A solution over coffee

Members of the Buyuk Han Coffee Club are a living testament of what reunification could look like on the island.

Irrespective of the state of the reunification talks, this 20 something strong group of Greek and Turkish like minded Cypriots have been sharing coffee, opinions and laughter every Saturday in Nicosia’s Buyuk Han (the island’s largest caravanserai) since 2004.

Along the way; they have attracted hundreds of visitors including Cypriots from both sides of the divide, sightseers, politicians, journalists, ambassadors and UN delegates.

What Cyprus problem? That’s the question you might be tempted to ask on a sunny spring Saturday morning as the group tease each other over coffee, laughing, discussing politics and speaking each others’ languages, or at least attempting to.

Weather and life permitting, the core coffee club group which began with four members – Greek Cypriot Andreas Paralikis and three Turkish Cypriots Hasan Çirakli, Suleyman Erguclu and Hasip Erel – now has between 15 – 25 attendees come rain or shine, 52 Saturdays of the year. As the sound of jovial banter grows and tables are added to in an ever expanding row, it’s difficult to comprehend that 42 years ago some of these very people would have been pointing guns and forced to shoot at one another.

Some outsiders have called them traitors, others recognise the respect and friendships between them, yet the progressive thinking group of friends shrug off ‘naysayers’ and continue committed to their vision, that a shared future is possible.

some of the group members at the Buyuk Khan in northern Nicosia last week

It all began in 1974 when Paralikis’ world was cut in half. As an 18-year-old, he’d barely had the time to explore much of his own land. All his family came from Morphou but he was brought up in Varosha. He decided that whatever happened, he’d be part of the solution, not the problem.

“So when the checkpoints opened in 2003, it felt like a blessing, it was like the other half of my country was coming back to me. It was an opportunity to make new friends and work towards a solution, to be part of it,” said Paralikis.

Economist and general manager of a printing company, Paralikis decided to begin the process by tracking down his two Turkish Cypriots classmates from his time at the English School. They had disappeared following the coup and Turkey’s invasion in 1974.

“I was actually one of the first people in the queue in April 2003 on the day the checkpoint first opened.” Unable to track down his old classmates he was sent to speak to another English School graduate Çirakli, a fellow economist who owns a family grocery shop next to Agia Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia. “I walked into Hasan’s shop and looked at him. I said ‘are you my classmate Hassan Ahmet?’ he said ‘no, but I can help you find him’. Since then, we’ve became close friends.”

Çirakli helped find Paralikis’ classmates, one is a doctor who lives in Famagusta and the other lives in America. He doesn’t see them often because of the distances but they still keep in touch. However, Çirakli soon enough introduced Paralikis to other likeminded Cypriots; businessman Hasip Erel and chief editor of Kibris newspaper Suleyman Erguclu. Together, the four men became the founders of the Buyuk Han Coffee Club. Over time, one friend brought another then another and the coffee club grew, sharing coffees and occasional weekends together exploring the island; at times with a group of 30 people strong.

“The coffee club frequently receives guests who just feel like spending time with this multicultural, multi-religious group and breathe the air of the new country we are trying to establish,” said Paralikis, adding that these have included politicians, diplomats, UN staff, singers, poets and authors.

Last Saturday, the club received a special visit from UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide.

UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide

“It’s an inspiring story that they’ve kept this tradition going for 12 years,” Eide told the Sunday Mail. “I think that grass roots activities are better when they’re actually created at grass roots; made by the people themselves, giving direct personal exposure to the ‘other’. When people meet each other face to face and get to know each other better, you change from the collective perspective of a group, to a personal opinion on a group of individuals.”

The ease between all the members is infectious. Laughter, teasing, pet names and full belly laughs surround the table. There’s only one rule in coffee club, if it starts getting too serious, then Erguclu or one of the other members break out into funny songs to disperse any tension. It’s rarely needed.

“I come here to enjoy myself with friends and get rid of the stresses of the week” explained Erguclu.

In the early days, the friends made attempts to learn each other’s language. “Hasan and Hasip attended Greek lessons for three months, graduating only with the knowledge of halia (terrible) and pseftis (liar),” teased Paralikis. Çirakli and Erel giggle heartily at their alleged shortcomings.

Despite the fun, there is a united political agenda behind it.

“All members, including the many visitors who join us, see a future Cyprus being a united multi-cultural federation, hopefully demilitarised. We place a strong emphasis on our Cypriot identity which is neither Greek nor Turkish,” said Paralikis.

Beneath the laughter and good times are people who work hard to change the mindset of prejudice and ignorance, many working with NGOs to influence positive change on their respective sides. The club chooses ultimately to connect on commonalities and respect differences.

In 2007 German journalist Daniel Steinvorth from Der Spiegel magazine visited the group and conducted an interview. At the time, Paralikis’ son was serving his military service in the National Guard as was Erguclu’s in the Turkish Cypriot army.

“They probably found themselves face to face in two different posts in the Nicosia. Daniel said to me ‘you mean your children are somewhere holding guns at each other and you are sitting here having coffee? You are like traitors.’ He called the article the traitors club. We told him that there were some members of both communities that would accuse us of having coffee with the enemy,” said Paralikis.

“When you have country which is very starkly defined by conflict, like the Balkans were, the problem before the war was not about the ‘others’ but more about the actual people on the same side as each other, but who were willing to reach out and connect with the ‘other’. The more people talk and connect with the other, then the easier reunification will be,” said Eide.

“Right now there are pro reunification negotiations by the two leaders which are supported by me, but at the end of the day, it’s about the people.”

And no one knows that better than the members of the Buyuk Han Coffee Club.