Varosha: The birth of a Ghost City
Varosha has remained a ghost city for more than 50 years. Varosha, Cyprus, July 2023
“My father used to tell me about the garment factory that my grandfather owned before the war in the north. All of the workers were Turks. To him it didn't make much of a difference if the workers were Greek or Turkish. As long as they did their work. Everyone was happy.” A Greek-Cypriot musician told me while having a coffee. But why then is Cyprus divided if everyone was happy?
What led to the division in Cyprus?
Nothing symbolizes the Cypriot division better than Varosha. A once popular holiday destination that turned to a ghost city. The exodus of its population was triggered by the Turkish invasion in 1974. With the aim to protect Turkish-Cypriots and to prevent Cyprus from uniting with Greece the Turkish army was set into motion. A very likely event after a military coup in the same year in Nicosia. After the coup and subsequent peace talks failed the Turkish Army pushed further and occupied one-third of the island and the conflict froze.
As a result of the war a quarter of the population had lost its home. The North became Turkish and the South Greek. 150.000 Greek-Cypriots form the North and 60.000 Turkish-Cypriots from the South were displaced. While most abandoned homes across the island found new inhabitants, Varosha stayed abandoned. The Greek population had left the city before the advancing Turkish army reached, expecting to return in a few days. These few days turned into 50 years and nature has been reclaiming the city in the meantime. Although Varosha is controlled today by the Turkish side, resettlement has not been allowed due to a UN-resolution unless the original inhabitants are allowed to return and reclaim their properties.
Taking a sip of his coffee the musician continued his story: “Years later after travel between North and South was allowed, my father went back to his home city after many years. He didn’t recognize it anymore. So much had been destroyed in the war and new construction changed its face forever. In that moment he realized how close yet far away his home was and that it was something better kept in his memory. He didn’t want his father’s factory or home back. It was too late. It was nothing more than a piece of land in a different country.”
How could it come to war?
After 300 years of peaceful co-existence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in the Ottoman Empire, how could hatred and violence between these communities appear and reach a point that lead to war? The key change was that the British Empire was occupying the island. In order to secure its rule the British administration made use of two tools:
Divde and rule
Education
Divide and rule: The British promoted ethnic polarization to prevent Turks and Greeks from uniting and fighting their colonial rules. One of those measures was initially using Turks as allies in fighting Greek nationalism. This was one of the many factors that fanned the polarization between the two communities.
Education system: The schooling system was divided based on ethnicity. This made students much more aware of their differences and created educational inequalities between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots leading to further friction and diverging identities.
The British left, but the division remained, until a real chance for unification came in 2004 when a referendum on forming a federation and unifying both parts of Cyprus was held. The proposal was rejected by a large majority in South after the politicians who negotiated it lobbied to vote against it. Since then multiple rounds of talks failed and the more time passes the more difficult building bridges becomes.
“Look… it doesn't matter what we are. Is this coffee Greek or Turkish? It's just coffee at the end of the day", the musician said, while taking the last sip and looking into the distance “Politicians want us to keep fighting to stay in power - for us normal people it doesn’t matter.”
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
