NICOSIA, Cyprus –
It was the first time that Canadian UN 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 UN peacekeeping force, known as UNFICYP, the longest such Canadian mission.
“This was …