One would think that the “cottage industry” of books on the Cyprus Problem would have exhausted the themes and explanations regarding the relationship between the island’s two main communities. However, Benjamin Broome’s recent offering, Building Bridges Across the Green Line, seeks to go beyond the politics and conspiracies, and in doing so provides a practical and insightful tour of the complex patchwork of intertwined histories, identities and value systems which continue to baffle the most experienced diplomats.

Broome does this through the prism of intercultural communication, via the unofficial contacts across the Green Line, which characterised the first tentative attempts to initiate a bi-communal dialogue between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, outside of the formal, political manoeuvres in various capitals and the United Nations. The book concludes that this citizens’ dialogue indeed triumphed against all the odds – not in that these contacts have led to any profound normalisation of relations between the two communities – but rather that they succeeded in exploding a number of existing taboos and the courage of those bi-communal pioneers helped pave the way for subsequent formal bi-communal initiatives.      

However, where Broome excels in his analysis is in those parts of the book which attempt to explore the value systems which underpin the Cyprus problem, and to a large part make it resistant to a solution. For his part the author openly acknowledges the socio-political dynamics of Cyprus in which many interest groups have a stake in maintaining the status quo of the conflict, and lays out the different socio-psychological reasons for its insolubility. Broome focuses his analysis on the “differences” between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot belief systems and explores the factors which have been instrumental in the formation of each community’s image of the other. Indeed Broome’s insights become most acute when he describes how each community perceives itself vis-à-vis the conflict. He notes that each community’s perception of itself is one of the main factors preventing a solution, where, for example, the Turkish Cypriots’ struggle to survive is pitted against the Greek Cypriots’ struggle to exercise their individual rights. 

Thus Broome argues that, “In order for Cyprus to experience genuine peace at some point, the parties have to work through differences in perceptions and develop an understanding and appreciation of each other’s point of view. Furthermore, they must work to form a shared vision of the island’s future, so that in spite of the differences in their interpretations of the past, they can move beyond these opposing views to create a place where both communities can live in peace and work toward common goals.” (p.58)    

Building Bridges Across the Green Line concludes by proposing a number of practical steps for the future of inter-cultural dialogue on the island. First, future dialogue should take the opportunity to promote a more balanced view of the past, rather than the selective memory of past events which each community frequently chooses to use to tell its own story.  Second, both communities need to acknowledge their mutual responsibility for the Cyprus conflict. Third, each community needs to help the other to deal with past pain and suffering. Though the wrongs of the past cannot be righted, Broome suggests that each community needs to change its public discourse to acknowledge its own part in conducting past wrongs. Fourth, the art of dialogue needs to develop, so that protagonists begin to “listen to learn,” rather than listening to the other party in order to refute, challenge or correct something that someone has said. Fifth, it becomes incumbent on both communities to convey more positive images of the other, perhaps leading to a shared empathy. Broome’s final main point is for Cypriot interlocutors to focus on the future: “Once they direct their thinking towards how their relationship will look when they are no longer in conflict, former opponents will be able to redefine themselves and the way in which they will work together under new arrangements.” (p.93)    

Benjamin Broome’s book, Building Bridges Across the Green Line: A Guide to Intercultural Communication in Cyprus, is available in English, Greek and Turkish, from the offices of UNDP-ACT in the UN Protected Area in Nicosia. For more information, please call Lora Megerditchian on +357 22 87 47 77 or email: lora.megerditchian@undp.org.