United Nations.- By Apostolos Zoupaniotis

Permanent Representative of Cyprus at the UN, Ambassador Nicos Emiliou inaugurated on Tuesday evening, at the Cyprus House in New York, a photo exhibition on the occasion of the 50 years of the UN peacekeeping force’s presence in Cyprus. The event was attended among others by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous.

Speaking during the event, Ladsous referred to the UN support offered in Cyprus to “the very important talks that started after the common statement of the 11th of February of this year.”

“It’s not easy work but I think both leaders are working with a will and I think, I hope, we all hope, that this opens a way for fulfilling that wish or a peaceful and reunited Cyprus. I think this is our joint endeavor and it is of course a great satisfaction to see that close up,” he noted.

He said that over these 50 years no less than 100,000 peacekeepers, women and men, have served in Cyprus, recalling that he visited Cyprus last week because within the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of UNFICYP, a big medal parade took place to honor those peacekeepers that are presently on the ground.

The UN official said that this was “a very moving and at the same time a very splendid ceremony,” adding that “it was also an opportunity to reflect upon the role of our peacekeepers in what is our second longest mission, still very much fulfilling a duty that is necessary.”

Noting that the last fatality along the buffer zone goes back almost 20 years, he noted at the same time that “it is a work that it is more akin to embroidery, fine hand-stitching, because there’ s plenty of little solutions to find to a number of problems and it’s a constant work that mobilizes everyone from the SRSG down to our youngest soldiers.”

“I think it is recognized by the people of Cyprus, I think this is something that I could feel in the talks I’ve had with the Government,” he added.

Furthermore he said that he had interesting talks with the Turkish Cypriot “mayor” of the occupied part of Nicosia and the Greek Cypriot Mayor of Nicosia “and it was quite amazing to me to see how in fact these two officials cooperate in straightening things big or small, ranging from cooperating to fight fires in the buffer zone to finding common solutions to municipal problems about garbage, about water treatment.”

Ladsous also noted that “UNFICYP will be creating a precedent in a month and a half when a force commander comes for the first time in the history of the UN, a woman, General Lund from Norway and actually that will make it happen that UNFICYP will be of a double female leadership, that also creates a precedent for United Nations.”

On his part Emiliou noted that the Permanent Mission of Cyprus is organizing the photo exhibition to express its gratitude and appreciation to the United Nations, the troop contributing countries, as well as to all states that have supported UNFICYP through voluntary and assessed contributions, for their continuous commitment and support to the peace-keeping mission in Cyprus”

He recalled that President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades said on May 20 2014, at the opening of the exhibition “50 years UNFICYP: In appreciation” in Nicosia, that we “look forward to the day in the not-so-distant future when an exhibition commemorating UNFICYP will be inaugurated in a peaceful, reunited Cyprus; in a reunified country where Greek and Turkish Cypriots will reap the benefits of a shared and prosperous future, just as their forefathers had done in the past; in a reunited and blooming Cyprus which former peace-keepers will visit to form new memories of peace.”