The authors have had the pleasure of joining efforts over the past five
years in trying to bring some hope and joy to people in Cyprus. Not as academics
with conflict resolution theories to prove, or to provide themselves material
for the “publish or perish” mill. Our experience in international politics
is very limited and none of us are experts in the field. But we are experts in
the desire to live normal lives, in seeing the fear and hatred that are fueled
by ignorance and in recognizing the wasted potential of human potential that
prolonging an armed conflict inherently brings.
This common ground has made it very easy to work together, to overcome
most obstacles without bitterness and create a long-term commitment to our
common goals. It has made us friends making the task fun. This cheery
presentation should not fool you, the reader, into thinking that the differences
that exist are not real and harsh. That political and national issues are not
present in every discussion and activity. Each side has to report to their
superiors and organizations, enlist community support and fight the pressure
that people who “cross the line” in any conflict share.
Since 1974 Cyprus has been a divided country. The Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus controls the northern section of the island. A situation not
recognized by any international body or almost any other country. The Republic
of Cyprus controls the southern part of Cyprus and is the sole internationally
recognized legitimate government of Cyprus. Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus is
the last remaining divided capital in the world.
The population of Cyprus is comprised of two ethnic groups, Greek
Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The history of common bloodletting is long and
painful but so is the history of bicommunal villages and cooperation.
Cyprus like most small nations has suffered domination and occupation for
many centuries. The position of the island in the eastern Mediterranean bestows
upon it a strategic importance recognized as “the unsinkable aircraft
carrier”. This “honor” was not bypassed during the cold war and many hands
delving in the Cypriot issue have not had only honorable intentions.
An important technical point is that it is very difficult for Greek and
Turkish Cypriots to meet or even communicate on a normal basis. This effort
entails receiving governmental permissions, which is usually not granted till
the last minute, if at all.
While doing peace activities between Israeli and Palestinian youth the
question was asked why is it that we are always the problem. Why do people from
other countries come here to help us? Here we are meeting and visiting one
another’s houses and families, planning and implementing joint activities,
living together as people not enemies. We looked around us and decided that
Cyprus, with its close proximity and similar problem, was a good place to see if
we could be part of a solution not a problem and assist ourselves in the
process. To implement this idea the Association for Progressive Education in
Israel – The Yaari Association developed the Youth Institute.
Two joint seminars with participants from the Middle East and Cyprus were
held. The products of these seminars were the planning and implementation of
several community projects. At a later date two other seminars with groups from
Germany and Northern Ireland joining in the process.
A methodology was
devised that addressed a few issues:
1)
Within any conflict symbols and events stir intense feelings setting a tone.
Just mentioning one of these “red cape issues” raises the ante.
These “red cape issues” are known and have been filtered in
discussion and action by the combatants many times, but are not necessarily
known to the outsider. We decided to use this to our advantage by creating
situations where the participants from the different regions, i.e. The Middle
East and Cyprus had to present the situation in their region to the others. Thus
putting the speaker in a situation where many of the “basic truths” and
“red cape issues” that steer a discussion between insiders had to be
explained to uninitiated listeners. Both sides of the given conflict had the
opportunity to explain but always with the other present. With the other
present the speaker was always a bit more careful in choosing words and
examples. He also had the opportunity to question the speaker. These
presentations were always short, closely moderated but free flowing. They served
a few purposes:
v
To allow people to
present what they viewed as absolutely necessary.
v
Through the presentations
people had to reevaluate their own truths
v
People got to hear the others
perspective to the situation.
v
Since all the
participants are people who are interested in the politics of their conflict the
question and evaluation period continued long after the official end of the
activity.
2)
Reconciliation is a hard process, so to get a foothold we decided to start with
organizations and groups that had an orientation towards coexistence. After the
initial successes the spectrum of participating organization steadily grew. Now
we have the full range of all the Greek Cypriot political parties and most of
the Turkish Cypriot ones.
