Divisions run deep in Nicosia, the world’s last separated capital

NICOSIA // Walking down Nicosia’s bustling Ledra Street feels a lot like being on many other European high streets. Locals and tourists linger in cafes, shoppers clutching bags bulging with purchases wander from store to store and music wafts down the pedestrianised promenade.

But slipping down side streets brings visitors to another world, one not seen in other European Union countries today: alleys are blocked off with barricades of barrels, sandbags and barbed wire. Openings for rifles peer into an abandoned no-man’s land. Bullet holes pockmark some buildings. Signs warn visitors not to cross the line or snap photographs.

Nicosia has long been the world’s last divided capital, outliving Cold War Berlin and a bombed-out Beirut that was ripped in two by a civil war in the 1970s and 80s. And with the recent capture of the rebel half of Aleppo by Syrian government forces, it once again stands as the world’s only major city in a state of indefinite division.

Ethnic Greeks and Turks have coexisted on Cyprus since the Ottoman Empire conquered it in the 16th century. But violence between the two communities broke out in the years leading up to independence from British rule in 1960 and continued after, with ethnic Greeks pushing for union with Greece and Turks advocating partition. Villages were razed and civilians killed as Greek and Turkish partisans fought, and areas of the island where Greeks and Turks had lived side by side began to segregate.

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Cyprus peace talks

■ Will Cyprus talks bring Turkey closer to EU membership?

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Turkish troops invaded Cyprus in 1974 as part of a “peacekeeping” operation, days after an Athens-backed military coup on the island. By the time a final ceasefire was agreed, Turkish forces had captured about a third of the island. A buffer zone between the two sides was established, patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers, dividing the country and its capital. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared – a country recognised only by Turkey.

Despite the bloody history and the topography of war that remains in place along the border, tempers have largely calmed over the decades. The Turkish north continues to call the events of the 1960s a genocide and the Greek south considers the north to be under occupation, but violence has been absent for a long time.

The border between the north and south has been open for more than a decade, allowing citizens of each territory to visit the other side.

Continuing down Ledra Street, past the Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC and H&M outlets brings visitors to one of these border crossings. After a quick check of documents by Greek Cypriot officials, you walk across no-man’s land for a few seconds – past graffiti reading “one Cyprus” and “the war is over” – before entering northern Cyprus.

In just a few metres, greetings change from a polite “ya sas” to a polite “merhaba”, prices from euros to lira, and street food from souvlaki and gyro to kebab and doner.

Turkish Cyprus is on the same time zone as Ankara. But while the clocks go forward an hour on entering the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, time seems to go back several years. Instead of the multinational chains and boutiques on the Greek side of Ledra Street there is a bazaar atmosphere, with goods spilling from shops on to the streets. Old mosques and caravanserais make Europe seem far away. It all feels like being in Turkey – because, well, it is.

While the two sides of the island could not be more different, there have been efforts to reunite them.

Last week, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders met in Geneva for yet another attempt to reach a deal that would bring the island back together, in what the new UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has called “a historic opportunity”.

The peace talks include Turkey and Greece as well as Britain, the island’s former ruler.

While there is optimism from those involved in the reunification talks, major questions remain unresolved: who would be responsible for security on a reunited island and what would happen to the tens of thousands of Turkish troops in the north? How would power in government be shared fairly? How would the reunited state deal with the issue of private property that was seized during the unrest? What are the implications of reunification on Greek Cyprus’s membership of the European Union?

None of these questions is easily answered, and at least one has already emerged as a potential breaking point for the negotiations.

On Friday, Greece said there could be no settlement in Cyprus so long as “occupying” Turkish troops remained on the island. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan shot back by saying withdrawal of the troops was “out of the question”.

Despite the disagreement, talks are to resume on Wednesday.

On the ground, the divisions appear deeper than language, food and time zones.

Painted on the side of a mountain looming over Nicosia and Greek Cyprus is a huge Turkish Cypriot flag. Next to it and also visible from Greek Cyprus are the words “how happy is the one who says ‘I am a Turk’” – the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic. Lit up at night, the flag can be seen far into the Greek part of the island.

On the southern side of the island, Greek flags are a common sight.

Even amid the search for a resolution, divisions deepen. Northern Cyprus’s decision to align its time zone with the Turkish mainland and underscore its Turkishness only came in November.

And despite its claim of independence, northern Cyprus remains firmly under Ankara’s control.

Here are the same red military-zone signs seen so frequently in Turkey’s restive south-east, along with the familiar presence of Turkish troops. Stencils of Ataturk adorn walls. And as on the mainland, dissent is not tolerated.

On New Year’s Eve, prominent Turkish fashion designer Barbaros Sansal was in northern Cyprus when he uploaded a video to social media, apparently mocking the time zone change while lashing out at Turkey’s corruption and the frequent violations of press freedom. After asserting that he was about to go celebrate the new year a second time over in Greek Cyprus (due to the time zone change), Mr Sansal ended his video by saying “drown in your own [excrement] Turkey”.

Although he was in northern Cyprus – supposedly a separate country from Turkey – Mr Sansal was arrested just as quickly and as predictably as he would have been in Anatolia. He was “deported” to Turkey, where a waiting mob on the tarmac of Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport beat him before he was rearrested by Turkish authorities again.

If the current talks in Geneva collapse, another attempt at reunification may be a long way off. As Espen Barth Eide, the UN envoy for Cyprus, put it, “The choice now is very much about using this opportunity, or losing it.”

jwood@thenational.ae

*With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse