Today is the day that I leave with my 27 classmates and 1 awesome professor for 3 weeks in the Mediterranean.
I am traveling tonight on a red-eye flight to London's Heathrow airport then onto Larnaca, Cyprus! I'll be in Cyprus for about 10 days, then head to Athens, Greece for about 6 days and then finish up the trip with about 6 more days in Istanbul.
In total, this 21 day trip will have us meeting with at least 56 speakers who will tell us about themselves and where they fit into "The Cyprus Issue". (which I realize I still haven't talked about in here, oops).
As I've gotten a few phone calls expressing concern over where I'm headed to and the fact that I'm going to learn about a conflict in the conflict zone, let me assuage your fears. Cyprus has been a divided island since 1974. The UN Buffer Zone, or Green Zone, divides the island in half; the north is administered by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a country recognized by just one other country (Turkey), the south is administered by the Republic of Cyprus and is internationally recognized as the sovereign government of the island. The north identified as the Turkish Cypriot community and the south as the Greek Cypriot community. There are some on the island who identify solely as Cypriot, Greek or Turkish, and many foreign nationals as well. While the UN Buffer zone has been monitored by a UN peacekeeping force since it was created in 1974, there has been little, if any, violence at the border.
About the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa: Cyprus is home to British military bases which may be utilized during the current strikes on Libya even though the Cypriot government has expressed that they do not wish for the British to use these bases for this purpose.
I'll try to update this as much as possible during the trip!
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