Cyprus 2009
This report largely reflects the results of a one-week study tour by 17 students from the MA program in Conflict Management and related fields at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, along with two faculty advisors, to Cyprus in January 2009. Although our time on the island was short, the students prepared by doing extensive background reading prior to the January trip and by participating in a series of lectures by seniors officials involved in the Cyprus problem from Washington and New York. These included the Ambassadors to the United States of the Republic of Cyprus and of Greece, the head of the office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in Washington, a representative of the Embassy of Turkey in Washington, representatives of the Commission of the European Union in Washington, and Alvaro de Soto, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Cyprus during the period of the negotiation of the “Annan Plan.” Our week on Cyprus was equally divided between the northern and southern parts of the island, and it included some 36 meetings. With the kind assistance of the governments of the Republic of Cyprus and of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, we met on both sides of the island with senior government officials, political party leaders, academic specialists, and with NGO’s dealing with conflict resolution and issues such as protection of human rights, missing persons, and the cultural heritage of the island. In addition, we met with senior officials of the European Union on both sides of the island, and with leaders of the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), including a tour of the buffer zone where it divides the capital city of Nicosia (Lefcosia/Lefkoşa). None of this makes any of us “experts” on the Cyprus problem, but it certainly exposed everyone in the group to a wide range of views and approaches to resolving it. The full text of the report is available here in .pdf format | 
