Varosha quarter in the city of famagusta. The abandoned city of Varosha (Northern Cyprus). Why won't the city be returned

Abandoned Cyprus October 16th, 2015

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Varosha - until the 70s, a lively seaside town, where hundreds of tourists flocked from all over Europe. They say that Varosha hotels were so popular that the most luxurious rooms in them were reserved by the prudent British and Germans for 20 years in advance. Luxurious villas and hotels advanced by the standards of the 70s of the last century were built here.

It was a cozy seaside town much like today's Larnaca, with multi-bed hotels along the sandy beach, with churches and clubs, panel houses and private villas, with schools, hospitals, kindergartens and gas stations Petrolina, the Greek oil monopoly of those times. New Famagusta stretched south along the eastern coast of Cyprus, covering an area of several tens of square kilometers ...

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Varosha is the southern suburb of the old Famagusta, there were several dozen multi-storey hotels and boarding houses stretching along the beautiful beaches (the best in Cyprus), and on the second line - the Greek quarter with private estates, churches, parks. The Turks traditionally lived to the north, in Famagusta. In the early 70s, it was literally one of the coolest resorts in the Mediterranean! Then no one knew about Antalya and Croatia, but Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton and many others rested in Varosha. Grace ended in an instant, on July 20, 1974, when Greek troops, under the onslaught of the advancing Turkish army, announced the urgent evacuation of Famagusta and Varosha. In a matter of days tens of thousands of Greeks, fearing a massacre, fled from Famagusta and Varosha, abandoning literally everything; there were food in the refrigerators, unmade beds, scattered things, family albums, cars in garages. People fled so rapidly that if the Turks today opened Varosha for visits, it would become the most amazing museum of the apocalypse in the world, in which everything remained as if people had just disappeared, evaporated. The trees sprouting in the apartments give an additional flavor to this drama.

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What can be observed here now makes a rather depressing impression - living rotting villas, churches with downcast crosses stand waist-deep in thistles, weeds, cacti, rhododendrons. The inhabitants of Varosha are currently gulls, rodents and stray cats. In the quiet of the streets, only the steps of UN peacekeepers and soldiers of the Turkish army are heard. Four kilometers of golden sandy beaches have remained unclaimed for more than three decades. A frozen crane, a series of hotels, bank buildings, padlocked. Parts of the neon sign of the Venus disco can hardly be seen through dense bushes and weeds. Houses and villas that have been plundered more than once ...

On August 14-16, 1974, the Turkish army occupied 37% of the island, including Famagusta and one of its suburbs Varosha. A few hours before the arrival of Turkish troops in Famagusta, all Greek residents of Varosha left their homes to become refugees in the southern part of the island, in mainland Greece, Great Britain and the United States. 16 thousand people left in full confidence that they would return in a week, maximum two. More than 30 years have passed since then, and the opportunity to enter their homes has never been presented to them.

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Unlike many other places in Cyprus, where the abandoned houses of the Greeks were occupied by their Turkish neighbors or migrants from Turkey (the Greeks call them Anatolian settlers), the Turks from Famagusta did not settle Varosha. The Turkish army surrounded the deserted village with a barbed wire fence, checkpoints and various other obstacles, actually mothballing Varosha in the form in which the Greek Cypriots left it in August 1974. And in this form, it has survived to this day - the most terrible monument to the civil war that divided the once bi-national Cyprus into two unequal ethnic halves.

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Every few years, the hope for the return of the city to its inhabitants revived, but the parties still have not come to a compromise that would suit both communities. Varosha has become a bargaining chip in relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Varosha has long been the most impressive symbol of the division of the island, inhabited by the ghosts of the past.

Those who managed to sneak through the wire fences erected by the Turkish army talk about the plates of dried food left in the kitchens and dining rooms of the once elegant villas and houses, the clothes that are still dried on the ropes, and the incredible amount of weeds that flooded the streets. Varosha. Shop window prices date back to 1974.

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Varosha was subjected to total plundering by marauders. At first, they were the Turkish military, taking furniture, televisions and dishes to the mainland. Then the inhabitants of the nearby streets, taking away everything that the soldiers and officers of the occupying army did not need. Turkey was forced to declare the city a closed zone, but this did not save it from total plunder: everything that could be carried away was taken away.

Although, there is an alternative vision of the conflict - the British organized and provoked it in order to prevent the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East in general and in Cyprus in particular. Makarios was going to demand (or demanded?) From the British to remove their bases from Cyprus, for which he paid with his life. The "Turkish occupation" is, in fact, the introduction of the troops of another NATO country into Cyprus, and the organization there of a territory that is not subject to the (close to the USSR) government of Cyprus and is even hostile to it. It is much easier to maintain Western control over this strategically important territory after the partition.

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Here is what PUERRTTO writes

A huge area, about 4 kilometers long and one and a half kilometers wide, is surrounded by fences on all sides. On the one hand, the zone is washed by the sea, on the other, ordinary Turks live literally right next to the fence. Their windows overlook the houses of their former neighbors. But you cannot cross the closed area. I'm sure local Turkish boys climb the fence and wander around the dead city. But it is almost impossible for an ordinary tourist to do this. Military, police, and just vigilant citizens - darkness. Even the very fact of your appearance in the immediate vicinity of the fence causes bewilderment and discontent among the military. And some local activists will happily "snitch" on the phone, they say, here tourists are taking pictures of the church behind the fence (proof)

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And, most interestingly, in the immediate vicinity of the abandoned quarters, there are quite inhabited areas of the city of Famagusta (Turkish part of Cyprus), including several coastal hotels. And the beach of one of them bites its appendix into a ghost town, fenced from it by a fence of black matter. At the same time, the border passes only a few tens of meters from sun loungers and umbrellas.

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I confess that I would like to start this post with the words "... the mysterious and unknown abandoned city of Varosha", but it does not work. For it is not a bit mysterious and used by many people. It got to the point that guided tours have already begun along the perimeter of the dead zone (the city is fenced with fences). Two thoughts occurred to me when I was driving my own car along this "perimeter": very bad things happened here back in 1974, and the second thought - the Turks could make millions if they allowed tourists to get inside the perimeter. Unfortunately, the dead city will remain so for a very long time, the reason for this is UN Resolution 550, adopted on May 11, 1984, which literally states that this area can only be inhabited by its former inhabitants (Attempts to resettle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible). What does this resolution mean in practice? Greek Cypriots will still not be able to return to their homes, and Turkish Cypriots will not be able to master and put in order what was abandoned by the Greeks. So Varosha will remain dead, surrounded by fences with barbed wire and gendarmes watching over us (tourists) so as not to photograph the exclusion zone. You may ask, what happened there on these wonderful beaches near the blue sea, that they are not even allowed to photograph?

Without going into a retelling of the history of the Cyprus conflict, I will start in 1974, when Turkish troops landed on the island and occupied its northern part. Traditionally, it is customary to take the side of the Greeks, they are more "their own" than the Turks. But I will try to be neutral and propose to honestly admit that the Greeks made a mess with their military coups and the deprivation of their rights by the Turkish minority. Turkey's reaction was undoubtedly disproportionate, but on the whole, both sides were inadequate and, exclusively through joint efforts, led to a bloody drama on the sunny island of Aphrodite.

Varosha is the southern suburb of the old Famagusta, there were several dozen multi-storey hotels and boarding houses stretching along the beautiful beaches (the best in Cyprus), and on the second line - the Greek quarter with private estates, churches, parks. The Turks traditionally lived to the north, in Famagusta. In the early 70s, it was literally one of the coolest resorts in the Mediterranean! Then no one knew about Antalya and Croatia, but Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton and many others rested in Varosha. Grace ended in an instant, on July 20, 1974, when Greek troops, under the onslaught of the advancing Turkish army, announced the urgent evacuation of Famagusta and Varosha. In a matter of days tens of thousands of Greeks, fearing a massacre, fled from Famagusta and Varosha, abandoning literally everything; there were food in the refrigerators, unmade beds, scattered things, family albums, cars in garages. People fled so rapidly that if the Turks today opened Varosha for visits, it would become the world's most stunning museum of the apocalypse, in which everything remained as if people had just disappeared, evaporated. The trees sprouting in the apartments give an additional flavor to this drama.

Particularly sensitive read will rightly remark, they say, how are you not ashamed to treat the unfortunate people who have lost their homeland so cynically? The answer is simple: it is certainly a pity for people, but the past cannot be returned, we must learn to live with what we have.

Closed military zone

A huge area, about 4 kilometers long and one and a half kilometers wide, is surrounded by fences on all sides. On the one hand, the zone is washed by the sea, on the other, ordinary Turks live right next to the fence. Their windows overlook the houses of their former neighbors. But you cannot cross the closed area. I'm sure local Turkish boys climb the fence and wander around the dead city. But it is almost impossible for an ordinary tourist to do this. Military, police, and just vigilant citizens - darkness. Even the very fact of your appearance in the immediate vicinity of the fence causes bewilderment and discontent among the military. And some local activists will happily "snitch" on the phone, they say, here tourists are taking pictures of the church behind the fence.

