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In the summer of 2014, my last overseas assignment in the Foreign Service was fast coming to an end and I had almost completed the task of closing down the Cyprus Fulbright Commission.
The USAID money that had made the Commission, on a per capita basis, the largest in the world was about to end. As chairman of the Commission’s board, I had overseen the downsizing of the Commission from 11 employees and three offices to four employees and one office in the Fulbright Center at the Ledra Palace crossing.
When the fiscal year ended, the Fulbright program would be moved to the public affairs section of the U.S. Embassy and run by a single person, but there would no longer be a Commission with a staff and a bicommunal and binational board.
The Commission’s last director, Anna Argyrou, said “someone needs to write a history of this Commission” and I decided I should be that person. I had served twice in Cyprus and served on the Commission board both times.
The result, after seven years of research and writing, was American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission, which has been published by Armida Books in Nicosia, but is available globally on Amazon. My share of the proceeds will be donated to a nonprofit.
As I explained to my sometimes-skeptical friends, the Commission was unique for four reasons. First, it was always bicommunal, with Greek and Turkish Cypriots working and benefiting together. I argue that particularly in the wake of the 1974 war, it became “fiercely” bicommunal.
Second, it became huge. The money appropriated by the U.S. Congress for the resettlement of the 40 percent of Cyprus’s population displaced by the war was ultimately repurposed to create the Cyprus American Scholarship Program or CASP. Miraculously, the CASP lasted 33 years and, in constant dollars, provided more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the education of the Cypriot people.
Third, it invested millions of those dollars in conflict resolution work, bringing some of the most important American scholars in conflict resolution to work with Cypriots to try to create the conditions for reconciliation. The Commission and its Executive Director Daniel Hadjittofi were under immense pressure. Many Greek Cypriots called them traitors. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said that Fulbright was trying to “brainwash” his people. But the Commission persevered.
Finally, when you give that much money to that many bright Cypriots, they go off into the world and do amazing things. They can be found throughout Cypriot society as ministers, ambassadors, business leaders, and university rectors and professors. More than 400 grantees went on to earn their doctorates.
Of course, the Commission played an outsized role in the founding of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, paying the salaries of the directors in its early years and giving substantial grants to help it found its library and buy the house where it is headquartered today.
As CAARI’s first Director, Dr. Anita Walker, related, ASOR was concerned whether it could continue to support CAARI after its first year, but first Commission Executive Director Renos Kamenos said “this is an insult to Cyprus!” An urgent endorsement from Kamenos, the American Ambassador, and Vassos Karageorghis of the Department of Antiquities persuaded ASOR to reconsider, and CAARI survived.
The Commission also provided dozens of grants to bring some of the most important American scholars in Eastern Mediterranean archaeology to Cyprus. Dr. Ellen Herscher was the first American Ph.D. student to receive a grant from the Commission. The CAARI chapter also tells the stories of Dr. Julie Hansen and mother and daughter Fulbrighters Pamela and Hannah Gaber.
The Commission’s third and longest serving Director, Stuart Swiny, wrote: “The names of past Fulbright fellows constitute a Who’s Who of American scholars publishing on Cyprus topics: Bernard Knapp, James Muhly, Barbara Kling, Gloria London, Priscilla Keswani, Joseph Greene, Glenn Markoe, Ellen Herscher, David Reese, Jane Barlow, Pamela Gaber, Joanna Smith, John Leonard, and David Roessel, among others.” Stuart and Laina Swiny were generous in reading the chapter devoted to CAARI and made indispensable suggestions and edits to the final draft.
American Directors of CAARI served on the Fulbright Commission board and made sure that multiple research grants were reserved for CAARI each year. When Tom Davis was CAARI Director and served on the Fulbright Commission board, he would wear his CAARI hat or Fulbright hat as needed to support both research and rescue archaeology in Cyprus. He welcomed Fulbright scholars in other fields to stay at the CAARI hostel, which includes the “Fulbright Suite.” He thought the cross pollination among scholars was important.
The book’s text is chronological, but each chapter focuses on key events. The first and second chapters provide a brief history of Cyprus and of American involvement in the island (including Luigi Palma Di Cesnola). Chapter three, Renos and Stella, tells the story of the origin of the Commission, its first executive director – Renos Kamenos – and Stella Yiasemidou, soon his bride, and the Commission’s first dozen years.
Chapters four and five deal with the board and with CAARI. The chapter on the board introduces key characters, particularly former Nicosia Mayor Lellos Demetriades and his alternate, Dr. Chrysotomos Sofianos. Demetriades served 40 years on the board and the pair fought constantly to preserve the Commission’s independence. Demetriades was also a staunch supporter of CAARI.
Chapters six and seven -- CASP and Daniel -- detail the origins of the CASP program, most notably in a conversation between Ambassador Galen Stone and Senator Claiborne Pell, and the story of Daniel Hadjittofi, who would go from refugee in 1974 to Fulbright scholar to the Executive Director of the Commission at age 26 after Renos Kamenos’ untimely passing.
Chapter eight explains the conflict resolution efforts and the final chapter – The Long Goodbye – describes the turbulent end of the Commission, including a fight with an aggressive American Ambassador and battles with the Government of Cyprus in the wake of the Annan Plan vote when the commission equalized its grants between Greek and Turkish Cypriots instead of apportioning them by population as had always been done.
The Cyprus Fulbright Commission was such a unique institution and the people involved in running it were incredibly smart and incredibly brave. The Fulbright and CASP scholars who related their American experiences illustrated Senator Fulbright’s belief that education is a slow moving but powerful force for good. It was an honor to be involved with the Commission and it was painful to be charged with the responsibility for closing it. I am so pleased that I was given the opportunity to tell its story.
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