Photo exhibition organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the 50th anniversary of United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has been opened.
The exhibition themed ‘50 Year Long Story, UNFICYP in Cyprus’ which is composed of photos depicting 50 years of UNFICYP in the island has been opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Özdil Nami. Chief of missions based in Cyprus and the foreign media members have also participated in the exhibition.
In his opening speech Foreign Minister Özdil Nami said: “We would like to invite you to a visual tour encompassing the last 50 years of Cyprus. Blue bereted UN soldiers arrived in Cyprus fifty years ago amid political chaos and rampant violence where Turkish Cypriots endured ever deteriorating conditions.
This exhibition tries to play a modest part in documenting these troubled five decades;
Reminding everyone including ourselves that Cyprus is still a divided country and those fifty
years is more than enough.
Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots have gone through many ordeals during the past half century; decolonization, civil strife, a failed state, mass expulsions, massacres, life in ghettos for many
years and an eventual liberation followed by countless rounds of talks that all failed to reach a
comprehensive settlement.
Winds of hope are once again blowing on both sides of the island following the resumption
of comprehensive talks; our expectation is that with political leadership and volition our island will embrace peace for good. Alas;
Fifty years is enough!
The exhibition captures instances of our collective memories. It is a visual itinerary of how
our lives have taken turns in these past five decades; how Cyprus missed to become an island
of peace, how we failed to build a Cyprus for all. We hope that this exhibition will help us
draw lessons from a past we missed and shed light to our future with our fifty years of loss.
We leave you alone with the exhibition with the hope that we will forgive without forgetting,
face the past without blaming and turn our losses into gains for future.”