The number of Serbs living in Cyprus varies constantly, but it is estimated that there are between 1,000 and 2,000 Serbs with residence permit in that country.

The Serbian and Cypriot people are bound by the same religion, similar culture, long-term good political and economic relations, but also the struggle for the preservation of territory, in which they support each other.

That is why the Serbs who live in Cyprus, but also those who occasionally stay and work here or come as tourists, among other things because there is no visa regime between the two countries, do not feel like strangers here.

"Greek Cypriots see Serbs as a brotherly people and all the relations we have experienced in Cyprus were like with our own people", said Nenad Bogdanovic for Tanjug in Nicosia, a Serb who has lived and worked in that country for years.

Bogdanovic is also the president of the Serbian-Cypriot Friendship Association, which was established less than two years ago, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Selakovic met with them during his recent visit to Cyprus.

The association is still in the process of registration and gathers about a hundred members, who are not only Serbs but also Cypriots feeling kinship with our people and Serbia, because they studied in Serbia at the time of the former Yugoslavia or are married to a Serb man or woman. “There are no us and them in our Association, we are all together here", Bogdanovic said.

He added that the Association has been founded with the goal to get to know the history and culture of the two peoples better, strengthen friendships, promote cultural values and any other form of cooperation in the field of economy, sports, education, etc.

There has been a Serbian school in Cyprus for two decades, and in addition, Bogdanovic says that the Cypriot Orthodox Church in the Church of Saint Sava in Limassol once a month holds a religious service in Serbian, and soon, there will be service held in Serbian in Nicosia as well, he says.

Bogdanovic points out that the service is held by a great friend of Serbs, father Panteleimon, who is originally from northern Greece and lives in Cyprus, while he is particularly fond of our country because he studied there and married a Serbian woman. "They are an example of the friendship, cooperation and unity existing between Cypriots, Greeks and Serbs", emphasizes Bogdanovic.

Dragana Nikolic Hristu is another member of the Serbian-Cypriot Friendship Association, who has lived and worked as a teacher in the Serbian supplementary school in Cyprus for 21 years. She told Tanjug that classes are held in three cities - Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca.

At the moment, about 40 students attend the Serbian supplementary school in Cyprus, Nikolic points out recalling that in the previous years there were more students, up to 70.

The decline is there because, as she says, our people are slowly starting to return to Serbia. The majority of children, she adds, about 80 percent of them, are from international marriages, and in the beginning, 20 years ago, there were more children from marriages between Serbs.

The expectation is that new members will join the Association and that it will work on bringing the two nations as close together as possible, and an opportunity for that is recognized in the tourist offers - Serbs come to the seaside here, and Cypriots go to Serbia because of religious and hunting tourism.

Bogdanovic also points out that Serbs and Cypriots from the Association have organized several humanitarian campaigns, joint gatherings, both in Nicosia and in Omodos village located in the mountain area, and as he says, there is more to come.

Tanjug