3)
The process was to be mutual assistance, Middle East? Cyprus. We used a method
where each region acted as observers while the other region engaged in
discussion and project planning, thus allowing important lessons to be learned
that were later transferred to the observers. But the observers were not passive
they provided guidance and support and helped the planners when they got stuck
on details or caught in an impasse.
4)
Autonomy within each community and region participating in the youth institute.
The coordinators did not involve themselves with who was chosen to participate
in the program, as long as they agreed to the spirit of the project.
5)
Be serious while providing opportunity for people to become friends and having
fun. As trivial as it seems fun is an important element in the process. Thus
time was set aside for social activities. To our satisfaction the bonds made
between people have been strong and have long survived any particular activity.
Friendship does not exclude disagreement, but it softens it. It also allows for
more consideration of the needs of the other. On the other hand firmness was
applied where tasks needed to be preformed or people got out of hand.
6)
Provide loose but directed facilitation, never lose sight of the goal. The basic
working premise is that people are not stupid. Provide a working framework,
trustworthy, professional and available facilitation and let them decide what it
is they need. Create a feeling and a reality that the facilitators really care
about people’s lives, not their careers or thesis is imperative.
7)
From the part of the steering committee, flexibility of process and an agenda
sensitive to the unfolding needs and social dynamics.
Many problems
arose while trying to carry out the first project in Cyprus. It was to be the
cleaning up of cemeteries in both communities, A Greek orthodox cemetery in the
Turkish community and a Moslem cemetery in the Greek community. In order to
overcome the issue of how it would be viewed by the more nationalist factions of
society we invited the Middle East participants to join in the effort in effect
making it an international project.. This was, and still is the only time a
large group of Cypriots crossed over to the other community to do a community
project. Meetings sometimes occur but projects, never. The activity as a success
beyond any imagination, especially since all the “old hands” in Cyprus said
it was impossible. The reality of having Greek and Turkish Cypriots along side
Palestinians and Israeli youth cleaning up a vandalized Greek Orthodox cemetery
and afterwards moving onto the Moslem one was to powerful for words. The
following day within the Greek community cleaning up a neglected Moslem cemetery
in a village brought the whole village out to see the wonder. It sent a message
that we can live together, we can respect customs, religions, culture and
effectively we can help each other maintain them.
The success of
the Youth Institute activities brought about the request for further contact.
The Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development – NISPED along
with the Yaari Association organized another seminar in Israel (Cypriots can not
conduct joint seminars in Cyprus) on the topic of the role of people’s
organizations in the peace process. . This time more organizations participated
including unions and NGO’s. It should be emphasized that for many of the
organizations it was the first time they participated in Bi-communal activities
and it was the first time for many of the participants ever met the “enemy”.
A definition none of the participants hold any more.
The most
significant achievement of this seminar was a very intense two-day debate,
argument and finally understanding of the political positions of both
communities along with the drafting of a joint internal document. To our dismay
this document was leaked out and caused much aggravation. At the end of this
seminar a request was made to organize a seminar specifically for educators.
Nisped and The
Institute for World Affairs from Washington DC - IWA organized
such a seminar including people from Cyprus Turkey Greece, France,
Israel, Palestine, Northern Ireland and the USA. This building block has added
to the understanding between the people in Cyprus and has led to other projects,
among them an International Symposium at the EXPO 2000 on developing an
international peace curriculum.
Interesting
side effects of these programs have been the bridging of differences within
communities. As the left wing and right wing participants get to know each other
more differences narrow. It has also allowed for revaluation within
organizations regarding the appropriate solutions to the extent that one
political youth organization has changed its policy towards peace activities.
We believe that
the contribution of youth leaders in peace activities holds great promise in
Cyprus and elsewhere with the single most important limitation being lack of
funding. The participants realize the benefits and when the budget of the Youth
Institute ran out participants continued to pay for it from their own pockets in
Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Northern Ireland and Palestine.
Amos Davidowitz
is the International Education coordinator of The Association for Progressive
education, The Executive Director for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
for the IWA, and a board member of Nisped.