Greek and Turkish Cypriot University Students Have More in Common Than Expected

By Benjamin J. Broome

During the first term of my Fulbright fellowship in Cyprus, the core group of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots with whom I worked developed over 240 options for bi-communal activities. From this large number of possibilities, they selected 15 activities for inclusion in a collaborative action agenda. Noticeably missing from their agenda was any project directed toward university students.

Its lack of inclusion on the agenda was not due to the disconnectedness of the planning team from the younger generation. There were both recent and current university students included in the core group, and several of the participants taught in a university setting.

However, the group agreed that university students likely would be the most difficult group in Cyprus with which to work. Unfortunately, both the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot educational systems expose students to a biased and negatively prejudiced view of the other.

The news media exacerbate the situation, presenting one-sided views of both past and present events. Parents and family members often reinforce the images brought home by the children from school and absorbed through television.

Under these conditions, it is nearly impossible for children to grow up with any desire to meet their peers across the buffer zone. If anything, they learn to dislike and despise the other, and their only practice in “communicating” with someone from the other community is through slogans chanted across the barbed wire during days of protest and demonstration along the buffer zone. By the time they reach the university, the majority of students have little goodwill to which appeals might be made for their involvement in bi-communal activities. In light of this situation, it is easy to see how the planning team for peace-building activities thought it might be best to delay starting a student group.

Finally, however, we decided to take advantage of an opening provided in statements made by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, during an interview conducted in English by a Greek Cypriot journalist and televised throughout Cyprus. In the interview, when asked about the effects of years of separation on the younger generation, Mr. Denktash suggested that the two sides should exchange a group of students, who would spend a few days living in the other community and learning for themselves about the realities of the other side.

When we initially assembled separate communal groups of university students to “test the waters” of the suggestion, neither the Greek Cypriots nor the Turkish Cypriots were confident that there were students on the other side who were genuinely interested in meeting with them. They were willing, however, to “give it a try.”

The process of bringing any group together always involved a series of bureaucratic steps. First, the names and ID numbers of those participating had to be collected at least 10 days prior to the event. These lists were then sent to authorities in their respective communities.

For the Greek Cypriots, this list was given to the police at the Ledra Palace checkpoint on the south side of the buffer zone, where the participants would register before entering the strip of land that defined the 1974 cease-fire line. For the Turkish Cypriots, the meeting itself and the list of participants first had to be approved by the civilian authorities, then sent to the military authorities, and finally given to the guards at the Ledra Palace checkpoint on the north side of the buffer zone. Without one’s name on the approved list, the guards were powerless to allow anyone to pass.

The full list of participants had to be sent to the United Nations guards stationed in the Ledra Palace itself, where an additional check was performed. In addition to the steps involved with creating lists of participants and gaining approvals from the authorities, it was also necessary to reserve one of the two available meeting rooms in the Ledra Palace, to arrange for food and refreshments, to bring in materials, equipment, and supplies needed for the meeting or workshop, to set up the room for the meeting, and finally to clean up the meeting space afterwards.

Thus, a lot of tedious work was involved for the organizers of bi-communal activities, and there was very little flexibility to deal with last-minute changes, such as cancellations by some participants and the desire of others to take their place. Fortunately, the Cyprus Fulbright Commission, which has offices on both sides of the buffer zone, served as sponsor for many of the bi-communal activities and provided invaluable assistance with the logistical details.

By far the greatest frustrations were the last-minute cancellations of permission by the Turkish Cypriot authorities, meaning that the Greek Cypriots would often show up for a meeting that had been carefully planned in advance, only to find that the Turkish Cypriots were not being allowed to cross the checkpoint and enter the Ledra Palace meeting area. Of the more than 200 meetings that I attended or helped organize, nearly as many were cancelled, often at the last minute. Nevertheless, most of the participants maintained their resolve even in the face of these deliberate attempts to discourage participation in bi-communal activities.

Fortunately, support for the student group at the highest diplomatic levels in Cyprus, especially by the American ambassador, meant that the initial meeting did not face unsurmountable barriers due to permissions. In fact, the student group was the only bi-communal gathering allowed to go forward at that time (October 1996). Permission problems entered the picture later, but we received approval for the initial event, something that pleasantly surprised us.

When the meeting of the students finally took place, more surprises awaited us. The Greek Cypriot group, which arrived first, included a number of students who were enrolled in Turkish studies, and when the Turkish Cypriots arrived they were shocked to find some of the Greek Cypriots greeting them in Turkish.

Within the Greek Cypriot group, there were a number of students who did not know each other prior to the bi-communal meeting, and during several of the initial greetings, most of which took place in English, there were Greek Cypriots who realized only after five minutes of conversation that they were speaking with another Greek Cypriot!

As the greetings continued, the students discovered they listened to the same music, watched the same movies and TV programs, studied similar subjects in the university, and wore nearly identical clothing. Throughout the evening there was much confusion about who was Greek Cypriot and who was Turkish Cypriot.

Later in the evening, as discussion inevitably moved toward aspects of the Cyprus conflict, students learned that they shared similar concerns about the future of Cyprus and how the conflict was affecting their own plans for the future. Almost completely missing from the discussions was the extreme nationalist rhetoric that prevails on the campuses of these students, and there was a complete absence of animosity. In fact, before the first evening was over, students were discussing ingenious ways to continue their meetings, with or without the approval of the officials.

There was much discussion about how it was time for the older generation to step aside and allow the youth to work things out in Cyprus. My Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot colleagues facilitating the meeting were astonished at the ease with which the students had created a positive atmosphere and the level of comfort they felt with one another.

Much to our surprise and great satisfaction, as the meetings continued the positive atmosphere did not give way, despite the disagreements that inevitably arose around the core issues of the conflict. Fortunately, we were able to arrange some special events for the students.

The leaders of both communities, Glafcos Clerides and Mr. Denktash, agreed to receive the students at their respective offices, and these trips across the dividing line were accompanied by excursions that allowed the students to travel to places on the other side that they had heard so much about but had never had any hope of visiting. At the meetings with the two leaders neither of them could distinguish which students were Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot, and when some of the Greek Cypriots used Turkish to ask Mr. Denktash questions, he was both baffled and impressed, promising to start a Greek studies department at a university in the north so that Turkish Cypriots could learn Greek. This was not a statement one would expect to hear from a leader who has spent his life emphasizing the need to separate the two communities.

During 1997, the student group grew in size, and as bi-communal meetings became possible again for all groups, their meetings became more frequent. They took the initiative to form a second student group, and before the cut-off of bi-communal activities in December of 1997 they had plans to form a third group.

With funds from the Council of Europe, the group met together outside Cyprus in June of 1997, spending a week together in Budapest at the youth center. This residential setting provided the opportunity for the group to pursue their discussions much more deeply than before, and they began to deal more seriously with the many differences that separate the two communities.

Fortunately, the goodwill and trust that had developed in prior meetings carried them through this confrontation with “reality,” and they returned to Cyprus a stronger and more dedicated group. Now they await the opportunity to continue their work, hoping that their political leaders will have the courage to bring the division to an end and place the future of Cyprus in the hands of those who are not locked in a tragic past.

Benjamin J. Broome is a professor of human communication at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. His recent book, Exploring the Greek Mosaic, received the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the National Communication Association, and he currently is working on a book about citizen peace-building activities in Cyprus.