Famagusta and the gated area of Varosha

Varosha (Greek Varosia, tour Maras) is a quarter in the city of Famagusta in Cyprus. It was a popular tourist destination before the Turkish invasion and later became a "ghost town".

In the 1970s, Famagusta was the main tourist destination in Cyprus. Due to the growing number of tourists in the city, many new hotels and tourist facilities were built, and especially many of them appeared in Varosha. In the period from 1970 to 1974, the city was at the peak of its popularity and was recognized by many famous people of that time. Stars who visited him included Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch and Brigitte Bardot. Varosha housed many modern hotels, and its streets were full of entertainment establishments, bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

On July 20, 1974, the Turkish army invaded Cyprus in response to a political coup in the country, and on August 15 of the same year, the Turks occupied Famagusta. As a result of these actions, the country was split into two parts: Greek and Turkish. The Greeks who lived in Varosha were evacuated and since then they have been prohibited from returning there. Journalists were also banned from entering the area. Thus, the quarter is frozen in time, with shops filled with clothes that were fashionable 35 years ago and empty but fully equipped hotels. Since no repairs have been made there for all this time, all buildings are gradually being destroyed. Nature is gradually recapturing its territories again, as the metal rusts, and numerous trees and other plants fill its streets. Swedish journalist Jan Olaf Bengtson, who visited the Swedish battalion of UN peacekeeping forces and saw the closed area, called it a "ghost town":
"The asphalt on the streets is cracked from the heat of the sun, and bushes are growing in the middle of the road. Now, in September 1977, the dining tables are still set, the clothes are still hanging in the laundries, and the lamps are still burning. Famagusta is a ghost town."

Everyone knows about Pripyat - a city abandoned by people after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But only a few are aware that such a dead settlement exists not only in the forests in the north of Ukraine, but also on the island of Cyprus. We are talking about the Varosha region - the once fashionable Mediterranean resort, which in a matter of days turned into a ghost.

The fact is that on the small island of Cyprus now two states are forced to exist in parallel - the Greek and the Turkish. They were not a single country for long, in the period from 1960 to 1974, after gaining independence from Great Britain and before the outbreak of the Civil War.

The latter was caused by the growth of nationalist sentiments of the Greek Cypriots, which led to a military coup and the announcement by the junta of the annexation of Cyprus to Greece. Turkey, one of the guarantors of the country's independence, did not fail to send its troops to protect the Turkish population of the island.

During the unfolding war, the ghost town of Varosha appeared. Before the conflict, it was one of the most popular and luxurious resorts in the region, which attracted wealthy people from all over the world, including music and film stars. However, in 1974, the area was in the line of fire, and the authorities were forced to evacuate the local population, consisting mainly of Greeks.

People left their homes thinking that it would only be for a few days until the conflict was resolved. But history had other plans for that. For almost 40 years, Varosha has been standing empty, surrounded on all sides by a fence guarded by Turkish troops and UN peacekeepers.

Once luxury hotels and villas are empty and crumbling, they stand without windows, without doors and without furniture inside. Vegetation makes its way through the asphalt and turns Varosha into a dense forest with separate military roads cleared by hands for patrol cars.

Annan's plan in 2004 called for the return of Varosha to the Greeks, but in the end this never happened because it was rejected by the Greek Cypriots.

Varosha is mentioned in Alan Weisman's book "The World Without Us" as an example of the irrepressible forces of nature.

The beach in Famagusta, the best in Cyprus - with fine sand and clear water. Despite this, the beach is not crowded.

When I directed the camera at the abandoned hotels in Varosha, one of the vacationers immediately approached me, and pointing to the towers located along the perimeter of the fence, advised me not to shoot - it is forbidden!

We drove around the block, along the fence. In some places, the fence is low, and there are no guarded towers around. I was so attracted to sneak into the territory and make a photo essay. But fellow travelers stopped. First, they say the territory of Varosha is still mined in many places. Secondly, the soldiers guarding Varosha are very determined. I am sure that having noticed the violator, they will not observe political correctness and diplomacy. The problems can be extremely serious.

Varosha makes a depressing impression. The spirit of hopelessness soars around, which extends to the whole of Famagusta. The complete opposite of Cyrene:

To change our mood, we visited the main attraction of Famagusta, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas Cathedral is the main medieval temple of the city of Famagusta on the east coast of Cyprus. Built in the 14th century on the model of the late Gothic Reims Cathedral by the Cypriot kings of the Lusignan dynasty. It is called in travel brochures.

