While Cyprus is certainly beautiful (see photo), we were reminded yesterday
that we’re not here on vacation.
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| Our hotel, near Famagusta, Northern Cyprus |
As we boarded our plane in London, we were greeted by about
30 UN Peacekeepers (Argentinians) who were also bound for Cyprus. The
peacekeepers will patrol a buffer zone that lies between Greek and Turkish Cyprus.
Later, on the way to our hotel, we passed through a checkpoint when leaving
southern Cyprus (the Greek part) and entering northern Cyprus (the Turkish
part). There was nothing menacing about this checkpoint, as opposed to the
shake-downs at the end of a barrel that are common at similar checkpoints
elsewhere in the world.
The checkpoint and the peacekeepers were a reminder of what
my peace journalism student Sarah and I are doing here—to help promote peace
journalism, and its ability to help journalists create an atmosphere where
peace can become possible.
Our work starts tomorrow with lectures at Eastern
Mediterranean University.
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