VAROSHA: Turkish troops on Thursday reopened parts of a Cyprus seaside resort that became a ghost town amid war in 1974, sparking controversy days ahead of an election in the Turkish north.

The move at Varosha threatened to further inflame tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey has been engaged in bitter maritime disputes with Greece and Cyprus.

President Nicos Anastasiades of the Greek-majority south denounced a “flagrant violation of international law and the resolutions of the UN Security Council” while his country’s close ally Greece warned it would raise the issue with EU partners.

As the gates were opened for the first time in decades, with troops guarding the site, visitors streamed in taking smartphone pictures of a city seemingly frozen in time, with trees and bushes growing from abandoned cafes, shops and houses.

A seaside suburb of the historic city of Famagusta, Varosha was Cyprus’s premier resort in its early 1970s heyday, frequented by Hollywood stars and other celebrities.

But the 1974 war that divided the small island prompted a mass exodus of the city’s Greek Cypriot inhabitants, consolidating an ethnic divide that has persisted to this day.

The only regular visitors to Varosha have been Turkish troops guarding the fenced zone’s southern limit where it abuts Cyprus government-held territory and the occasional UN peacekeeping patrol.

One woman who entered the long-forbidden zone on Thursday stood on the beach with the Turkish flag wrapped around her shoulders, as Greek Cypriots held a protest on the other side of the UN buffer zone dividing the island.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020