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Nicosia - A tale of two (?) cities

Aktualisiert: 3. Juni 2021


2020 is a weird year to write any travel-related post, but given that Cyprus has been in the news quite a bit recently and military tension is growing in the region, it seemed like a fitting time to examine the place a bit more closely. I stayed on the island in February, adding a few days in the Republic of Cyprus to a business trip in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Nicosia is the capital of both countries, and nowhere is the division visible than here.


The Green Line

As a strategic location in the Middle East, Cyprus has seen many different rulers since the first settlements appeared in the 10th millennium BC: Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, the Roman Empire, Arab caliphates, the Venetians, the Ottomans, the UK all left their mark, before Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. In the next years, nationalist tension between majority Greek Cypriot population and Turkish Cypriots grew and violent clashes were rather common. In 1974 the Turkish army invaded Cyprus following a coup d'état staged by Greek Cypriot nationalist who wanted to incorporate Cyprus into Greece, occupying the area of present-day Northern Cyprus before a ceasefire was achieved. The Turkish side displays their claim to the North rather proudly, with an enormous flag on the hill, which is visible for airplanes and basically everybody in the South: 500 meters long and 225 wide, illuminated at night by more than 400 lamps.

A UN buffer zone now slices the island and Nicosia into two separate parts. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus secures the border zone, in which everything has been virtually left untouched since 1974. City maps in the South don't even indicate the street names in the North, treating it like some unknown territory:



Since its creation, weathered buildings and streets in this no-man's land make for a fascinating sight from the places from where you can look through and over the barbed wire. As in other places where politics and society are divided, the friction seems to spark creativity, and street art adorns almost the entire length of the border.

In some spots, a peak into abandoned buildings revealed windows adorned with sandbags and bullet holes from the time of the conflict, an eerie view into a city frozen in time.

Multiple border crossings connect both sides of the city, and it is not complicated for EU passport holders to jump back and forth (although some people I talked to on either side were not thrilled I had visited the respective other side). It is striking how different the vibe, the architecture, and overall experience is once you cross the border to either side, although they are literally only a few meters apart.

In 2020 the situation is - as anywhere in the world - a bit more complicated, as the Coronavirus pandemic led to the closure of some border crossings, emphasizing the existing division, as if a virus cares about political borders.

Full of history, culture, and tasty dishes, I was enthralled by the city despite, or maybe somewhat because, of its complicated situation. I can only recommend a visit once the pandemic does not dominate the world's agenda anymore.



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