Konuk Yazar, 22 Aralik 2002
Tina Adamidou Kallis
A Cold Christmas Night in the Buffer Zone
The winter cold was beginning to bite. Nestled in the buffer zone in Nicosia near Paphos Gate is the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross. Cordoned off by barbed wire barricades, I drove the car into the small parking space and walked up the stone steps. Tonight, the Pancyprian Thalassaemia Association had arranged a very special Christmas Concert to raise funds for Thalassaemia. Traditional Christmas carols and hymns sung in eight different languages – English, Greek, Armenian, Polish, Russian, Latin, French and German. My dear friend, Katie Economidou, who possesses one of the most beautiful voices not only on the island but I personally believe in Europe was to sing for us together with Armenian soprano, Zara Barkhoudarian, tenor Panayiotis Theodorou and Pole Zbigniew Irzensky accompany them on the church organ.
Christmas for me has always been a very special time of the year. With my London upbringing, the usual commercial traps of Christmas made it a busy and exciting occasion but it also gives one the opportunity to reflect on the past year, and more importantly a time for giving, especially to those less fortunate.
Despite the cold, a good size crowd arrived and made their way into the revered building. As the first strains of the carols began with Katie’s beautiful voice filling the church, I was transported to fond memories of Christmas’s past, to days when laughter, happiness and family mingled together in the joy and spirit of the season.
Although it has been 11 years since I emigrated back to Cyprus, I had never really felt the essence of Christmas until this magical evening. The songs were sung with such love, depth and worship from the heart and souls of this distinguished group of singers that one could not help but be moved. Towards the end of the programme when the carol ‘Joy to the World’ filled the air with positivity, I could not help but think of how ironic it was that I was sitting in a church, in the buffer zone on this most cold of evenings and could not enjoy the singing with the company of my friends from the bicommunal women’s group, Hands Across the Divide. Katie, singing of peace and love, belongs to our group, how enriching for her would it have been to know that her friends – Cypriot women from both sides of the Green Line – could replenish their souls with these wonderful, inspiring songs.
I pictured the son’s of mothers dressed in khaki uniforms, guns in hands, sitting in their guard boxes probably freezing to death. I remembered the Cypriotturkish people I had spoken to on the day after Copenhagen and their bitterness, sadness and disappointment at this missed historic chance for peace in Cyprus. I looked up at the midnight sky and noticed the stars, twinkling their festive message and I wondered, if just for once, that God or Allah would grant Cyprus a Christmas wish. A wish for unity, a wish for peace, a wish for an end to this division.
As the last hymn of ‘O Holy Night’ echoed in the stillness, tears welled in my eyes. It had indeed been a special night and maybe, just this once, my wish which was spoken from my heart, will be heard and granted. And maybe, just maybe, this time next year, all Cypriots will be able to hear Katie’s unique voice as we celebrate together the peace and unity in Cyprus.