The cathedral was consecrated in 1328 and has since been used by the Lusignans for the crowning of the Jerusalem throne. During the siege of Famagusta by the Turks in 1571, it was badly damaged by cannon fire. The Turks destroyed the figurative sculptural decoration of the temple and turned it into a mosque, which they began to call. Frequent earthquakes caused considerable damage to the preservation of the building. In 1954, it was renamed the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque in honor of the military leader who commanded the siege of Famagusta in 1571.

When it got dark, we left the territory of Northern Cyprus through the checkpoint located at Famagusta. Finding him was not easy. No signposts, no further information. Lost in some inconspicuous village, I had to turn to local residents for help. As a result, they found it.
At the checkpoint, our passports were checked as standard, we briefly inspected the car and, after slapping the stamp into the insert, were released in peace ... an hour and a half later we were already in Limassol.

There was a city here, there was a resort ... There is such a famous place in Northern Cyprus - Famagusta. Once there were the best beaches on the island, and real estate in the fashionable Varos district was the most expensive in Cyprus. But that was once. Now Varosha is a dead city, which was abandoned by ABSOLUTELY all residents and in which it is strictly forbidden for anyone to be. It is forbidden even to photograph the fence and what is visible through the fence, under the threat of imprisonment!

All that is at the moment is the result of the confrontation between greed and pride. And we are not talking about ancient times, but about the 20th century. First, a coup d'etat took place in the country and the president was removed from power. Then another state brought its troops into part of its territory, annexing them and calling it a "peacekeeping operation." At the time when someone flew into space, there was a civil war on the island. Short but tragic. As a result - divided cities, destroyed destinies, unrecognized territories and a "ghost town" ...

It is no exaggeration to say that the beaches in Famagusta are the best in Cyprus, with fine sand and clear water. The ancient Greeks were the first to appreciate it, behind them were the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Venetians and the Ottomans longer than anyone else, they already knew a lot about pleasures ...

Including for the beaches, the "tasty" island has always been the subject of claims of the closest neighbors - Greece and Turkey. This was intensified within the insular confrontation of two ethnic groups - Cypriot Greeks and Turks, Orthodox Christians and Muslims. However, ethnic differences did not prevent local residents from living peacefully side by side, growing olives together and building their own state. Independence from Great Britain, which since 1925 considered Cyprus as its colony, a small but proud country received in 1960.

Given this nature and climate, it is logical that tourism has become the main branch of the Cypriot economy. In just a few years, the oldest port in the southeast of the island of Famagusta (Greek Ammochostos, tur. Gazimagosa), stretching for 4 km along the coast of the bay of the same name, became a fashionable resort. Especially famous was its modern prestigious quarter on the coast - Varosha (tour. Maras). In addition to nature, Famagusta had more to surprise tourists: the remains of ancient Salamis, the largest Hellenic polis in Cyprus, a Venetian fortress, an Armenian monastery, and several Gothic churches. All this, together with the climate, sandy beaches and the Mediterranean Sea, was enough for Varosha to transform into the local Cote d'Azur.

This is what Famagusta looked like.

But that was more than 40 years ago ... What about now? Is the surrounding ruins the very prestigious resort?

Now it bears the name - "dead city" Famagusta ... Although, in fact, Famagusta is by no means a dead city - tourists relax on the beach next to the boundary fence and look through the lenses of its suburb Varosha, which was once a fashionable resort with a predominantly Greek population, but now a "ghost town", a striking testament to the contrast and superiority of "legal" Cyprus over "illegal", is guarded by the Turkish army and is a no-go zone.

In 1974, the Greek military attempted a coup d'état, resulting in the establishment of the dictatorship of the "black colonels" in Cyprus, which became a convenient excuse for Turkey to send its troops to the island. The Turks claimed to occupy about 30% of the island (this is the ratio of Greeks and Turks that existed at that time). But in three days, Turkish troops occupied almost 40% of the territories, including Famagusta with Varosha.

One of the results of the division of the island into Turkish and Greek halves was the appearance of a "ghost town" on its map. Dozens of multi-storey hotels, sanatoriums, residential buildings and private villas were abandoned in an instant, surrounded by barbed wire and placed at the disposal of marauders and nature for many decades.

View of Varosha from the beach. You can still get here. Under the two flags of Turkey and the unrecognized republic of Northern Cyprus, the post where the sentry usually sits.

