First island-wide TRIALOG training in Nikosia, Cyprus

While on a very high political level a Cypriot solution - pushed from the leaders of both groups, Mehmet Ali Talat and Dimitris Christofias - seems closer than never (see also article "Island-wide Cyprus Development Platform"), TRIALOG reached to bring NGO representatives from both still separated parts of the country together for a common 2-day training on September 16-17, in order to strengthen partnerships between Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) especially regarding the topic of international development. This island-wide TRIALOG training focussed on the topic of “Public Awareness Raising and Development Education”.

Not only the new positive political atmosphere laid the ground for the training, but also the fact that TRIALOG discovered a passage in the text of an official EC-document which states that, in line with the Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty 2003 (see below), Turkish Cypriots are EU citizens. While we are still waiting for a written and formal confirmation from the EC that this would mean eligibility for Turkish Cypriot CSOs in EC calls, we held our training with the aim to already inform NGOs about the area of Development Education and Awareness Raising (DE/AR) in Europe, about the situation of so called developing countries and last but not least about funding possibilities for Cypriot CSOs. At the same time the training created an open space for new partnerships and for common project ideas in DE/AR between Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot NG(D)Os.

32 participants – 14 representatives from 9 Turkish-Cypriot and 18 from Greek-Cypriot NGOs followed the invitation to the training, which on the first day took place in the South and on the second day in the North. Although not all participants participated during both days on both locations as their very personal family histories still prevent some of them to cross the border physically, it needs to be stressed that all participants worked together in a very open and positive atmosphere.

At the end of the 2 days, eight common topics and projects have been defined and further meetings and telephone conferences fixed. It was decided to develop some of the different ideas into three project proposals to be submitted within the next EC Call for Proposals in DE/AR, which is expected to be launched in November/December 2008.

Additionally, 5 NGOs showed interest to approach TRIALOG in the next few weeks to post their partner searches for joint projects and to identify partner NGOs and/or lead agencies on an European level to develop common actions on DE/AR in Cyprus.

For more information on the training please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at

Text passage from the Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty 2003: "The whole of the island is considered to be part of the EU. However, in the northern part of the island, in the areas in which the Government of Cyprus does not exercise effective control, EU legislation is suspended. This means for example that these areas are outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU. However, the suspension does not affect the personal rights of Turkish Cypriots as EU citizens. They are citizens of a Member State, the Republic of Cyprus, even though they may live in the areas not under government control."

Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG