Since primary school, Marilena Karoulla and Su Acar were educated to fear each other’s people. Coming from a Greek-speaking and a Turkish-speaking background on the island of Cyprus, why and how did they eventually begin to trust one another?

Karoulla and Acar, now both 19 years old and studying at university, recount what they were taught on different sides of the divided island. They also discuss how their learning was reinforced through family attitudes and experiences of the intercommunal violence that followed Cyprus' independence from Great Britain in 1960.

This sound-collage was published on 26th May 2025, and interprets separate online interviews held with Karoulla and Acar in January and April 2025. Ahead of our interview, Karoulla wrote to me (Mirna Jančić Doyle) that, “my main ideas about the current political situation in Cyprus as well as history were formed in … [primary and middle] schools”. Acar wrote that, “many people from my family experienced the terror of war and the years of division first-hand, and I grew up listening to them and absorbing their fear”. 

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​Due to purposeful variations in pitch and tone, the sound-collage invites active, mindful listening.

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© Mirna Jancic Doyle