial control, as seen in examples from Romania, South Africa, New Zealand, and the American South.
State-led renaming campaigns have been documented extensively. In Israel, a State Names Committee was established in 1949 under David Ben-Gurion to replace existing Arabic names with biblical and historical Hebrew references. Research, including Walid Khalidi’s work, indicates that these changes primarily affected areas where the Arab population had been displaced. Similarly, in Crimea, Soviet authorities renamed over 1,300 settlements following the deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944. In 2016, the Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution to restore the historical names of 70 settlements and five administrative districts, contingent upon the restoration of Ukrainian administration.
In Cyprus, the Permanent Cyprus Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names has documented the systematic replacement of Greek toponyms in the northern part of the island following the 1974 division. This process also affected traditional Turkish Cypriot place names, such as the renaming of Sinta to Inonu and Ortakoy to Mentesekoy. The Republic of Cyprus enacted Law 71(I)/2013, which makes the alteration of officially standardized geographical names, or the distribution of maps using unauthorized names, a criminal offense.
Anthropologist Yael Navaro-Yasin, in her study The Make-Believe Space: Affective Geography in a Postwar Polity, noted that renaming in the north was presented by local authorities as a means of establishing political sovereignty. Conversely, studies on displaced Greek Cypriots show that original toponyms remain central to the identity and collective memory of refugees, including second and third generations who have not visited their ancestral homes.
The issue of toponyms was a point of contention during the 2004 Annan Plan negotiations. The Permanent Cyprus Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names expressed concerns to then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan regarding the use of post-1974 Turkish names in the plan’s maps, arguing that these did not reflect the traditional Turkish Cypriot names used prior to the conflict. The committee cited a 1977 United Nations resolution, which recommends against recognizing name changes imposed by authorities other than a state’s recognized national body.
As the division of Cyprus persists, the question of how the island will be represented on a future unified map remains unresolved. Experts suggest that while often viewed as a technical matter, the naming of geography remains a core component of symbolic sovereignty and the legitimization of territorial claims.
Article source: www.politis.com.cy | Image credit: www.politis.com.cy