Today we visited Famagusta which is located on the northern side of the island. This portion of the island has been occupied by Turkish rule shortly before Cyprus gained its independence from Great Britain in 1960. At the end of the Turkish rain, a border was left that split Cyprus in half. Learning about the history of this division from our tour guide we learned a lot about how the division came to be. However, it was not until I started asking some questions to other people that there were a lot more sides to this story. I found that very important to note since often in many of today’s news articles it is very easy to only see one side of each story and it might be very true and very believable. However, in most cases, there is always another side to each story. And it is very important to look out for them.

            When we saw the town of Famagusta we went into the army-restricted area in the city we talked to the tour guide about why it is an inhabited ghost town. We found that when the Turkish army invaded, they took control of the city as their own and have been holding it since to try to use it as leverage in any negotiations with the Greek Cypriots. What I took away from this was how important an area can be to individuals it wasn’t about regaining Greek Cypriote positions it was about regaining the homes of many people and the land they had for generations. These lands and homes and memories meant so much to the Greeks that the Turkish nation can use the land for negotiations. This showed me how important home is to people.

However, it is sad to see that the land the Turkish army took would no longer be inhabited. It would take a lot of money to renovate the dilapidated buildings and roads that have been destroyed by nature over the past 70 years ago. It would take a lot of effort to restore the city to the glory it was before.