CYPRUS : Have we forgotten our roots?

Forty years ago, our Prime Minister committed Canadian soldiers toward the cause of peace in Cyprus. Since that time, the UN has been maintaining a « Green Line » which eventually extended as far as Berlin and Lebannon. For thirty years, The UN has made the resolution of this hostility, in Cyprus, their first priority without success. Canadians left Cyprus because their toops were needed in Bosnia. Canadians, as peacekeepers, are so highly respected for their bravery and integrity, that the Government of Cyprus offered to pay for all their expenses to stay. However our resources and, most importantly, personnel are strechted so thin that this was not a possibility.

Since that time other great injustice and calamity has preoccupied the world’s attention.
Cypriots remain divided and their State lies in an uneasy zone where the debate revolves around the interests of other International players, Greece, Turkey, Britain and the EU, to name a few. Nothing in the efforts of these powers reinforces the original intentions of Mankind when Cypriots, for the first time in thousands of years as a people with a unique and vital culture, were given sovereignty over their own lives.

Thus, due to Modern Contempoary International Politics we see the demise and the eventual extinction of a community which has enjoyed peaceful coexsistence because, for expedience, they are identified as Greeks or Turks. This romantic notion has only been encouraged to suit the agenda of others whose gain comes from dividing these people. Nothing should be more important to Kofi Annan. This is an affront to our vision for Humankind. Having put so much into this effort, it is difficult for the august body which he represents to maintain a credibility which will prove their commitment toward world peace, an end to warfare, except against real enemies : natural disaster, hunger, ignorance, and disease.