Varosha was the modern tourist area of the city of Famagusta prior to the Turkish invasion of 1974. Today it is a ghost town.
Many new high rise buildings and hotels were built prior to the war to cater to the increasing number tourists coming to the number one tourist destination in Cyprus at that time.In 1974 Varosha was made part of the UN Buffer zone separating the occupied part of the island from the rest of Cyprus. The Turkish army has refused to hand control of Varosha over to the UN and continues to maintain a presence in the ghost town. It has stood empty and untouched since the island was divided 25 years ago. The Turkish Cypriot authorities have made repeated attempts to open it to Turkish settlers, at one point even proposing to allow refugees from Kosovo to stay there. The Cypriot government has remained steadfast in its position that Varosha is protected by a 1984 UN Security Council resolution, which says the empty town can only be resettled by its original inhabitants, who were almost all Greek Cypriots.
Read photo journalist, Michael J. Totten's article: The Ghost City of Cyprus and visit www.isxys.org to support the Global Campaign to return Varosha to its rightful inhabitants.
what happens if turks just move in anyway since they control the land. is not possession 9/10ths of law?
Posted by: curious | 13 April 2007 at 12:44 AM
you cannot call it an Turk invasion since the Turks were already there since 1570.
But we could call it a Turkish Genocide by the Greek for the murders and attacks in 1960s...
Posted by: meric guven | 07 April 2010 at 05:29 PM
@ Meric
People come and people go,
but Cyprus is eternally Greek.
Fools may try to erase every trace of our history,
as if we never existed,
but exist we did on the land that was stolen from us.
Those who take our lands, even if they live on them
for a thousand years.
The land will forget them.
Because that land will be forever Greek.
Posted by: Stavros | 08 April 2010 at 10:03 PM
kıbrıs türktür türk kaacak
Posted by: dündar | 04 March 2012 at 04:33 PM
No offense to the Turks, it's related to history.
Cyprus is Greek since ancient times....
Cyprus is Greek, once and forever.
Posted by: Trajano Cabrales | 16 March 2012 at 08:53 AM
The problem in Cyprus was always one of trying to annul its autonomy from both mainlands and the superpowers and the former colonial power.
Posted by: kosta | 16 March 2012 at 07:35 PM