Canadian veterans remember how they eased tensions as UN peacekeepers in ethnically split Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — It was the first time that Canadian U.N. peacekeeper Michelle Angela Hamelin said she came up against the raw emotion of a people so exasperated with their country’s predicament.

Seared in her memory from her eight-month tour of duty on the ethnically divided Cyprus in 1986 was the fury of Greek Cypriot protesters demonstrating against the first-ever visit by a Turkish head of government to the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

“I think that that was something that really stuck to my mind because of that anger and the people,” Hamelin told The Associated Press.

She was one of among 100 other Canadian veterans who travelled to Cyprus as part of commemorations that culminated Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNFICYP, the longest such Canadian mission.

“This was the first time I was confronted with people that were really, really upset with their situation that they were in,” she said.

At the time, it had been a dozen years after a Turkish invasion — triggered by a coup aiming at union with Greece — sliced the island along ethnic lines and tensions were still high.

UNFICYP had been in place since 1964, a decade prior to the invasion, deployed to tamp down hostilities between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to prevent an all-out civil war.

Canadians were among the first to join the force and more than 28,000 would eventually serve with UNFICYP. Canada withdrew almost all its peacekeepers from UNFICYP in 1993, but a Canadian presence still remains.

Some 28 Canadians lost their lives in the line of duty on Cyprus.

Through most of 1986, it was Hamelin’s job as a driver to support patrols in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone that separated troops on either side of the divide in the medieval center of the capital, Nicosia, staying in the once luxurious Ledra Palace hotel that had been converted into a U.N. barracks.

The hotel’s bullet-pockmarked sandstone walls were a constant reminder that a flare-up in hostilities could never be ruled out.

"The Turkish side where I stayed was right there underneath my window at Ledra Palace ... you got bullet holes above your bed. There’s a possibility this could happen again,” she recalled.

It didn’t. Hamelin said her Canadian colleagues would often muster all their diplomatic skills with jittery soldiers to keep tensions from escalating.

Ronald Reginald Griffis could attest to that trademark, calm Canadian demeanor that earned the country’s peacekeepers a reputation for even-handedness and ability to quickly defuse tensions.

Griffis was one of the first Canadians to serve in UNFICYP back in 1964, and he recalled how he would employ that cool Canadian way to settle disputes along the so-called Green Line that separated Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot neighborhoods inside old Nicosia.

“One of the qualities was the quietness of the Canadians. They listened, or at least I listened. And then, you know, you talk it over. You try to explain things,” said Griffis, a native of Nova Scotia who now lives in Cottam, Ontario.

“I thought that they appreciated Canadians being there, and I think they trusted the Canadians doing what they can do,” he said.

More than 100 active-duty Canadian Armed forces personnel, dispatched to Cyprus to assist in possible evacuations of Canadians from nearby Lebanon, joined Hamelin, Griffis and other veterans for a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Canadian U.N. Peacekeeper Memorial inside the buffer zone near the Ledra Palace hotel.

Canada’s High Commissioner to Cyprus Anna-Karine Asselin said the size of the delegation at the commemoration event illustrated the “deep significance of the mission” for Canadian veterans.

“We pay tribute to their invaluable contribution to peace. We recognize the challenges they faced along the way,” Asselin said.

A few days earlier, Hamelin and Griffis had joined a tour of the buffer zone that brought many recollections.

Both spoke of the changes between Cyprus then and now — from donkey carts in Nicosia's streets in 1964 to a thoroughly modern European Union member state 60 years later.

But for Hamelin, no matter how much things have changed in Cyprus, they remain much the same.

“I see how built up this is now in Nicosia. But it’s still the same. We still have that division and it’s very, very ... in your face,” she said.

An old U.N helmet is seen with the red poppies is seen during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran with the honors on his jacket stands during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veterans stand commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veterans stand commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veterans stand commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veterans stand commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Michelle Angela Hamelin lays a wreath at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Michelle Angela Hamelin is seen during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Ronald Reginald Griffis lays a wreath at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Ronald Reginald Griffis salutes during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Ronald Reginald Griffis, center, with others veterans, salutes during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Canadian veteran Ronald Reginald Griffis salutes during a commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Canada's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at Wolseley Barracks inside a UN-controlled buffer zone cleaving the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)