
Into the Forbidden Zone: Varosha, Ghost City of Cyprus - hownottowrite
https://ragpickinghistory.co.uk/2013/03/30/into-the-forbidden-zone-varosha-ghost-city-of-cyprus/
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rwmj
I had a chance to visit the UN-controlled buffer zone [not the city mentioned
in this article] well over a decade ago when I stayed with some soldiers over
there. In the buffer zone is the old Nicosia airport, complete with 1970s
planes sitting at a disused terminal. There's also a car showroom which is
preserved with new (1974 season) cars. You can't wander about much since the
whole area is mined and they warn you not to walk off the paths or to touch
any "unusual" objects on the ground. I have photographs, but they're on film
so I'm going to have to get them digitized some time ...

Edit: Found an Atlantic article with much better photos than mine:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/04/frozen-in-time-
the...](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/04/frozen-in-time-the-cyprus-
buffer-zone/100714/)

~~~
app4soft
> _We 'll fly you to the ends of earth!_[0]

WOW!

[0]
[https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2014/04/f...](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2014/04/frozen-
in-time-the-cyprus-buffer-zone/c05_RTR3KOMS/main_1200.jpg?1420503703)

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kweks
Visited Varosha a few years back.

[http://ninjito.com/_2015-04-14-Varosha](http://ninjito.com/_2015-04-14-Varosha)

Our goal was to traverse the entire city, and to then rooftop a hotel on the
beach. The military presence is very real, and the city has a beautiful
"slipping back to nature vibe" to it. We typically imagine that cities will
decay into jungles, but curiously enough, it's the slow spread of garden
species plants growing bigger and establishing more foothold.

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Firerouge
Is the military presence more than just the perimeter guards this article
mentions?

~~~
kweks
Absolutely. The Turkish army occupy a few buildings on the "main road", with
regular patrols, floodlit streets, etc. When we were there, there was also a
UN presence, about 1km down the road from the Turkish HQ.

There's a constant flux of hardware (tanks, etc) in the area: 35,122934,
33,950381 / [https://binged.it/2IlXXAV](https://binged.it/2IlXXAV) \- which we
saw rumbling around a bit.

At strategic points throughout the entire city there are watchtowers, some of
which that are very, very well placed (impossible to see them before they see
you)

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code_coyote
Now that the city is occupied by the Turks, why haven't they used it? It's a
bit late now (and many buildings are no doubt no longer safe), but why didn't
they use it then? There's a lot of investment in the structures in the city.

~~~
forvelin
Turkish never intended to use the city, actually army didn't want to push this
far neither. When they were able to, they just wanted to use Varosha as a
bargaining chip to keep Turkish population in north safe in the negotiations
-since city was important for Greek Cypriots-

None expected negotiations would take decades.

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derda
That „Mysterious object in a room in Varosha“ (picture 10) looks a lot like
the leftovers of a Strohpferd (horse made of straw)

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Firerouge
It's hard to imagine a modem city of tens of thousands being evacuated in the
wake of a hostile army's invasion.

What's holding back this city from being resettled by it's rightful owners?

~~~
masklinn
> What's holding back this city from being resettled by it's rightful owners?

Its "rightful owners" are greek cypriots. During the invasion of Cyprus in
1974 it became part of the turkic-occupied sector, but rather than resettle it
Turkey set it aside as a bargaining chip assuming negotiations would begin
soon.

So what's holding back this city from being resettled is that it's a forbidden
zone regularly checked on by military patrols.

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llcoolv
And in this case by "resettling" it is meant making the robbery official?

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mdekkers
What robbery?

~~~
llcoolv
Well. These buildings as well as the tens of thousands of buildings in the
"Occpied zone" have lawful owners. In civilised societies items often have
owners - in the case of important items such as a beach-line hotel in a
seaside resort, the ownership is accompanied by a document called a "deed".

These buildings have owners, who can produce those deeds, yet the owners are
denied ownership. This did not happen (and is still happening up to this day)
through a purchase or another legal act, but through violence, so I call it
robbery. This is what it is.

~~~
mdekkers
You are not clearly communicating what you mean in your original post. Do you
think the TC's are robbing? The GC's? I am not sure anyone is talking about
resettling Varosha, so I don't really understand your point. In any case, the
is no _money_ to resettle Varosha should the Cypriots every get it back.

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kyriakos
Wow first time I see my home country on HN.

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forvelin
If anyone have questions for a Turkish person for this event, can answer
without going too much into politics.

~~~
praptak
What's your opinion on the role of the British in this conflict? I have some
interesting opinions from Greeks, it would be interesting to compare.

~~~
forvelin
In the times of Cold War, Cyprus was an important base for NATO and UK
therefore to keep them there with none-to-low amount of legitimacy it was
beneficial to keep Cyprus somehow divided.

There are also 'conspiracy theories' that British intelligence had agenda of
creating unrest intentionally on the island so they can keep the bases, but
that sounds too much of 4d chess, since this unrest led into Greece leaving
military part of NATO and made western alliance look shaky against USSR.

also worth reading :
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4632080.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4632080.stm)

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latchkey
Another abandoned Greek/Turkish city... [http://turkishtravelblog.com/the-
ghost-village-of-kayakoy/](http://turkishtravelblog.com/the-ghost-village-of-
kayakoy/)

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fvdessen
This somehow makes me really curious about which construction techniques make
the longest-lasting buildings.

~~~
lostlogin
These are a few contenders in the countries around the Mediterranean - rather
suspect that the building shown won’t last thousands of years.

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erAck
Everyone please stop copy-posting .../amp/ links. Here's without:
[https://ragpickinghistory.co.uk/2013/03/30/into-the-
forbidde...](https://ragpickinghistory.co.uk/2013/03/30/into-the-forbidden-
zone-varosha-ghost-city-of-cyprus/)

~~~
dang
We've changed to that above.

