"The Greeks don't remember what happened before 1974 and the Turks can't forget it."⁴⁴

UNFICYP is very active in promoting bicommunal activities. Other organizations and embassies are also involved in bicommunal activities. However, as the monitor of the buffer zone and principal intermediary between the two sides, UNFICYP must necessarily help coordinate bicommunal activities.

Two pictures I displayed on the overhead together at the conference are photocopied on the next page.

The first photograph is of a Turkish Cypriot picture board, one of three, that one sees at the checkpoint on the way into the "TRNC". It shows pictures of death, destruction, and refugees. The words say "No more Massacres, No more Mass Graves since 1974 . . . Thanks to Turkey, Thanks to the Turkish Army, Thanks to Our Fighters."

The second photograph is of one of several Greek Cypriot picture boards at the Ledra Street tourist observation post. It too depicts death, destruction, and refugees. The captions say things like: "Churches are no exception to destruction."

What is the problem here? As the picture boards make clear, the two sides have profoundly different and incompatible views of history, views in which the other side is responsible for all the intercommunal ills on Cyprus while one's own side is only a victim. As a former Force Commander of UNFICYP said: "The Greeks don't remember what happened before 1974 and the Turks can't forget it."⁴⁵

How is this related to bicommunal activities? These pictures highlight a fundamental problem that hinders coming to a solution and which portends danger if a solution is imposed prematurely: ethno-nationalism. For years, both sides have engaged in nationalistic propaganda, one-sided bias, and chauvinism in everything from the schools to the media to politics. For peace to last and for tragedy to be averted, this vilification and devil-imaging has got to stop. This is what bicommunal activities are trying to achieve. As the U.N. Secretary-General notes:

It is hard to measure exactly what effect bicommunal activities have, but I strongly believe in their usefulness. Such person-to-person confidence-building measures should continue well after an initial solution is reached. One problem with many current bicommunal activities is that they are relatively informal and undirected (jazz concerts, cultural activities, and the like). Any bicommunal activities are better than the alternative of no bicommunal activities. Ideally though, bicommunal activities should involve people in as directed an activity as possible.⁴⁸ Directed and purposeful activities in which people must cooperate to achieve shared goals are more likely to create true common interests and bonds.

I propose an idea that might help address the one-sided history and excess nationalism issue more directly. I call it the common history project. This project is no panacea, but it might be a step in the right direction. It would have to be one of many such steps. Over the course of years, these steps may, with luck and determination from the leaders and people on both sides, prepare the Cypriots for a solution in which the two sides can live together and share governance of Cyprus.

If the two sides work together and can establish a common history, this would be a sign of considerable promise that the two sides were in fact prepared to live together. The common history project is not a fault assigning exercise but it cannot avoid being in part 'a who did exactly what to whom described as factually as possible' exercise. No doubt this is extremely difficult, but so is living together.