I interviewed Dr. Volkan recently under the olive trees in his yard at his home in Northern Cyprus.
As we spoke, I sensed the appropriateness of this setting under these trees—traditional symbols of peace—because
Dr. Volkan and his work represent peace...
Vamık D. Volkan was born into a parallel world of two ethnic groups, Turks and Greeks, living side-by-side in Nicosia, Cyprus.
He grew up there, leaving as a young man in 1950 to pursue his education in Turkey.
At this time, inspired by the volcano-like appearance of Beşparmak Mountains in Northern Cyprus,
he adopted the surname “Volkan” (“Volcano”), since in those days, the Cypriot Turks did not have surnames,
and he needed one to live in Turkey...
Teachers had surrounded him as he grew up—his father, mother, sisters,
and brothers-in-law were elementary or high school teachers and his uncle was a medical schoolteacher.
Therefore, it was no surprise when he too decided to follow suit and pursue the academic life by entering medical school.
Following graduation from the Medical School of the University of Ankara in 1956,
he decided to go to the United States. He arrived there in February of 1957
with his violin under his arm, a Mozart repertoire in his mind and only $15 in his pocket...
During the next few years, a time when it was very hard for Turks to survive in Cyprus,
he focused on his residency training in psychiatry at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Influenced by a psychoanalyst mentor, he read countless psychoanalysis books, day and night,
until he became like a walking library...
He now realizes that this was also a mental defence he adopted to repress
and deny his worries about his family’s wellbeing back on the island where ethnic violence had erupted.
The Greeks eventually relaxed the hard conditions on Cyprus, and in 1968,
as soon as he obtained his American citizenship enabling him to reside in USA, Volkan managed to go back to Cyprus.
This was his first visit to his native land since he had left the island some ten years earlier.
Nowadays, he simply enjoys the ability to travel freely to his home country whenever he wishes.
He spends several months each summer at his home near Kyrenia
and likes to relax under his nearly hundred-year-old olive trees.
As an academician and master of psychopolitics, he remains devoted to world peace
and continues to read, write, and teach others about what he has learned.
Travelling all around the world working for peace has become something of a lifestyle for him.
Yet, he looks forward to returning each year to his summerhouse in Cyprus for renewal and inspiration
under his beloved olive trees...
Same topics revisited eight years later, August 08,2008, Ozler Aykan
