Re-opening of Cyprus Street can build trust, Christian media told

By Stephen G Brown, (ENI)

Paralimni, Cyprus, 4 April 2008

Checkpoint into Northern Cyprus (Photo by Stephen G Brown, ENI)

The opening of a street crossing point in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, is a symbolic measure that could build trust between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, a meetingof European Christian journalists and communicators has heard.

"Now is the time for everyone to ensure that the breakdown of the 'wall' in the shopping centre of Nicosia will really be the first and right step towards peace," said Cyprus-born Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud, a policy advisor on peace and security issues at the meeting in Cyprus.

She was addressing members of the World Association for ChristianCommunication on 3 April, the day that Ledra Street in Nicosia was opened for the first time in decades.

Cyprus has been split into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island, following a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriot supporters of a union with Greece. The division between the two parts runs through Nicosia.

"Neither side could admit that it has wronged the other," noted Eskidjian Weiderud, now based in Sweden as an advisor to several Scandinavian church-linked aid groups.

The Christian communicators were meeting in Paralimni in southeast Cyprus, a few kilometres from the border of the Turkish-controlled north of the island. WACC, whose headquarters are in Toronto, Canada, promotes communication for social change. The 2-6 April meeting of its European Regional Association is dealing with issues of communication and peace in Europe and the Middle East.

"The mass media have a great role to play because the media could play a positive role of promoting the understanding of the people," or a "negative role" of fostering misunderstanding and hate, said Orthodox Metropolitan Vasilios Karayiannis, welcoming participants.

Eskidjian Weiderud said communication played a significant role in the 2004 rejection by Greek Cypriots of a UN plan for reunification of the island that Turkish Cypriots had endorsed. It was difficult for non-experts to understand or even read the 190-page UN 2004 reunification blueprint, written in a dense and legalistic style, she noted.

As a result, "Both sides were prepared for the referendum by the media and their respective leadership," she added. "Communication played the most important role in defining the future of this country." Still, "Today, there is a new atmosphere," said Eskidjian Weiderud, who believed that while the opening of Ledra Street in Nicosia, "does not constitute an end of the division of the island,it's an important symbolic measure to build confidence". [425 words]

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WACC promotes communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines people's common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression.

The World Association for Christian Communication is a UK Registered Charity (number 296073) and a Company registered in England and Wales (number 2082273) with its Registered Office at 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST. It is an incorporated Charitable Organisation in Canada (number 83970 9524 RR0001) with its head office at 308 Main Street, Toronto ON, M4C 4X7.