It was the first time that Canadian U.N. peacekeeper Michelle Angela Hamelin said she came up against the raw emotion of a people so exasperated with their country’s predicament.Seared in her memory from her eight-month tour of duty on the ethnically divided Cyprus in 1986 was the fury of Greek Cypriot protesters demonstrating against the first-ever visit by a Turkish head of government to the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

Canadian veterans travelled to Cyprus as part of commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNFICYP.