Crossroads

One of my most beautiful experiences-the Crossroads Youth camp!

It was the summer of 2016 and as an ambitious 17 year old Cypriot I decided to participate in a bi-communal Youth Camp called ‘Crossroads’.In this camp the participants came from both the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus and I was super excited about it!

Why was this such a big issue?

Well it was because for some years now, and particularly since the Turkish invasion in Cyprus in 1974 -which resulted in the division of Cyprus- these two communities were having quite a few conflicts even up to date.Despite this, in the recent years there have been a number of local initiatives from both sides that aim at reuniting the Turkish-Cypriot and the Greek-Cypriot communities through various cultural events.

As a Greek-Cypriot with a family that supported the unification of Cyprus I was very interested in getting in-touch with the Turkish-Cypriot community -this was something that neither I or any of my friends had ever experienced as the two communities live separately in the North and South side of the country.I was looking forward to exchanging a few thoughts with them, getting to listen to their side of the story and taking an insight on their way of life ,their culture, religion and beliefs.

When the time finally came I was very nervous, but thanks to the amazing work and support of our mentors Oya Akin, Natalia B. Kouhartsiouk, Christos Charitou, Süleyman Gelener everyone participating felt very welcome and comfortable with each other. Since my first moments in this camp I got very good impressions of every kid that participated in that event from both communities and I was very happy when I realized that I wasn’t the only one with these interests-to get to know the real side of the other community.

The ages of the participants ranged from 12 to 18 years old and the camp lasted for 10 days.Every single day we got to know each other more and more, we started creating beautiful memories and went through some wonderful experiences and something that I noticed was that many bad stereotypes that were carried out by the press,media and people from both communities where all wrong.Thanks to this experience we realized that people from the ‘other’ community were just like us: friendly, cheerful, generous, loving, agreeable, understanding, considerate and kind-among many others!

This is the camp that made me realize the power of communication, which might actually pushed me towards choosing a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications,Media and Culture and I also believe that it played a part in shaping who I am today.

I would also like to give my special thanks to : Anthien Economides Papapericleous, Kiki Argyrou and everyone who worked hard to make this amazing camp possible!