Akıncı, GC leader join education programme
PEACE in Cyprus can only be reached through the development of a “culture of peace” through education.
Those were the words of President Mustafa Akıncı who addressed a gathering at the Ledra Palace hotel in the Lefkoşa buffer zone on “Transformational Leadership for Peace”, which was also attended by Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, on Monday.
The joint education programme, organised by the bicommunal Technical Committee on Education, brought together 50 school head teachers and their deputies each from both sides of the divide.
The head of the UN’s peacekeeping forces in Cyprus (Unficyp), Elizabeth Spehar, also attended.
Mr Akıncı told the opening of the event that
“whatever the name of the order to be established by the Turkish [Cypriots] and the Greek Cypriots . . . what is important is that everyone lives in freedom as equals”.
He said without a peace culture even the “best of any order could not succeed”.
Instead of a “culture of violence” that gives way to “wars, conflict, pain, inequality, racism and discrimination, it is clear that there is a need for efforts to put [into place] the culture of peace”, he stressed.
“Peace does not mean having persons or communities that do not have any differences of opinion or problems. . . What is important is to approach these with a culture of peace . . . which [means] approaching matters not through violence, but through dialogue and other humane [methods].”
President Akıncı said while “planning our education systems the first question we should ask ourselves is what sort of individual and community do we want for the future?”
He said education should have the elements of “peace, prosperity, freedom and equality” to “allow for the transformation of being allowed to live together through diversity and [building] a structure that allows for the joint development”.
Referring to “peace culture education”, Mr Akıncı said “this is not a concept that only applies to the Cyprus solution process . . . but [to] intercommunal peace”.
“Education is the basis for a sustainable new structure in which everyone will live in equality, freedom and security,” he added.
Also addressing the event was Mr Anastasiades, who said that the “status quo [in Cyprus] prevents all citizens from equally benefitting from all the rights, freedoms and prosperity”.
“It is an essential element in our efforts for peaceful coexistence, as long as the conditions allow us as
Cypriots, to work to resolve the Cyprus problem as an independent country,” he said.
“You realise that they are steps in the right direction, but not enough for a solution to the Cyprus problem. First and foremost, respect is needed for a state that no longer has to be a subsidiary of any third country.”
Mr Anastasiades claimed that “Cypriots coexisted peacefully . . . until others intervened”.
Presidential Turkish Cypriot technical committee general coordinator Meltem Onurkan Samani said it was the “first time such an activity has been organised for school administrators” and that the “support and participation of leaders for confidence-building measures is important”.