DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.24287.1 ISSN: 2732-5121

“A Symptom of Social Disease”: Newspaper framings of the 1985 Limassol anti-Arab riot

Antonis Pastellopoulos
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In 1985 an anti-Arab riot erupted in Limassol, Cyprus. This article examines the public response to the riot as it developed in its aftermath through Greek Cypriot newspapers. Drawing on newspaper issues collected through archival research, qualitative thematic analysis was utilised to explore discourses surrounding the riot, identifying three distinct discourses. The first attributed blame for the riot to the moral decay of Greek Cypriot youth, the second downplayed the riot, emphasising instead negatively the presence of a local Arab population, while a third, marginal discourse, attributed the riot to social dynamics internal to Greek Cypriot society. Noting in its findings that the first and second discourses did not identify xenophobia or racism as contributing factors for the riot, the article further explores, through the historical context of the period, the potential reasons for this evident absence.

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