On the drive to Famagusta, I was shocked to hear about how Turkey was bringing Turkish citizens illegally into the northern part of Cyprus. Georgia said that only a under a couple hundred thousands Turkish Cypriots that are legal but the car, water, and electricity records show otherwise. Cyprus asked Turkey to do an official census but they refused. Based off the context of how many homes need electricity and how many people need cars there are estimated to be nearly a million Turkish people living there now. This is illegal and set the tone for how I felt about the Turkish people. Their government took over and kicked out innocent families and have turned the once booming city of Famagusta into a ghost town.

When we first went to Famagusta, it was unsettling seeing the guards and how empty the city was. Even when we went to Varosi I didn’t really feel welcomed. Everything was in Turkish and there was no other culture around. It was like they erased all the Greek culture from the island. As we walked by each site, Georgia told us all about how she lived in the town and how lively it used to be. When I heard about all the stories of what these buildings and shops used to be was just so sad. We heard all about the history for the past few months, but seeing it in real life was a whole new reality. A story that struck me was about this fur shop. Dr. Clark had asked why there was fur shop in one of the hottest locations. Georgia told us the story about a woman who was engaged to be married to this Greek man. The woman one day went to drop her fiance off at the port for him to do business, but instead of entering the port he crossed over into a dangerous Turkish area. Out of concern thinking her fiance had made a mistake, she went to the police to alert them that he might be killed over there. However she was shocked and devastated to find out that he was a Turkish spy, posing as a Greek Cypriot trying to get information for the government. The woman was pregnant with his child and no one knows where they both went after the invasion. The fur shop that they owned still remains in the ghost town as a distant memory.