VAROSHA, Cyprus: The freshly paved street with its new bicycle lane markings meanders through the heart of abandoned Varosha, in ethnically split Cyprus’ breakaway north, to a crumbling cinema in front of Savvas Constantinides’ family home.
Yet a rope line prevents the Greek Cypriot cardiologist from walking down a shrub-festooned side street to see the home he fled as a 6-year-old refugee in 1974, while Turkish troops approached the Famagusta suburb.
Like any tourist or sightseer, Varosha’s Greek Cypriot former residents must look from behind ropes at empty houses and schools, gutted hotels and looted stores.
They can’t enter their lost homes.
That’s the rule Turkish Cypriot authorities imposed last October, when they partly opened Varosha — Maras in Turkish — to visitors amid much fanfare, after keeping it uninhabited and sealed off by Turkish troops for nearly half a century.
They cite public safety, as many buildings are crumbling. But it’s the absurdity of playing sightseer in his former home that grates on Costantinides, 53.
Now, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots are dangling the opportunity of letting at least some Greek Cypriots reclaim their Varosha property if they accept the rule of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state as legitimate — a move that’s sowing consternation and discord.
“There’s tremendous anger about what has happened here. Turkey has committed a huge crime,” Costantinides said.
“Today, we’re living the same crime again. ... It’s as if they’re performing an autopsy and tourists are coming to witness it. It’s a shame, a shame for humanity.”
With its white sand beaches and luxury hotels, Varosha was once the pride of the eastern Mediterranean island’s booming tourism industry.
Then in 1974, Turkey invaded in response to a coup aiming at union with Greece. About 180,000 Greek Cypriots fled Cyprus’ northern third, including 15,000 Varosha residents. Tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots settled the north — whose declaration of independence only Turkey recognizes.
Varosha was kept untouched, to be used as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations, despite two United Nations Security Council resolutions — the latest in 1992 — for its return to its residents under UN administration.
After decades of fruitless talks, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots last year changed tack on Varosha, under a major policy shift seeking to formally partition Cyprus between two “sovereign and equal states” — ignoring the agreed-upon framework for a federation of Greek- and Turkish-speaking zones.
That shift was condemned by the UN, the EU, the US, Russia and others as gravely undermining hopes for peace.
In July, Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar raised the stakes, inviting Greek Cypriots to reclaim their property and live under Turkish Cypriot administration in a tiny sliver of Varosha ahead of a potential wider opening.
Applications must go to the Immovable Property Commission, a Turkish Cypriot legal body endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights. The IPC was created to adjudicate property cases of Greek Cypriots seeking to reclaim their property, as a first step before potentially reaching the ECHR.
Greek — and many Turkish — Cypriots saw the invitation as a Turkish Cypriot ploy to cement control of Varosha and secure implicit acknowledgement of their rule from its former inhabitants.
The Greek Cypriot government, which represents the island internationally, fears a rush of applications to the IPC could trigger a mass property sell-off both in Varosha and elsewhere that the north would exploit politically.
The IPC has received nearly 7,000 applications since 2006, and essentially purchased Greek Cypriot properties in about 1,200 of these cases with the remainder still pending. It has ruled to return or exchange property with land elsewhere in the north only a dozen times.
Oz Karahan, the Turkish Cypriot president of the left-wing peace association Union of Cypriots, says Turkish Cypriots who lost property of their own in the south empathize with Varosha’s refugees. He’s among many Turkish Cypriots who consider Tatar’s rule illegitimate, claiming his election followed unprecedented Turkish interference.
“Turkey’s new policy is clearly aiming to make Varosha part of its ... illegal regime in the north,” Karahan said.
Standing in a garden in front of the school he graduated from more than 50 years ago, Simos Ioannou, the Greek Cypriot mayor-in-exile of Famagusta, claims Turkey’s move sought to undermine the peace talks and cause upheaval in the south.
“I believe it was done to plant a tombstone on the Cyprus issue, to compel us to live under Turkish Cypriot administration and to foment division among the Greek Cypriot residents of Varosha,” he said.
On his first visit to Varosha since 1973, Ioannou said the refugees could have returned long ago had Turkey heeded the UN resolutions.
“But they’re afraid we will prove that we can live peacefully with (the Turkish Cypriots),” he added.
Ioannou said 37 Varosha property owners are known to have applied to the IPC, but “very few” expressed a willingness to return under Turkish Cypriot administration.
Constantinides’s home lies outside the section of the suburb where Greek Cypriots have been told they can reclaim their properties. But he said he won’t give up trying to get back what belongs to his family.
