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For the first time in 46 years, the public has been allowed access to Varosha beach in the Turkish Cypriot separatist north of Cyprus, in a controversial move revealed by its unrecognized premier who is standing in Sunday’s election.
Hundreds of people passed through a gate controlled by Turkish Cypriot police on Thursday to walk down a newly paved asphalt road that leads to the beach that was the jewel of what was once a major tourist center in Famagusta. The highway was lined with police tape to keep pedestrians out of windowless homes and rusted businesses, some swallowed up by decades-old brush.
The Greek Cypriot inhabitants of Varosha fled as Turkish troops advanced in 1974, when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of the union with Greece. The area was placed under Turkish military control, cordoned off and abandoned to the ravages of time.
For some, like a woman draped in Turkish and Turkish Cypriot flags, it was a joyous moment to witness a “historic” moment. But for others, like the Greek Cypriot and the native of Varosha Kyriakos Charalambides who they watched on television from their home in Nicosia, it was a moment of bitterness and pain. “Although I expected this, I was shocked to see those familiar places,” Charalambides, a playwright, told the Associated Press. “It is a pity that he cannot be consoled … Varosha is lost.”
“It’s a terrible day,” said art historian and archaeologist Anna Marangou, who was 22 when she was forced to flee.
Former Varosha residents staged a rally late Thursday at a junction along a UN-controlled buffer zone to express their opposition to the opening. The checkpoint, one of nine from which Greek and Turkish Cypriots can cross to both sides, was closed on the Turkish Cypriot side as part of measures to counter the spread of Covid-19.
“How can anyone not be upset by what they saw today?” said the Greek Cypriot mayor of Famagusta, Simos Ioannou Press. “Varosha should have been handed over to her rightful owners … this is psychological pressure.”
Nicos Anastasiades, internationally recognized president of Cyprus, called the move “illegal.” He has already condemned the move and said he would appeal to the United Nations security council. Russia said reopening the beach was unacceptable. Both the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, have expressed concern about an action that they said could increase tensions and undermine further attempts to restart the talks.
The decision by Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state, recognized only by Ankara, to open the mile-long stretch of beach was roundly condemned by the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot-led island government.
Cypriot President Anastasiades said it was a “flagrant violation of international law” and UN security council resolutions that consider it “inadmissible” for any part of Varosha – Maras in Turkish – to be colonized by someone other than their legitimate inhabitants.
But Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials insist that the measure benefits everyone and that the rights of Greek Cypriot owners are not affected, as only the beach is open for now. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a property inventory was being conducted to determine what would happen to the rest of Varosha.
The UN security council scheduled closed consultations on Varosha on Friday.
With AFP and Reuters
