Ancient hatreds divide tragic Cyprus

By David C. Henley

NICOSIA, Cyprus - It was 49 years ago when I first set foot on this island in the Eastern Mediterranean. Nearly 2,000 years before my arrival, Paul came to Cyprus and converted to Christianity in the presence of Apostles St. Mark and Barnabas.

The island, once part of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, also figures prominently in Greek mythology as it is the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and her lover, Adonis.Paul, Mark, Barnabas, Aphrodite and Adonis, alas, would have found few expressions of love and humanity during both my visit here in 1958 and my most recent, in late May of this year.

In 1958, while spending two weeks in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, I was writing articles about the ongoing conflict between the British government, which had ruled the island since 1878, the land's Greek Cypriot majority, which was demanding "enosis" or union with Greece, and the Turkish minority that historically has been at odds with the Greek population's cultural, religious and linguistic ties to Greece.

Covering the troubles for several California daily newspapers at the time, I wrote in one of my dispatches from Nicosia, "Five people were killed recently in the hotel where I am staying by EOKA, the Greek Cypriot organization spearheading the drive for union with Greece.

"The correspondent of a London newspaper showed me the bullet hole in his car's front window that was fired at him as he drove his wife and daughter through the streets of Nicosia. So many have been killed on narrow Ledra Street in this city that the road has been named 'Murder Mile.'"

Since my visit here in the late 1950s, the difficulties have continued unabated. Instead of union with Greece, Cyprus attained independence from Britain in 1960, but the dispute between the Greek majority and Turkish minority heightened.

In 1974, the ruling military government of Greece and the Greek Cypriots once again attempted to unite Cyprus with Greece. That resulted in Turkey invading the island with massive land and air forces.

Many were killed in battles between the Greeks and Turks, and hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed during the fighting. The Turks occupied the northern third of the island and they remain today, administering the rump "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC) composed primarily of ethnic Turks and Turks sent here from the nation of Turkey.

Only the presence of a 1,000-man United Nations force of soldiers and police officers keeps the peace today.

Currently headed by an Argentine general who took over from an Uruguayan general five months ago, the blue-helmeted UN troops, operating under a command called the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), are composed of units from Argentina, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Britain, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Bosnia.

Operating out of the art deco Ledra Palace Hotel, where I stayed in 1959, the U.N. forces patrol a buffer zone in white trucks, vans, armored cars and helicopters.Supplemented by Cypriot and Turkish troops on their respective sides of the border, the buffer zone is a no-man's land blocked off with barbed wire, concrete bunkers, watchtowers and 20-foot high mounds of empty oil drums.

This 187-mile buffer zone runs throughout the entire island as well as the capital, Nicosia, making it the last divided city in the world.Both the Greeks and Turks maintain governmental headquarters in their sectors of Nicosia, and passports and visas are required of visitors passing through heavily-fortified checkpoints.

A comparison with East and West Berlin before Berlin's unification in 1989 can easily be made. Concrete, blocks and bricked-up buildings separating commercial and residential neighborhoods from Greek and Turkish sectors are appalling.

The so-called "Green Line" that divides Nicosia and the island (it was given this name because a British general who drew the boundaries on a map used a green pencil) goes through the nation's popular swimming beaches, resorts, farms, villages and mountains, zig-zagging throughout the island for no apparent reason.

The two halves of Cyprus barely communicate with one another, and the proliferation of bombed-out buildings on every block adjacent to the Green Line, together with empty streets and the armed troops manning watchtowers and sentry booths, are intimidating to all who venture here.Turkish and Greek Nicosia are two different worlds. The Greek sector is full of life, fine restaurants and shops, and well-kept streets.

The Turkish areas are drab, dirty and unkempt. Turkish and Greek Cypriot flags fly over the two entities, and each nation maintains its own currency and postage stamps. Mosques and minarets are found all over the Turkish area, giving the nation a Middle Eastern feel. In the Greek sectors, Cypriot Orthodox churches proliferate.

The Turks appear surly and withdrawn. The Greeks are decidedly more outgoing, friendly, animated, better-clothed and receptive to foreigners.Despite the rundown condition of the Turkish side, I enjoyed wandering its crooked streets and examining its Arabic architecture. There was also a sense of adventure walking about Turkish Nicosia, the capital of a pariah nation diplomatically recognized by no nation other than Turkey.

On the last day of my four-day visit here, I attempted to enter the Ledra Palace Hotel astride the U.N. Buffer Zone, the beautiful 1920-era hotel I stayed at on my first trip here in 1958.I was denied entry by the U.N. troops billeted there. But they let me walk around its gardens, now full of weeds and debris and walled-off by concertina wire.

Bullet holes pockmarked its walls and military uniforms of the U.N. forces living there hung from some of the windows of the upper floors.

Cyprus may still be a beautiful land to come to, but for now, its tragic past and present give little hope for a better future.