Colgate University’s Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs held a conversation with the United States’ first female ambassador to Cyprus, Kathleen Doherty ’85, on Wednesday, March 5. Doherty first presented a history of the island and shared her experiences as an ambassador before opening up an extensive question and answer session.
Doherty framed her lecture using a children’s book about Cyprus called “The Island That Everyone Wanted” by Marina Christofides. She explained that Cyprus has a long colonial history and that Nicosia, Cyprus’ capital, is the last divided capital of the European Union. Turkish Cypriots living on the northern part of the island recognize themselves as a sovereign nation, which has caused decades of violence. Since 1974, there has been an unpopulated, UN-regulated buffer zone between the sides of the island. Doherty discussed the many attempts at peace between the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey.
“The three countries were already NATO members, but to them, this is not an arrangement for NATO,” Doherty said. “So the political system that formed that independence was deeply flawed and in 1963, Turkish Cypriots walked out of the government, never to return.”
While the U.S. appointed Doherty as ambassador to Cyprus, only the southern Greek part of the nation recognized her status.
“[Turkish Cypriots] did not consider me an ambassador because they considered themselves a sovereign country,” Doherty said. “I was considered a ‘very important person.’ And when I would talk to certain officials in the north, I would call them ‘very important people,’ and we would discuss each other as ‘the honorable’ — if I used their official titles, that would imply that I recognize the legitimacy of their independence.”
Doherty injected humor into her lecture when discussing her experience mediating between the two groups.
“I sometimes felt like a therapist or maybe a marriage counselor, as I would hear the grievances of one side about the other and try to give a reality check about unrealistic expectations,” Doherty said.
The inside look into diplomacy appealed to many of the student attendees. First-year Yaroslav Spytskyi attended the lecture after seeing it in his residential commons newsletter, wanting to learn more about the underrepresented conflict.
“I liked that the talk was discussion-based,” Spytskyi said. “Most of the time was dedicated to student questions. The ambassador talked a lot about what happens behind the scenes of international diplomacy and how personalities affect negotiations.”
As an ambassador, Doherty tackled many of the issues facing Cyprus’s reunification process. Talks between both sides have failed repeatedly since 1974, up to the last attempt in 2017. Doherty noted that Turkish Cypriots supported a 2004 referendum to unite the island but the Greek Cypriots did not, which added tension to later discussions. Another issue facing the nation is representation — if the president of a united Cyprus was a Greek Cypriot, the Turkish Cypriots would not accept the leader, and vice versa. Who the land belongs to is also a contentious topic. After the UN erected the boundary in 1974, all the Turkish Cypriots moved to the north and the Greeks to the south, often leaving behind most of their belongings.
“About 160,000 to 200,000 people were displaced,” Doherty said. “So if you’re trying to reestablish who owns the property, is it the Greek Cypriot who owned the property before 1974 and their descendants? Or the Turkish Cypriots who lived there for 50 years?”
Doherty’s time as an ambassador also revealed to her the issues facing the peace process itself. Doherty discussed how many of the leaders working on the unification process still carry anger from the 1974 conflict, which sets back discussions. Additionally, most of the negotiation teams are entirely made up of men. During her time on the island, Doherty began advocating for a larger variety of voices in these discussions.
“As the first U.S. female ambassador to Cyprus, I made a particular point in speaking with women in both communities,” Doherty said. “It is well established that peace negotiations where women are active participants have a better chance of success.”
Doherty herself also witnessed this double standard firsthand and shared what being the first female ambassador meant to her.
“Before I got to Cyprus, there was an article in a Greek Cypriot newspaper that stated that the U.S. must not care about Cyprus, since the U.S. was sending a female ambassador there,” Doherty said. “Since then, most countries have sent female ambassadors to Cyprus, and I believe that the disruptive power of women might help the island some.”
Junior Coleman Wohlken appreciated the discussion of how negotiation processes can be improved for a possible unified Cyprus.
“I think [Doherty] gave us an exceptionally knowledgeable, realistic and historically informative view of Cypriot politics and division,” Wohlken said. “The ambassador made clear her low hopes for the reunification of Cyprus anytime soon, but she also explained what would need to change to make reunification a possibility — the need for voices currently absent from the negotiating table, like those of Cypriot women and younger generations, was a major point.”
Doherty’s talk provided a comprehensive overview of the troubles facing Cyprus and her emphasis on student questions allowed the audience to connect with Doherty on a personal level.
