Transcript of video

Operation SNOWGOOSE

Capt Michael Solonynko, SO3 Info/Analyst North, United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus

Canada first started participating in the United Nations Force in Cyprus right from the beginning in March of 1964. At that time, the mission was island-wide, so Canada had an area of responsibility that went from here in Nicosia all the way to Kyrenia on the north coast. And it stayed like that until July of 1974, when the Turkish mainland army did its intervention and established what’s now the Buffer Zone as it exists today. At that time, Canada’s area of responsibility under the new mandate for UNFICYP switched to the area of the Buffer Zone from the airfield, which is just west of the city, all the way down to Louroujina, including U.N. [observation post] 95.

The current status of the United Nations Force in Cyprus is 860 military personnel. We do our patrolling now based out of vehicles; however, at one time, the patrolling was done statically. We had observation posts that were manned 24 hours a day. So now, the positions that were once manned by U.N. soldiers are quite often not manned, but they’re still part of the patrol track that we do to this very day.

[Sound of low-flying helicopter]

Even though the military may numerically make up the largest portion of the United Nations Force in Cyprus, it’s by no means the only portion. The civilian aspect as well as the policing aspect are equally important. And so the military, civilian, and United Nations police all work together very tightly on an integral basis.

Our job — our mandate — is to maintain the status quo of the opposing forces in order to provide an environment for the two sides to come together to negotiate a solution. So we do that by ensuring that the positions, and the way that they’re operated by the opposing forces, don’t change, or if they do need to change them, that we get agreement on all sides to do so.

I am proud to be the lone Canadian on this mission. I have the opportunity to work with some tremendous people from all the other countries; it’s been a very rewarding experience for me, personally. It’s also been a great opportunity to participate in a meaningful mission, one that Canada has been committed to for this long, and to represent my country well on the international stage.

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Public Affairs Officer: Capt George Vriniotis
Camera: MCpl Jay Law
Editor: Bradley Prouse, MCpl Jay Law
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