People come together for Peace Festival

By Aline Davidian

GREEK and Turkish Cypriot families from both sides of the Green Line came together in the UN buffer zone yesterday to attend a ‘Festival for Peace’ at the Ledra Palace Hotel.

Relaxed and low-key, the start of the bi-communal event saw people slowly trickle in, wrapped up warmly against the late November chill.

Their numbers increased as the afternoon wore on and the festival’s planned events began: these included live music by a Turkish Cypriot rock band and traditional Greek Cypriot folk-dancing, in addition to speeches by organisers of the event.

Thirty organisations from the both communities had planned the event on their own initiative. This made the peace festival unique, marking an attempt by ordinary Cypriots to come together.

Organisers told the Cyprus New Agency they had joined forces because they were aware “that peace cannot be achieved by waiting”.

They also said that heightened nationalism posed a grave danger and increased the likelihood for fresh conflict in Cyprus. They condemned the escalation of armaments, and called on all Cypriots “to set aside all prejudices and join the struggle for peace”.

They stressed that Greek and Turkish Cypriots were capable of solving their own problems to create a common homeland.

The bi-communal event took place under the watchful eye of UN peacekeepers, who have co-operated closely with foreign diplomatic missions recently in stepping up meetings between the two sides.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.