“I hope that a way can be found where we can return as owners and not as tenants or tourists, but for certain, I’ll fight for my rights,” he added. “I owe it to my parents who toiled to build this, I owe it to my daughter.”
‘Homecoming’ to a ghost town sparks Greek Cypriot anguish
https://arab.news/w7knb
‘Homecoming’ to a ghost town sparks Greek Cypriot anguish
- Varosha’s Greek Cypriot former residents must look from behind ropes at empty houses and schools, gutted hotels and looted stores
- Northern Cyprus is dangling the opportunity of letting at least some Greek Cypriots reclaim their Varosha property — if they accept the rule of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state
Stranded travelers scramble to make new connections as war shuts much of Middle East to air travel
- Airspace or airports in Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates were closed, according to flight tracking sites and government agencies there
DUBAI: Hundreds of thousands of stranded travelers scrambled to make new connections and get through to airlines on jammed phone lines Sunday after the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel shut down much of the Middle East to air travel.
Tourists and business travelers crowded hotels and airports, with no word on when many airports would reopen or when flights to and through the Middle East would resume. Some governments advised their stranded citizens to shelter in place.
Shutdown airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha — including Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest in the world — are important hubs for travel between Europe, Africa and the West to Asia. All three were directly hit by strikes.
Mohammad Abdul Mannan, in the crowd at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said he wasn’t concerned about the war, but that he needs to get his flight to the Middle East to make a living.
“We have set out to go for work, and we must go,” he said. “My only concern is how to go abroad and how to earn an income.”
Confusion reigned for many travelers as they tried to get answers on online portals or through busy phone lines.
In Dubai, stranded travelers could hear fighter jets overhead and an explosion when the Fairmont Palm Hotel was hit by a missile strike.
Many were unable to get updated flight information from tour operators or Dubai-based Emirates, which suspended all flights to and from Dubai until at least Monday afternoon.
Louise Herrle and her husband had their flight to Washington canceled on their way back to their Pittsburgh home after a tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with no word when they could reschedule.
“We’re in the hotel room, we are not leaving it, so you’re not going to give it up until we know we have a flight out of here,” Herrle said. “I’m sure everyone else is in the same situation.”
Flights canceled, airports and airspaces still closed
Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, said it is hard to calculate the number of travelers stranded worldwide.
However, it estimated that at least 90,000 people alone change flights daily in the airports in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi on just three airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways.
Airspace or airports in Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates were closed, according to flight tracking sites and government agencies there.
More than 2,800 flights were canceled Sunday to and from airports across the Middle East, including those that remained open in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, according figures on flight tracking site FlightAware. International airports in London, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangkok, Istanbul, Sri Lanka and Paris each reported dozens of flights canceled, as well.
Cancellations will extend beyond Sunday, at least.
Emirates suspended all flights to and from Dubai until at least Monday afternoon. Air India suspended all flights to and from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar until Tuesday. Israeli airline EL AL said it was preparing to fly home Israelis stranded abroad once the airspace reopened and closed ticket sales for flights through March 21 to ensure stranded customers get priority.
Two airports in the United Arab Emirates reported strikes as the government there condemned what it called a “blatant attack involving Iranian ballistic missiles” on Saturday.
Officials at Dubai International Airport said four people were injured, while Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi said one person was killed and seven others were injured in a drone strike. Strikes were also reported at Kuwait International Airport.
Iran did not publicly claim responsibility.
Flight disruptions are likely to continue
Airlines urged passengers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport. Some airlines issued waivers to affected travelers that will allow them to rebook their flight plans without paying extra fees or higher fares. Others offered full refunds.
“For travelers, there’s no way to sugarcoat this,” said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. “You should prepare for delays or cancelations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end.”
Mike McCormick, who used to oversee air traffic control for the Federal Aviation Administration, said countries might reopen their airspace once American and Israeli officials tell airlines where military flights are operating and how capable Iran remains at firing missiles.
‘No one really knows what’s going on’
The reverberations echoed far outside the Middle East — for example, airport authorities in the resort island of Bali in Indonesia said more than 1,600 tourists were stranded at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday after five flights to the Middle East were canceled or postponed.
Airlines that are crossing the Middle East will have to reroute flights around the conflict with many flights headed south over Saudi Arabia. That will cause delays and higher costs.
Kristy Ellmer, an American who had been on business meetings in Dubai, said she was staying in a hotel and keeping multiple flights booked in case airports reopen.
She said she was gaining confidence in the government’s ability to protect the city from missiles, but also keeping away from windows when she hears explosions.
“You hear a lot of explosions at times, there’s hundreds of them,” Ellmer said. “And so when we hear them we sort of just don’t stay near the windows just in case the glass was to break or there was some impact.”
