The Exile's Bazaar
  • Home
  • About
  • Destinations
  • Book
  • Publications
  • Contact

Notes from a fascinating world.

The world is like a bazaar, full of interesting odds and ends, and I've been exiled into it. This is my all-over-the-map (literally and metaphorically) attempt at capturing some of the world's many wonders.

The Last Divided Capital in the World

1/29/2018

 
The woman at the tourist information office in Larnaca was not encouraging.

I had asked her about crossing the “green line” or UN buffer zone in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. She was not amused. “If you go across,” she said, “you go at your own risk.”

“As my own risk?” I was a little taken aback. “There’s not any actual risk, is there?”

“It’s an illegal government up there,” she said sternly. “It’s occupied territory. There are no embassies, no consulates. If you have any problems, no one can help you.”
Picture
View of northern Nicosia from a tower in the south on a cloudy day. In the hills in the distance, the Turkish Cypriots have painted a TRNC flag.
I didn’t take her words to heart, but I could understand her anger. Nicosia, or Lefkosia, the capital of Cyprus, is the the last divided capital in the world. It’s jarring to know this when you’re in this country, which is a summer playground of lovely beaches for Russians, other Europeans, and everyone else. But Cyprus today has been the product of bitter civil conflict.

After decades as a British colony, Cyprus became independent in 1960. By 1963, violence between ethnically Greek and ethnically Turkish Cypriots had erupted. By the following year, Turkey had threatened to invade Cyprus to aid the ethnic Turks, in response to which Greece sent 10,000 troops to Cyprus to counter any potential invasion. Turkey gave up on an invasion only after U.S. president Lyndon Johnson threatened Ankara in turn.

A Turkish invasion finally came in 1974, in response to a coup sponsored by Greece that aimed to united Cyprus with that country. By the time international pressure halted the fighting, the Turkish military had capture the northern third of the country, including the northern half of Nicosia. Greek Cypriots living in the north were evicted from their homes, while Turkish Cypriots living in Greek-controlled areas moved north. The “Turkish Republic of North Cyprus” remains the de facto authority of the northern third of Cyprus, even though no other country recognizes it except Turkey, and the Republic of Cyprus retains de jure authority over the entire island.

I wasn’t sure what I’d find in Nicosia. Accounts online were relatively sparse as to how difficult it was getting across the line. Was it going to be like the Berlin Wall?
Picture
"Lefkosia - The Last Divided Capital" sign on the southern side of the checkpoint.
The green line turned out to bisect the old city, its defining walls built in 1567 by the Venetians. There was a Checkpoint Charlie of sorts, where Nicosia’s longest street, the bustling Ledra Street, gets cut off by the green line. On both sides, the streets immediately adjacent to the green line were deserted as no-go zones.

But the checkpoint itself was not nearly as troublesome as I might have feared. A short line of older European visitors were in front of me as I reached it on the Greek side. One by one we showed our passports to the stern-faced Greek Cypriot officers, and one by one they let us pass. Just a few steps farther we did the same thing again with the Turkish Cypriot ones. Neither side stamped my passport, which is probably a good thing, because I remember seeing a sign at immigration into Greece a couple of years ago that said that entry would be denied to anyone whose passport bore a “TRNC” stamp. It was just as easy returning from the north to the south.
Picture
Greek side of the checkpoint.
Picture
Turkish side of the checkpoint.
Traversing the two sides of Nicosia, the cost to civic life that came with the division became apparent to me. It’s like a deep slash across the heart. Much of what formerly was the most central part of the historic city is now no man’s land. In the old days, a “women’s market” used to be held every weekend at the end of Ledra Street, right about where the checkpoint is now, where women from all over Cyprus used to come to sell their wares. The women’s market has not been held since the division.

Walking around the two sides, I felt as though I could just about touch that loss, that absence — of the synergy, the much greater creative energy that the city seemed impossible not to enjoy if the two sides could only join forces.
Picture
Seen in northern Nicosia near the green line.

Comments are closed.

    Author

    Writer, traveler, lawyer, dilettante. Failed student of physics. Not altogether distinguished graduate of two Ivy League institutions. Immigrant twice over. "The grand tour is just the inspired man's way of getting home."
    Follow me on Twitter (@W_T_Han) and Instagram (@wthtravel).
    ​https://www.scmp.com/author/william-han

    同是天涯淪落人,
    ​相逢何必曾相識?

    Updates Mondays.

     
    Want to be notified of new posts?
    Get newsletter
    Powered By Constant Contact
     

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Afghanistan
    Africa
    Amazon
    America
    Antarctica
    Anthropology
    Archaeology
    Architecture
    Argentina
    Armenia
    Art
    Astronomy
    Books
    Brazil
    Buddhism
    Caribbean
    Caribbeans
    Caucasus
    Central America
    Central Asia
    Chile
    China
    Christianity
    Cinema
    Colombia
    Costa Rica
    Criticism
    Cuba
    Culture
    Easter Island
    Economics
    Ecuador
    England
    Essay
    Ethiopia
    Etymology
    Europe
    Family
    Film
    France
    Goths
    Halloween
    Hinduism
    History
    Huns
    Iceland
    Immigration
    Inca
    Indonesia
    Iran
    Iraq
    Islam
    Japan
    Kenya
    Korea
    Law
    Linguistics
    Literature
    Maldives
    Martial-arts
    Mathematics
    Medicine
    Mexico
    Middle East
    Mongolia
    Mythology
    Nepal
    New Zealand
    Pacific-islands
    Panama
    Persia
    Peru
    Philosophy
    Politics
    Portraits & Encounters
    Portugal
    Psychology
    Race
    Refugees
    Religion
    Rome
    Russia
    Science
    Sherlock Holmes
    Singapore
    South America
    Spain
    Sri Lanka
    Superman
    Syria
    Taiwan
    Television
    Travel
    Travel Advice
    Ukraine
    United States
    USA
    Uzbekistan
    Vaccination
    Voltaire
    Women
    Writing
    Zoroastrianism

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
  • Destinations
  • Book
  • Publications
  • Contact