Irish Gardaí on peacekeeping duty in Cyprus
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The Pat Kenny Show. With timber living log cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am on Newstalk. Conversation that counts. There's been a lot of chatter this week about a united Ireland, but I suppose it's been a good opportunity to reflect on how far the island has come in the last 30 years. Another island that's currently not fully united is Cyprus, and our reporter Alex Rowley has been visiting the United Nations Green Line to see some of the work that Irish personnel are doing on the ground there. Alex, good morning. Morning, Pass. Now, will you give us a brief outline as to how Cyprus looks in its current form?
Yeah, so, you know, you essentially have like a complete split in the island, north and south. So the southern part of the island is one that most of us would fly into on our holidays to Paphos and places like that.
What is the current political division of Cyprus and why does it matter?
This is an EU member state and it's actually just finished up holding the presidency of the Council of Europe before Ireland took it over. The north side of the island then is only recognised by one country, Pat, and that is Turkey. There's still tens of thousands of Turkish troops stationed there. after the Turkish invasion in 1974, or as the UN would call it, an intervention. Along the island, then from coast to coast, you've got this line drawn as well, which is the green line, or as they call it locally, the buffer zone. But as UN spokesperson Alim Sadiq explains, it wasn't always like this.
So we've had a presence in Cyprus since 1964 when fighting broke out between the two main communities on the island. Our presence on the island has been focused on three primary objectives. Firstly, to prevent tensions between the opposing forces on either side of the buffer zone. Secondly, is to maintain law and order across the buffer zone. Most people don't realise that tens of thousands of people live and work inside the buffer zone and those activities have to be managed in a safe and secure manner. and as the island has been divided for over 60 years now we have a team of civil affairs staff who are working with the communities who live and work on either side of the buffer zone and help to bring them together and preparing the ground for an eventual solution on the island.
The role of the peacekeepers is to keep the peace and it's for the politicians on the island to find a solution that would pave the way for the exit of the peacekeepers. Before 2003 the two communities were completely sealed off from each other and it's only since 2003 when the first crossing point opened that the two sides were able to cross from one side of the island to the other side of the island and realize that the Cypriot coffee that they're drinking on one side of the island is exactly the same as the Cypriot coffee they're drinking on the other side of the island. For the first time we are seeing young people from each community meet each other. We've had generations of young people grown up apart from the other side.
And I think most people who are visiting Cyprus don't realise just how divided the island has become over so many years. And the continuing division only makes it harder for a solution. And so that's why we put so much of our time and effort into helping to bring the two sides together and build a belief in a shared future together.
That's Alim Sadiq from the United Nations. So Alex, tell us about what you saw when you entered the buffer zone. I mean, is it easy to move about?
Yeah, it's quite easy. There's loads of crossings across the island, some pedestrian crossings, some vehicle crossings. And this was... one of the vehicle crossings I went through. So I got a taxi from my hotel, which was in the center of Nicosia, the capital, over to the eastern side of the city. And this crossing was just across from the University of Cyprus. I was met at that checkpoint by a Pakistani soldier working for the UN before being driven through the countryside to the UNFACYPE headquarters. That's what they call it. It's instead of UNIFIL, for instance. That's what they call it there.
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