WORDS OF inspiration echoed across Cyprus yesterday as the Elders, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, visited the island to give impetus to ongoing peace talks aimed at reuniting the war-torn nation.
“We believe that you [Cypriots] are at the cusp. It is a situation where one push and you could have one of the most wonderful situations,” Tutu told a bicommunal audience gathered yesterday afternoon at the Fulbright Centre in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia.
Adding to the air of optimism, former US president Jimmy Carter, speaking of the current leaders’ peace talks, said he could not remember “a situation where two leaders were better qualified to come to a solution”.
The third member of the Elders, former Algerian Foreign Minister and prominent peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, called on Cypriots to realise that “a compromise solution is better than no solution”.
All three were unequivocal however that the road ahead for Cyprus would not be an easy one, and that a solution that worked would take a concerted efforts, not only by the leaders, but by all Cypriots.
“It’s going to be hard work, but it’s worthwhile work,” Tutu said, but added: “The fruit of it is fantastic, but it is work, work, work”.
The visit by the Elders is their third in a year, and is an indication that the group, formed in 2007 by rock star Peter Gabriel and British tycoon Richard Branson, believe Cyprus could be close to reconciliation. As well as working in Cyprus, the Elders have sought to alleviate conflicts between Israel and Palestine, in Dafur and Zimbabwe.
Yesterday’s meeting, which focused on how trust could be engendered between conflicting communities, was also attended by Cypriot religious figures such as the Bishop Nikiforos of Kykkos and head of the Turkish Cypriot office of religious affairs Yusuf Suicmez, who both sought to reassure the communities of the island that religion could be instrumental in engendering peace as well as conflict.
Clearly wishing to counter the anti-solution rhetoric of Cyprus church leader Archbishop Chrysostomos II, Nikiforos said: “Turkish Cypriots should know that the Church is not expressed by one person, but by all the bishops. I will dedicate my life and continue to struggle until I see the flower of peace bloom.”
Following the 90-minute discussion on trust and reconciliation, the three Elders moved to the grounds of the Ledra Palace Hotel the buffer zone to conduct the opening of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-sponsored Cyprus Community Media Centre (CCMC), an initiative which its patrons say “aims to create a more diverse, vibrant and community-led media landscape through its work with community-based organisations across Cyprus”.
