The wall finally came down earlier this month in the only divided capital left in the world. This is not part of the Iron Curtain, but a wall through Nikossia, Cyprus, which separates European Union member Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - a country whose independence is only recognized by Turkey.
When the border crossing reopened April 3 on the main shopping street, it added to the two others through the UN-enforced green line, a long line formed of eager crossers including the students of the AU Brussels program, with dozens of cameramen on scene to capture the historic event.
As part of one of our many study trips, the AU Brussels Program was on-hand to witness an unprecedented sign of confidence between the two sides of the island. The occasion was even more surreal considering Jerry Sheridan, our professor, could remember a newspaper picture of 30 years ago of the closing of the crossing.
The event provided a good context to our meetings with high-level officials at both of the countries' foreign ministries and the UN, and a good conversation topic during our island tour of the North with Turkish Cypriot foreign officers. All sides were somewhat optimistic about the upcoming negotiations between the only Communist leaders in the European Union - a last-ditch effort by the international community to solve the stalemate.
A bizarre twist was that both the UN and the Turkish government agree that the UN's mission, the longest and probably least violent in the organization's history, has also been the biggest obstacle to a permanent solution by reducing any impetus for agreement.
The 13-day trip gave the oft-forgotten conflicts in the Balkans a sense of reality most Americans will never know. We will stand at the place where an assassination plunged the world into World War I and the sites where ethnic cleansing in the Balkans necessitated United States and NATO air campaigns to stop the bloodshed. Coming after our trip to The Hague, the Netherlands to watch the war crimes tribunal of the leaders responsible for the genocide, the trip will truly round out our knowledge.
Our trip will take us to Sarajevo, Bosnia; Zagreb, Croatia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria and Augsburg, Germany after our stop in Cyprus, all with a focus of better understanding the often forgotten, but still tense, Balkans. These will provide considerable contrast to our Western European trips to the rich nations of the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg to round out a truly European program.
David Teslicko Junior, School of International Service