Ask me, how did you find yourself in Cyprus? And what did I forget at the resort in December? As if by chance, fate brought it in :) I rested myself, as I found myself warm, on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Entry here is visa-free, the Turkish Cypriots do not put a seal on the passport, only on a separate piece of paper. I didn’t go to Greek Cyprus, I don’t have a visa, and I flew here for 3 days ... But I visited Levkosha, where the border of two parts of Cyprus passes, and walked through the no-man’s buffer zone. It's better to follow my movements online on Instagram, and long reports in LJ will come later ..

Of course, there are a lot of observations, comparisons of Turkish Cyprus with Montenegro. But first of all, I'll tell you about Famagusta, or rather about a part of the city - the once famous resort of Varosha. It is now a ghost town. My feeling from him was like this - "Did I get to Chernobyl?" 4 km of the coast - an abandoned resort, the blame for the war of 74 years between the Turks and Greek Cypriots. Now control belongs to the Turkish army and the UN.

Varosha is a quarter in Famagutsa ( on the map). Before the Turkish invasion, it was a popular tourist destination, it was compared to Monte Carlo, Hollywood stars came here to relax. And now there are dilapidated hotels, private apartments damaged by looters, abandoned cars in garages, etc.

We took a tour guide by car to take a ride around the sights. I burned all the way :)

- How many brothels do you have? How much money can you buy a girl out forever? Show me the brothels as we pass by.
- There are 39 of them. All the girls work on permits, everything is civil and according to the law ...

The first thing that interests me in the excursion is the dead city, the rest is secondary. I want to hit the barbed wire
- This is unrealistic. Permission needed. There is an army.
- I do not care. There must be a passage.

She later admitted that I am the first in her 12 years of experience in tourism to ask to be shown such strange places. I felt sorry for her even before the trip :) Then I confessed to her that we are emigrants from Montenegro, we also work in tourism, and began to discuss our common problems. She felt a little better, but when she took us to Varosha, she apologized for not being able to park the car close, which takes us on foot for a long time from Famagusta.

- Don't you see? I am NOT in heels. I knew where I was going, and I was not in a bummer for a walk.
- Do not take pictures of the military with machine guns. You will be asked to erase the photo.
- OK- I answer. I take out my iPhone again. Well, I’m not a super camera with a lens, no one will understand what I’m doing with the phone.

It was on that peninsula with a house that a soldier with a submachine gun walked, squinting in our direction.

In the 1970s, Famagusta was the main tourist destination in Cyprus. Stars who visited him included Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch and Brigitte Bardot.

There are really stunning sandy beaches here. They reminded me of something Velika Plazha beyond Ulcinj in Montenegro.

And now in Northern Cyprus, military facilities and an army of 50,000 are everywhere. The sight is strange, given the 1.5 million influx of tourists a year, as in Montenegro. But we do not have scary people in uniform on military vehicles.

I heard stories from the locals, how people got married, flew away on their honeymoon, returned - but they are no longer allowed to go home! Hotel owners were instantly out of business ...

When you are in the center of Famagusta, you see a lively city, cafes, tourists. As soon as you drive off to the beach, trash begins.

On August 15, 1974, the Turkish army invaded Famagusta. G the river inhabitants of the prosperous resort of Varosha fled from the Turkish invaders, leaving everything as it is: unwashed dishes on the table, hanging clothes on the ropes, cool cars in garages. The 16-thousand-strong town was deserted, numb, as if it did not exist on the eastern coast of Cyprus.

Now it is a monument to the civil war. It is almost impossible to get behind the barbed wire. Local residents are allowed once a year to pick up their personal belongings and look at housing.

When you walk along the sea to Varosha, there are not many people on the streets.

It's funny how the Turks haven't removed the Greek inscriptions yet. Or maybe they left it especially for rare individuals.

The military is waiting in these white skyscrapers. And in the distance you can see the blue Palm Beach Hotel, which operates as a casino and hotel.

We saw a lot of people coming out of there. Maybe there was a conference, maybe they left the casino ... Behind its walls all life ends and 4 km of dead silence begins.

I can imagine the thoughts of vacationers splashing in this pool with a depressing panorama.

Although not everything is so sad here. There are even street cafes, on the ground floor of that white building there is a gym. So, 100 meters from Varosha, life goes on as usual. After all, 40,000 students study in Famagusta, they + the military have become a kind of substitute for tourists.

People also give birth to children, but it is impossible to get married in a neighboring Orthodox or Catholic church - they are abandoned.

According to Resolution 550 of the UN Security Council, adopted in 1984: "Attempts to populate any part of the Varosha quarter with anyone other than its residents are unacceptable." This is how it remains abandoned. The Turks have placed their own and the Cypriot flags on the beach and are unlikely to go to peace with their Greek Cypriot neighbors, who also have a part of the city of Famagusta.

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