Page 36 - QARANC Vol 14 No 12 2016

34 QARANC THE GAZETTE
to understand the complexities of the history of this island, which has been governed and occupied by many different nations since Nicosia was first inhabited over 5,000 years ago. With our focus on the most recent 60 – 70 years, we had an evening presentation from Kyrenia’s Mayor in exile, a Greek Cypriot who gave us a personal account of his experiences during the 1974 Turkish invasion. He was captured by the Turks and had lost his house which is in the now Turkish occupied half of the island. While he accepts he will never get back his former home, he would like to return to Kyrenia and remains hopeful for a solution for reunification.
Our second day took us to the United Nations protected area where we had a presentation of the work of the UN in Cyprus. A ceasefire line – ‘The Green Line’, was drawn up by the British in 1963 and the UN have had a peacekeeping force there since 1964. A buffer zone was established following the 1974 Turkish occupation of the north and roughly follows the Green Line.
We had a tour of the now derelict Nicosia International Airport, scene of some of the heaviest fighting between the Cypriot and Turkish forces in July 1974. It is an airport frozen in time with crumbling holiday billboards and an abandoned jet. This was followed by a walking tour along part of the buffer zone through Nicosia where the Greeks and Turks watch each other from observation posts on their respective sides. Our guide led us through abandoned shops and cafes and even an underground garage still full of cars that have been there for four decades.
Following lunch in the grounds of Shakespeare House where the Green Line was literally drawn across a map of Cyprus by a British officer, we went to the laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP). This is run with UN, Turk and Greek co-operation and aims to find and identify the remains of persons who went missing during the inter- communal violence and the events of 1974. The forensic anthropologists based there analyse exhumed remains and arrange genetic testing. The remains of the dead, however small, are then returned to their families. The CMP has been a model of successful co-operation between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities and surrounded by dozens of partial skeletons they gave us a fascinating insight into their work.
Our third day took us further afield, out of Nicosia. We first went to the Turkish cemetery in Kyrenia on the north coast, where we listened to an account of the 1974 ’intervention’ from the Turkish point of view. Then we visited the Old British Cemetery where we laid a wreath for the British servicemen who lost their lives in Cyprus. After lunch at the Buffavento restaurant up in the mountains we headed for the east coast. We drove to Varosha, a former beautiful beach resort which was abandoned by the Greeks after the Turkish ‘invasion’ and
is now a ghost town which acts as a poignant reminder of the Cyprus partition. On our way back to Nicosia we stopped at Pyla, the only village in Cyprus which is inhabited by both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Our last day in Cyprus gave us a free morning to go and visit the museum and do some last minute shopping. The group met up again in the afternoon when the syndicates discussed the questions we had been set prior to the Battlefield Study Tour and debated future possibilities for the island. We had had a very busy but fascinating insight into the ‘Cyprus Problem’ and due to the excellent planning and knowledge of our guides, we were much more knowledgeable about the complexities of the situation. We hope that some of the positive things that are happening can be built upon and a solution found.
Maj Liz Colley
335 Medical Evacuation Regiment
Further information available at https://www.facebook.com/335MER