Cyprus Settlement Project 1973-74

December 2018

The Cyprus Resettlement Project

The Cyprus Resettlement Project was created to explore the possibilities of using techniques developed in post-independence India, in dealing with the sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims, and applying them to the inter-communal conflict between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots that emerged after the 1963 dissolution of the Cypriot  National Government. Several prominent people created the opening to explore whether the Gandhian notions of Shanti-Sena (Peace Brigade) could be successfully applied in another cultural `context. 

This group included Professor Paul Hare (Haverford College), Brig. General Michael Harbottle (retired UN Chief of Staff UNICYP 1966-68), Narayan Desai, son of Mahadev Desai (Gandhi’s personal secretary) and Charlie Walker (Quaker civil rights organizer) and activists from India, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the US - all of whom had some experience in working with inter-communal strife in their respective countries. I was invited to join after being introduced to Charlie Walker by my friend Ellen Wilkinson. The steering group approached the Eli Lilly Foundation, who underwrote the project with a grant of $50,000. Wilmington Friends School granted me a three-month leave of absence from November 1973 through February 1974.

The project had the blessing of the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios and the head of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot Administration, Mr. Denktash. The 20,000 internally displaced persons from the 1963 collapse were starting to return to their villages of origin after 10 years of living as refugees. There were thousands of UN personnel on the island as a result of the UN Security Council creation of UNFICYP in 1964.

The project functioned on three primary levels:

1) National Negotiating Team – this sub-group organized the negotiations between the Turkish Cypriot Administration, Cyprus National Government and the United Nations (Osario Trefall).

I was an active member of this group for the first month of the project. My area of responsibility was coordinating the civil engineers from both sides to develop a process to identify the homes, locate the refugee owners and to get the construction process underway. This work included working with the United Nations Economics officers.

2) District level – the Cypriot national government was sub-divided into five separate Districts.  Spreads throughout these districts were 119 villages from where both groups had fled during the 1963 troubles. The entire Turkish Cypriot population lived in a zone running north from Nicosia, in the center of the island, to Kyrenia on the Meditterean Sea. Turkish Cypriots could move in and out of the zone, but no Greek Cypriots were allowed in. The UN and CRP had total access. We carried official transit papers from  both Makarios and Denktash.

I was responsible for working with the District officer for the Kyrenia District in preparing plans for the resettlement of the villages of Dhorios and Lapithos, two of the four villages approved for resettlement by the national government.

3) Village level – The CRP had teams living in four of the districts, whose job was to open lines of communication between the two Cypriot groups around the resettlement efforts back to villages. 

I was part of the four person CRP Team living in Dhorios. Kate Kemp (England), Francie Lund (So.Africa), Manav Mandel (India) and myself shared a home, on the second floor above a local sheepherder and his wife. Our responsibilities were to connect with the two Cypriot communities and to manage the resettlement effort their. Prior to our arrival there, a number of Turkish Cypriots had already moved back into their homes and more were on the way.

Some quick observations of this three-month experience.

1) The CRP was successful in breaking the diplomatic logjam between the two Cypriot factions and creating a resettlement process for the 20,000 internally displaced persons. The Cyprus National Legislature allocated 1.5 million pounds for the rebuilding of homes vacated in 1963.

2) The success of the CRP showed that non-violent techniques were possible in addressing inter-communal violence.

3) That there is commonality amongst all peoples, regardless of ethnicity or race. Most people want to live in stable places of dignity and possibility.

4) Cyprus is, yet again, another example of external actors (UK, US, Turkey, Greece) creating havoc upon a native population.

5) For this writer, the CRP was a life-changing transformative experience, one that continued to propel me down “the road less traveled.”