The United Nations buffer zone in central Nicosia looks like a film set for a Second World War movie. Many of the old buildings along the narrow, broken streets are propped up by iron girders; walls are pock-marked with bullet holes; plates and bottles still clutter the tables of the restaurants and caffès that were abandoned in an instant; the names of soldiers are carved onto facades; barbed wired is everywhere.
The narrow buffer zone – only a few metres wide at points – is also known as the Green Line. It runs 180 kilometres along the east-west length of the island, dividing the northern Turkish side from the Greek-Cypriot southern side. Nicosia, a capital cut in half, was the scene of intense fighting in July and August, 1974, when Turkey invaded the island. The Canadians in their light-blue UN helmets, who had already been in Cyprus in for a decade, were there in force as UN peacekeepers. More than a few did not come home alive.
On a warm, sunny Friday morning, almost 100 Canadian veterans, most of them in their 60s, 70s and 80s, one of them 91, strolled along the buffer zone, led by a young British soldier. For many of them – some 28,000 Canadians served as peacekeepers in Cyprus from 1964 to 1993 – it was their first return trip in decades. Their memories came flooding back.
Michel Beauvais of Ottawa, a former lieutenant, remembers the intimidation tactics used by the Turkish soldiers during his duty tour in 1983. “When I was patrolling, the Turks would bang metal doors with bats to scare us,” he told The Globe and Mail. “When we got used to that, they unleashed German Shepherds on us.”
Ray White, left, was among the group of almost 100 Canadian veterans returning to Cyprus decades after their UN peacekeeping mission there. Walking the deserted streets of Nicosia, Mr. White, who served in Cyprus from 1979 to 1980, recalled the eeriness he felt on his tour.
Ray White, a former private in the Lord Strathcona’s Horse armoured regiment of Calgary, recalls seeing the smoke rising from a tractor driven by a Greek Cypriot farmer that was destroyed by a landmine. The tour reminded him of the eerieness he felt on his tour. “When I was here in ‘79 and ‘80, I would see restaurants that were abandoned in 1974 with the tables that were still set,” he said. “There was also a Mercedes showroom stuffed with new Mercedes cars in them. The dealership was in the buffer zone and the owner could not get them out.”
The vets passed by a crumbling bar. A tall glass container of what looked like a gin bottle still stood on one of the wooden tables.
Many of the men remembered the beloved “cs house,” the residence of Annie Couppis, a Greek Cypriot in her 70s who refused to leave the buffer zone during the 1974 invasion. She was allowed to stay after the ceasefire agreement and had to be escorted by Canadian troops whenever she wanted to leave her house. The veterans said she was effectively “adopted” by the Canadians, who shared their food rations with her. In return she gave them coffee, tea and companionship. When she died in 1991, the UN paid for her funeral and invited dozens of dignitaries.
Veteran Dennis Winzowski, a former paratrooper with 2 Commando of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, served in Cyprus in 1974, the year of the invasion.
The Canadian vets walked by the spot where a Greek Cypriot was killed by the Turks after he climbed a wall to snatch a Turkish flag. Despite the tensions and the sporadic violence, some of it deadly, after the 1974 invasion, the Canadians tried to remain good-natured to both sides.
That year, Dennis Winzoski, formerly a paratrooper with 2 Commando of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, said he sometimes played cards with the Turks. But even that bit of fun could turn tense.
“I was counting points in the card game and the Turkish sergeant said I made a mistake,” Mr. Winzoski said. “He pulled a P-38 pistol on me and demanded that I count again. I did and I hadn’t made a mistake. Good thing.”
Canada has a long, fine tradition of peacekeeping. Canada has taken part in many UN peacekeeping missions over the decades and won international kudos for its role in mediating the 1956 Suez crisis in Egypt. Lester Pearson, then Canadian external affairs minister, later prime minister, received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve the Suez crisis.
Cyprus was the longest peacekeeping mission for the Canadians. They made up the first international contingent of troops on the island in 1964, when ethnic tension between the Greek-Cypriot majority and the Turkish-Cypriot minority threatened to engulf the whole island in war. To keep the two sides apart, the UN in March of that year formed UNFICYP – the UN Force in Cyprus – which remains active today. The Canadians back then numbered 1,100, making up about a fifth of the UN force.
The Canadians say their jobs were often tedious but nonetheless demanded full attention, since minor incidents of intimidation or violence could spiral out of control in a second – still can today.
“Peacekeepers are extremely busy,” said Colin Stewart, the Canadian who is the current Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the island and head of UNFICYP. “Each incident is like a spark into dry grass that can blow up into a full fire if not immediately contained.”
Cyprus was the longest peacekeeping mission for the Canadians, who made up the first international contingent of troops on the island in 1964, when ethnic tension between the Greek-Cypriot majority and the Turkish-Cypriot minority threatened to engulf the whole island in war.
Canadian military historian Andrew Burtch says that for the first ten years of their peacekeeping mission, the Canadians were exposed to few outright dangers. That all changed in July, 1974, when a Greek-inspired coup overthrew the Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios III, and installed a former leader of a Greek-Cypriot terrorist cell whose goal was to unify Cyprus with Greece.
Within days of the coup, Turkey rushed 40,000 troops to the island with the stated intention of protecting the Turkish minority. Suddenly, the UNFICYP soldiers were caught in the middle of a war.
The first ceasefire attempts failed. When they did, the Canadians placed strategic locations, including Nicosia airport, just west of the city, and the Ledra Palace Hotel in its centre, under their control. Seventeen Canadians were wounded in the fighting and two privates, Gilbert Perron and Jean-Claude Berger, were killed by rifle fire. In one incident north of Nicosia, the Canadians were forced into a firefight with Greek forces, marking the Canadians first combat since the Korean War in the early 1950s.
On Aug. 16 of that year, a ceasefire was declared, partitioning the island into the Republic of Cyprus, in the south, a member of the European Union (though not NATO), and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey. All attempts to reunify the island, or create a “two-state” solution, have failed, though Turkish and Greek Cypriots can easily cross the buffer zone at various points.
Around 28,000 Canadians served as peacekeepers in Cyprus from 1964 to 1993, and some did not come home. Nine of the 28 Canadian soldiers who died in Cyprus are buried in the British garrison cemetery.
Canada lost 28 soldiers in Cyprus, nine of whom are buried in the British garrison cemetery (the U.K. maintains two sovereign military bases on the island). Most died in accidents, such as vehicle rollovers, drownings or falling from observations towers. At least one died by an accidental shooting, and two by natural causes.
Mr. Burtch considers the long UN mission a victory for peacekeeping. “Broadly speaking, it was a success, because the immediate crisis was resolved,” he said. “This was a mission that proved its worth.”
The Canadian vets agree that their decades on patrol helped to keep the island from descending into full-blown war. “Because we secured the airport, which was a strategic objective for the Turks, and the Ledra Palace hotel, we changed the story of Cyprus with our mission,” said Marc Caron, the retired lieutenant-general who was in Cyprus at the height of the violence in 1974. “We prevented a bloodbath at those locations. If we had not been successful, the Turks’ invasion would have reached farther south.”