Olive oil bridges borders in Cyprus

Cyprus is an island. It is in the Mediterranean Sea. A business in Cyprus is working for peace.

Cyprus was one country. That changed in 1974. The army wanted Cyprus to be part of Greece. The Turkish army stopped this. Now there are two governments. The north is Turkish. Southern Cyprus has a Greek government.

They had talks about joining back together. These stopped in 2017.

The same year, two men started a company. They are both from Cyprus. Hasan is Turkish Cypriot. Alexandros is Greek Cypriot. Their company sells olive oil. The olives come from both parts of Cyprus.

Alexandros Philippides: "Coliveoil is trying to promote the peace process in Cyprus through a common goal that we have, a common staple that has been shared by the two communities, which is olive oil."

Hasan and Alexandros have lots of problems. They can’t sell olives from the north as organic.

They have to cross the border. Coliveoil has to show passports. They need papers for the olives from the North.

At the factory, they mix the olives from North and South. It is a symbol of peace. But they can’t say the mixed olive oil is organic. Hasan and Alexandros are thinking about selling it in different bottles. View Less