Local Legion member Karl Ozols heading to Cyprus for Peacekeeping anniversary

By DEBORAH McNORGAN

Forty years after serving with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, Karl Ozols is heading back to the country to share memories, honour those who served, and see what has and has not changed on the island.

In November the retired Canadian Armed Forces member will join more than 90 other Canadians on a veterans’ trip commemorating the 60th anniversary of Canada’s contribution to the force, and the 50th anniversary of the war between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.

To help support Ozols’s trip, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 1/42, to which he belongs, is hosting a Cyprus Memorial Fundraiser this Saturday, Sept. 21, in the Main Hall at 243 Coxwell Ave., featuring music by DJ David. The event starts at 7:30 p.m. and entry is $5. For more information call 416-465-0120.

More than 25,000 CAF members served in Cyprus between 1964 and 1993. In 1974, two NATO members were at war there, and the Canadians were caught in the middle of a coup d’état and an invasion.

That was the year the Toronto-born Ozols enlisted. He was just 18 and eager to see more of the world.

He trained as an engineer and spent time at bases in Canada and Germany before volunteering for the six-month tour in Cyprus in 1984. There he served as a transport platoon sergeant, in charge of the heavy transport section, overseeing the supply and resupply of goods and people arriving and departing on the weekly plane in and out of Nicosia.

“We weren’t there to change anything. We were just there to make sure that they weren’t going to kill each other anymore,” he said.

The days started with physical training at 5 a.m. Work ended at 1 p.m. due to the intense heat. In the off hours there was time for sports ranging from boating to water skiing to scuba diving at a coastal recreation centre.

What struck Ozols most about his time in Cyprus was the disparity on either side of the 180-kilometre Green Line buffer zone dividing the two opposing forces in the north and south.

“It’s like night and day going from one side to the other: the infrastructure, and the economics. So terrible,” he said, adding that based on news reports, “it hasn’t changed much.”

The nine-day veterans trip, from Nov. 4 to 12, will give Ozols the opportunity to see for himself how much or how little has stayed the same.

In addition to site visits, the program includes speakers, exhibits, cultural excursions and interactions with Cypriots who lived through the conflict.

Reunited veterans will also meet soldiers serving today and share experiences with those from Britain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Austria.

Ozols said he’s looking forward to catching up with old friends and walking the buffer zone.

“When the invasion happened everyone just left everything, and it became the Green Line, and nobody’s been in there since except soldiers. Nicosia, the city, is cut in half,” with the two opposing forces on either side and the UN peacekeepers in the middle, he said.

Ozols said the highlight of the trip for him will be the Canadian Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11 at Wolseley Barracks, mounted by Canadian soldiers and directed by Veterans Affairs Canada, followed by a reception in the Ledra Palace and a visit to Nicosia, where he was based.

Although it will take two days to get to Cyprus, making the effort to remember and acknowledge those who served is important to Ozols given the dwindling number of veterans.

“I go to a lot of these reunions and there are fewer and fewer people,” he said. “That’s why I like to get involved in as many of them as I can.”

He acknowledged that for a former peacekeeper, it can be disheartening to watch conflict continue in the Middle East and elsewhere.

“There’s too much hatred in the world still,” said Ozols. “It’s foolishness as far as I’m concerned. Nobody knows how to live together.”

In addition to his time in Cyprus, Ozols participated in the construction of the Eagle River Bridge in the Yukon and spent 10 years as a paratrooper, making more than 750 descents.

He served four years with the Skyhawks, the Canadian Forces parachute team, and a year as a technical advisor with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, providing advice on how to safely diffuse land mines.

He also served with the United Nations Protection Force in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars, before retiring as a warrant officer in 2000.