Cyprus Ghost Town’s Beach Becomes a New Front for Turkey
Cyprus Ghost Town’s Sandy Beach Becomes a New Front for Turkey
(Bloomberg) -- A sandy beach fringing a ghost town in Cyprus’s Turkish-controlled north has become Turkey’s latest front as it pushes for a two-state solution on the divided island and defends the enclave’s claims to any offshore energy finds.
With Ankara’s encouragement, the self-styled Turkish Cypriot state opened the long strip of beach and the main street at Varosha to the public on Thursday, ignoring warnings that the move could hinder reunification attempts. A few hundred Turkish Cypriots walked in the area under instruction to wear masks and keep to social distancing rules due to the pandemic, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Varosha had been the island’s premier tourist resort before it was abandoned and sealed off following the Turkish takeover of northern Cyprus in the summer of 1974. Greek-speaking residents left the once upmarket suburb, sited next to the port of Famagusta.
Now, authorities there want to redevelop it to win implicit international recognition of the breakaway state’s control. Officials in the Turkish Cypriot government ordered a study to determine who owned property in Varosha and encourage them to return and claim their assets.
The Cypriot government said it would consider the step a breach of Ankara’s international commitments and prevent reunification talks, which the United Nations has aimed to restart after the Oct. 11 presidential elections in the breakaway state, which is dominated by Turkish Cypriots and tens of thousands of Turkish troops.
Greece on Thursday said Turkey should take a step back from its decision to open Varosha. Government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters in Athens that the issue would be discussed by European Union leaders next week if Ankara ignored the Greek call.
Some members of the EU and Russia also oppose the beach opening, with the EU warning that it would worsen ties already strained by Ankara’s energy exploration in contested waters of the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish minority’s self-proclaimed state in the north, recognized only by Ankara, also claims rights to any energy resources discovered off its coast.
The island has been divided since Turkish forces captured its northern third following a coup attempt in which a military junta in Athens sought to unite Cyprus with Greece.
Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 after Greek-speaking voters rejected a UN-backed unification plan in a referendum, and successive efforts to reunify the island have failed, most recently in 2017. Cyprus is the only European country with UN peacekeepers on its soil.
Last month, Turkey floated in especially explicit terms the concept of a two-state solution for Cyprus, saying it sees no common ground or vision for a solution. The idea was swiftly condemned by the Cypriot government, which officially has sovereignty over the entire island.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed full support for the reopening of the beach at Varosha, saying the town indisputably belongs to the Turkish Cypriot state.
The Turkish Cypriot government is hoping the town, where ruined beach-front apartment buildings, villas and an Alfa Romeo dealership are partly overrun by ivy, will attract investment if the island’s division is peacefully resolved or it can win international recognition as a sovereign state.
“The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will break chains of embargoes as it becomes richer and stronger,” Erdogan said on Tuesday, adding that Turkey will dictate terms with its “political, diplomatic and military strength.”
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