❔Havva Ramadan asks Savva about Cyprus

Poet and author Havva Ramadan asks Savva "was there a time in your life when you felt the other side of Cyprus was an enemy of yours?"...

He tells a story about crossing the border and the joys on the other side that he couldn't share when he went back. 

Listen to the full episode with Havva Ramadan published March 17, 2026 by scrolling to the date, or just searching "Havva Ramadan"

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
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Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Was there a period of time in your life where you did feel that the other side of Cyprus was an enemy of yours and that you should have disliked them or felt weary of them? And if so, when did it become apparent to you that that may not be the case?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

I must preface this. Both you and I were not born there. It is not our country. We have we did not experience it. We could very well just be visitors. We never experienced the war ourselves. So I'm very conscious when I share my opinions, and I'm still gonna share them, but they're coming from a place of not I'm not there, I am not local to that. Um, but I just knew it wasn't right. What was what I was being told and the narrative that was being given to me wasn't accurate. And um there was this really unique moment when the border started opening up and you could cross the border. And I remember at a particular point, just a little bit out of we call it Nikosio, you call it Lefkosa, a little bit out there, that there were two lines there was a line for Turkish Cypriots and a line for Greek Cypriots to to cross the border, and it was just at the very beginning, so it was still quite tense. I had my um my Australian passport and my Greek Cypriot passport in my pocket, and I was dressed like a tourist. I was dressed in shorts and a singlet. I was not looking like my people on the island. So I thought, well, which like which oh well, obviously I'm not gonna take the Turkish Cypriot line, I'll take the Greek Cypriot line. And the Greek Cypriot soldiers grabbed me by the scruff of the neck of my singlet and pulled me out of that line and were just kind of shook me a little bit and said, No, no, this is not your line, and and sort of moved me, presumed, because of the way that I was and it just happened so quickly. And then I saw a UN peacekeeper who was walking just in the vicinity. I saw his Australian flag on his uniform and I yelled out, mate, mate, and I just kind of pulled out my power. I had them both in my hand, but I had them in my pocket and I pulled it out, and I and he came over and he said, Oh, it's okay, it's okay, he's with me. And he crossed, he took me over and he said, Yeah, it's been a bit tense here. You know, it was like, okay, I was a bit shaken. I was young, I was well, what was like 28? No, 30. So I I it was it was a bit of a shock to go through that and then to cross the no man's land. You've got to think that that was there's a big section of that line that is there's a it's like nothing. Um and then you get on the other side, and it back then it was like being in Cuba, it was very, it was very third world. The cars were different. So there I was on the other side, and I was like, okay, so what do I do? Like, you know, we didn't have you know, our phones didn't kind of operate the way that they do now, so it wasn't like I could do a walking track. And like from God, and I remember this man, he came out of nowhere, like a like a Mr. Bean car with a moustache. He could have been an uncle, he looked like an uncle, but he wasn't, obviously. He came out of nowhere in his car, and he said to me in in in Greek with a Turkish accent, Where are you going? And I said, Oh, I want to go into the town. And he said, Come with me. Put me in his car, and I wasn't frightened. There was nothing scary about this, it felt very comforting. He took me to his brother's place, which was in the very center of town. They gave me, it was the first time I'd ever had Turkish tea in the little cup. In the little thing, and then initially they gave me just a little bit of um uh lukum or lukumya that we call them on the site, and then his wife brought out all these pastries, and oh god, I know what they're called, but they're they're kind of the flat things. Anyway, and they fed me and all the rest of it, and they then they showed me, they gave me a map, and then they showed me where to go and the places that I needed to visit to. Back then, the the tourism had just opened up. So you have to understand from my perspective what I was told, what I experienced on my side, and by the time I crossed over, what I had just experienced, there was I hadn't expected that sort of hospitality. Yeah. So I was really relieved when I came back to the other side and I made my way back and I retold those stories. I quickly worked out to to to the Greek Cypriots, I quickly worked out that they weren't welcome. The stories weren't welcome. And um, like you in the comments. So they became my own private Idaho for quite a while until I was like, nah, fuck this. I'm gonna talk about it. I'm gonna talk about the most extraordinary time I had the first time I went on the other side. And every time I go back, I always make a point of going to the other side. There's this wonderful um little um Buddha place, just as you cross. I don't know if you know in in Lefcourse, where the Lydra Palace is, there's a checkpoint there to the right, there's this tiny little cafe, and I make a point of going there every single time. I went last time I went there with my children, it was as hot as anything. The beads of sweat are running down your face, and you just can't, you just can't cope, but you have to eat this beautiful food and it's in this old house that exists. And I just think, you know what? We're all the same.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, you gave me goosebumps. That's a beautiful story. I read that, I like that. Sometimes it's so surreal.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Sometimes I feel like I made it up, but I know I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

But maybe, maybe it happened to you because you're supposed to tell that story.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

But it was hard coming back and not being able to share the joy of that story. Guess what I discovered? I just discovered like blah, blah, blah. And they're like, no, it's not like that at all. You yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Trust me. The the very few times, this is the first time that video that you found was the first time I ever spoke on Cypress properly on social media. I have a big following and I have always worried about how it would be received. And I didn't want to upset my Turks, I didn't want to upset my Greeks, I didn't want to upset anyone, you know? But over time, I've just found that you're gonna upset everyone no matter what you do. Somebody's gonna have fire in the comments, and they're not gonna like what it is that you've said or done or whatever, because it doesn't fit their narrative of you or their narrative of their own life. And without people like you or me, everybody will think that it's okay to put everybody into a box. And you know what? Some of us don't fit.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

You know, I'd like to believe there'll be a resolution to this conflict. I'm repeatedly told it'll never happen. But what I see and what I've been observing over the years that I keep going back is that culture and sport will um will bring will bring the two communities together. Um and and and and in there, I mean, in there are the humans. And again, Cyprus is as small as a story and as long as as the story goes. It's a very small story on the international stage, but it it represents so much of what's going on in the world right now.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah. Yeah, it does. I what's what's really interesting also is when you go to the island, the people that have the strongest opinions of it are the people that don't even live on the island. They're the people that are in different countries and they have a really but you go to the country, and just like you said, the hospitality of both sides is they're they're just peaceful people. They're just calm. They're like welcoming of everyone and everything. They'll take you into their home, they'll take you anywhere. Whatever you need is in it's never a big chore. So it's really interesting that the opinion of people that are outside of that country is actually stronger than the ones that live in it.