To start off our first Saturday in Cyprus, we took a long bus ride to the Turkish part of the island. We started by visiting Varosi, a modern ghost town. Over the last 50 years, it has become overgrown with vegetation. Walking through it felt like walking through a post apocalyptic movie. I couldn’t believe that this had once been a place where people lived, worked, and played. The most shocking part was when we made it to the coast. The water was beautifully clear and the beach was prestine— but the coast was lined with abandoned towers. What was once a thriving tourist location is now a rotting shell of itself. It truly felt like a war zone and a window into an alternate world. Seeing this helps me put an image to a forced eviction of an entire group of people— helping me to understand crises that have been explained throughout history.

Next, we went over into the inhabited part of Famagusta. The town itself wasn’t very surprising to me, it had similar architecture and streets to other Cypriot areas we’ve been to. However, I was very surprised that the food was also similar. I expected the food to have more of a Turkish/middle eastern influence, but most items on menus were the same as they are in the Greek part of Cyprus. The biggest surprise for me was hearing the Muslim call to prayer while eating dinner. I have known that mosques play a call to prayer for some time, but actually being able to hear it was a new experience for me. Being able to hear it made me realize something that goes behind my the religion itself. There is power in the entire community doing something together a few times a day— it shows great discipline for all those involved.

It’s also important to note why this divide between the Turkish north and Greek south exists— which also explains the presence of the ghost town Varosi. In the 1970s, Cyprus was a newly independent nation with Greek and Turkish Cypriots. These two groups struggled for power and control of the government. When an extremist group of Greek Cypriots staged a coup to take over the government (with the goal of uniting with Greece), Turkey invaded to “protect Turkish Cypriots” (they were hungry for land/power). Turkey took the northern part of the island before the UN intervened, creating a buffer zone between the two sides. All of the Greek Cypriots in the northern land fled to become refugees in the south; the Turkish Cypriots fled to the north. This resulted in a refugee crisis and the population of the island being divided on ethnic lines. In the north, most of the vacant houses were filled by either displaced Turkish Cypriots or settlers from mainland Turkey. Such settlement of mainland Turks is internationally considered illegal— Turkey sent them to shift the culture of northern Cyprus to becoming more Turkish. This was beneficial to Turkey as it allowed them to exert a stronger claim over the island. However, this resettlement was not the case tor Varosi. Varosi was put under the protection of the UN, who only allowed it to be settled by the Greek Cypriots who originally lived there. The Turkish however did not let Greek Cypriots return, so it has remained an overgrown ghost town for the last 50 years.