Between homes, exiles welcomed in Cyprus
By Russell Working, Globe Correspondent, 5/13/2002
LARNACA, Cyprus - In Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, they were surrounded by Israeli snipers and armor, and holed up in a compound with overflowing toilets and rotting corpses in the basement.
Now 12 Palestinian gunmen find themselves in the three-star Flamingo Hotel, across from a beach where Scandinavian tourists sunbathe topless and down the street from the hungry crowds in the Salt Lake City fish tavern.
Their temporary home may seem like a shock for militants expelled from the West Bank in an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. But the men - along with a wounded comrade-in-arms who was admitted to a hospital upon arrival - are on friendly soil as they wait for more permanent homes to open in Europe this week. (So far, Greece, Spain, and Italy have expressed interest in taking the men, whom Israel expelled as terrorists.)
Cyprus is a divided land: 35 percent of the eastern Mediterranean island, where most of the ethnic Turkish population lives, is occupied by Turkey, which has populated its portion of the island with settlers from Anatolia. And this colors Cyprus's views of the conflict simmering elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Many Greek Cypriots, who see themselves as a small nation illegally dominated by a powerful neighbor, equate the Palestinian struggle with their own.
There are, of course, differences. Greek Cypriots have not sent suicide bombers into pizzerias and Passover seder s. And Turkey makes no claims that its occupation of Cyprus has strategic value - it says its soldiers are here to protect the island's ethnic Turks.
Nevertheless, the sympathy many Cypriots feel for Palestinians is real. The good will extends to the Parliament, which passed a resolution last month backing the Palestinian cause and condemning ''the genocide conducted by the Sharon government.'' (The resolution made no condemnation of the wave of suicide attacks that prompted the incursions into the West Bank.)
Dr. Marios Matsakis, a Cypriot member of Parliament who tried unsuccessfully to meet with Yasser Arafat last month, said it is natural that Cypriots are drawn to Palestinians. ''We might feel a little closer to the Palestinian people because we had a number of Cypriot refugees expelled from their own homes by the Turkish army,'' Matsakis said. ''And they're powerless to do anything.''
Today Nicosia is Europe's only divided capital. On the Greek side, Lidras Street, a broad pedestrian avenue lined with cafes and shops, ends at a concrete wall and guard post. Tourists can climb a wooden platform and peer down a rubble-strewn alley at Turkish recruits in the distance. In some places the Green Line between the two sides thins to the width of an alley. While strolling at the foot of the old city wall, one can look up and see a handful of Turks at a cafe on the top, sipping coffee and grinning through a chain-link fence.
Cypriots have expressed little fear of the Palestinians in the Flamingo, despite an Israeli government spokesman's insistence that ''all these 13 had blood on their hands.'' The commander of Cyprus's antiterrorist unit, Iakovos Papacostas, told Reuters that taking in the men was a matter of charity: ''Cypriot people are very friendly, and this was a humanitarian issue.''
In the Flamingo, employees say other guests don't mind the presence of gunmen who showed up wearing kaffiyehs tied around their heads and, in one case, a Palestinian flag as a cape. Antonis Josephides, the manager, said the militants have no contact with the other guests. ''They're all staying on the fourth floor, and there's nobody else on that floor,'' he said. ''They take their meals alone on the mezzanine.''
The gunmen's first meal was fish and chips, with water, juice, and coffee. But comparative luxury was not an occasion for rejoicing.
''It's hard for them that they have to leave their country,'' said Samir Abu Ghazaleh, the Palestinian charge d'affaires in Nicosia. ''But we believe that in a short time they will be back.''
The government says the men are not prisoners, but it has asked them to stay indoors for security reasons. Soldiers are guarding the hotel.
Nevertheless, Abu Ghazaleh said the hospitality won't be forgotten. ''The people are very warm,'' he said. ''There have been many Palestinians who came here when they had to leave home.''
This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 5/13/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.