Conflict resolution plan

By Aline Davidian

AMERICAN professor Marco Turk will be leading a 40-hour bi-communal training programme in conflict resolution next month. This is being funded by the Fulbright Commission in line with its policy to offer exclusive grants for conflict resolution in Cyprus.

Turk, a lecturer in Social Ecology in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, will work with two groups of 24: 12 Greek Cypriots and 12 Turkish Cypriots.

“The aim of the programme is to train people… to acknowledge, but not necessarily agree with the other person’s point of view in an attempt to transform the relationship between the parties involved,” said Turk.

He added that the training would encourage people to “acquire skills that are not political,” thus making it “easier for them to transcend their differences.”

The training scheme will take place at the Fulbright Centre located on the Green Line buffer-zone. It will include discussion on the conduct of family members and the viewing of videos on counselling for domestic violence. There will also be a role-playing session to encourage participants better to understand each other.

The programme is to be completed next May when Turk will report back to the Fulbright Commission on the outcome of his work. He may also train mental health care professionals with a view to setting up a bi-communal professional training programme in this field as well as working with police officers on issues of public interaction.

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.