This is not a story about the Cyprus problem. It’s a story about the solution.
Articles about the problem are often written from the perspective of politicians, of the leaders of the two communities Demetris Christofias and Dervis Eroglu, and of intensive talks with obligatory references to the resolutions of the United Nations. Bored journalists regularly report news on the subject, already knowing what the politicians and diplomats will say because they have been hearing the same mantra for years. Very few think the problem that led to the division of the island in 1974 and the separation of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities can actually be solved.
A case in point was earlier this week when Christofias questioned the point of the Greentree meeting scheduled for January 22-24, when the two leaders are expected to meet with the UN Secretary-General in New York.
“I have to tell you that it was more of the same,” Christofias said.
“I wondered again… what was the point and what would be the procedure in Greentree, if no convergences are reached in the two weeks that separate us from the Greentree meeting; my question remains unanswered,” Christofias said on Monday.
Now imagine a very different negotiating format where Christofias and Eroglu are forced to participate in a series of activities explicitly designed to make them understand and acknowledge history from the perspective of the other.
Before Greentree, the negotiating teams would be broken up in smaller groups of pairs (one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot from each team), forge personal relationships and participate in group projects before the pairs are packed away for a month in the USA continuing their peace building projects throughout their trip.
Though this may sound far fetched, this model has been successfully applied as part of the Cyprus Friendship Programme (CFP) designed to forge lasting relationships between much younger members of the two communities.
One of the people involved in the CFP is economics teacher Nicos Anastasiou who has been involved in bi-communal citizen peace building projects in Cyprus for 20 years.
If Anastasiou had his way, he would, for example, make the two leaders cry.
A few years back he did just that, by accident, when he made a group of teenagers take the ‘Walk of History’.
Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were separated and told to come up with a headline-type version of main news events in the island since the fifties.
“Each side was meant to write the dominant, most used phrases in their community,” Anastasiou said.
They had a break and came back to see the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot versions, next to each other separated by a dividing line.
Naturally, the versions differed and “for the first time they were able to see that things are not that simple, that there can be two ways of observing the same history,” Anastasiou said.
And then, completely spontaneously, one group started crying.
“One of them held tightly the hand of the person sitting to him. Then they all held hands tightly. They were tears of healing. It was unbelievable,” Anastasiou said.
“What was missing was the pain of the other community. We chose to remember only our own pain,” said Anastasiou.
There wasn’t any crying however when I met some of the teenagers who recently finished off the 2011 CFP round.
The Cyprus Friendship Programme launched in 2009 by HasNa Inc. ropes teenagers – between the ages of 15 and 18 – into peace building projects with the promise of a heavily subsidised month-long trip to the USA.
“No sage teenager would refuse a trip to the US,” Anastasiou said.
Most jump at the opportunity with some joining just for the trip’s sake only to realise that they have made friends with people they never though they would.
“Some people started from scratch,” one of the teens, Ahmet Aslim, said, explaining that not everyone joined because they were convinced.
“It was scary what we had in common,” Elias Melas said of his experience of pairing up with Behcet Zorba. Because they all spoke in English Melas said he didn’t even realise at those first meetings who was Greek Cypriot and who was Turkish Cypriot.
Corinne Petrakis joined because her sister had participated in the year before and she came back with her friend talking about “the things they did together”.
“I thought: I want that, I want that experience,” said Corinne who was teamed up with Gulcem Altinoglu.
Living with a host family in the United States gave the teenagers the opportunity to explain Cyprus to an outsider, a curious stranger who was neutral.
Mary Messiou explained how she and her partner, Bahar Ozbilgehan, constructed history together.
“I would say what I knew and then Bahar would say what she knew and we would put it all together. There wasn’t conflict. We listened to each other,” Mary said.
Of course to get to this point, those teenagers were gently forced to acknowledge multiple perspectives. In one CFP exercise, they had to make a list what their own community thinks of the other one, even if they didn’t – by that time – share those views.
“At first they’d get upset, ‘am I going to tell my friend this?’ because the list was generally negative,” said Anastasiou.
But then they would put together their own opinions about the people they met through the CFP and those would be overwhelmingly positive.
“We don’t tell them anything, they work it out themselves that there is a difference between perceptions that are created and their own views. They realise that opinions can change,” Anastasiou said.
“The surface of the ocean – that’s the political side, it’s very visible, can be very stormy, very theatrical perhaps at times before elections but citizen peace building deals with the ordinary people if there is such a thing,” Anastasiou said.
Around 30 pairs participated in the CFP last year. They met each other’s families and friends, creating the foundations for lasting relationships.
“We’re not at the surface, we’re dealing with the quiet depths below,” Anastasiou said.
That is where the roots of a solution are taking hold.
SIDEBAR:
The Cyprus Friendship Programme (CFP) is modelled after the all-volunteer Children’s Friendship Project for Northern Ireland (CFPNI), a peace and friendship building programme that successfully brought more than 2,000 Protestant and Catholic teens (as well as their families and their friends) in Northern Ireland together throughout its 21 year existence – the programme came to its successful completion in 2007.
The CFP started in 2009 as an initiative of HasNa, a small US non-profit organisation in cooperation with a Cypriot team of coordinators.
How the programme works: Roommates for a month – friends for life
Teenagers (15 to 18 years of age) from both communities apply to join the programme after presentations are made in schools and youth clubs in both sides of the divided island.
Interviews are conducted and the successful applicants who demonstrate their commitment to bi-communal relations are accepted into the programme in equal numbers from the two sides.
A series of meetings, with facilitated workshop activities, takes place that focus on leadership, communication, reconciliation and peace building skills. At the end of the workshops, each teen chooses one person from the ‘other side’ of the same gender with whom he/she feels comfortable.
Each pair of teenagers and their families are introduced and encouraged to establish and maintain friendships in Cyprus.
In the summer, each pair of teenagers lives with host families in the United States,
sharing a bedroom to themselves, for a four-week residential.
It also allows them to experience a country where many differing cultures and religions live together in peace.
Another important aim of the residential is to further advance leadership and peace building skills which had been promoted during the programme activities that occurred in Cyprus. This is done through four formal programme activities during the residential (team building, conflict resolution training, community service, and civic engagement).
Upon return from the US, additional activities take place. Prior to the end of the year a CFP Graduation occurs. After graduating, each participant is required to participate in the CFP for at least one year.
For more information contact the CFP coordinators:
Nicos Anastasiou [email protected]/ 99-498531
Sarper Ince [email protected]/ 05338409792
Also visit www.hasna.org/CFP.html
