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How a booming tourist resort turned into a ghost town

History 30分钟 前
Novelist @PaulMMCooper recounts the rise and downfall of Varosha, a once affluent city in Northern Cypress frequented by the rich and famous. The beach resort eventually became abandoned after Turkish forces invaded and occupied the territory in the 1970s following a Greek Cypriot coup.
来自 @PaulMMCooper 的照片
· 3月29日

Ghost towns are rarely abandoned all at once. Whether caused by catastrophe or economic change, the decline is usually slow. But the strange story of Varosha, Cyprus, shows how one of the world's most popular tourist destinations became an empty, crumbling ruin overnight.

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· 3月29日

Prior to 1974, Varosha was an affluent southern quarter of the Cypriot city of Famagusta. It was the modern, tourist area of the city, with around 39,000 residents, & the biggest tourist destination in Cyprus.

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· 3月29日

In the early 1970s, Varosha even rose to become one of the world's top tourist destinations. But decades of inter-ethnic violence had been brewing in Cyprus. Its majority Greek Cypriot & minority Turkish Cypriot population were increasingly at odds.

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· 3月29日

In 1974, Greece's nationalist government, headed by a junta known as "the regime of the colonels", organised a coup in Cyprus with the intention of annexing the island. For Turkey, this was a bridge too far. In the same year, the Turkish army invaded Cyprus.

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· 3月29日

The following month of fighting saw 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced. The war ended with the eventual establishment of a Turkish Cypriot state in the north of the island, recognised by Turkey alone & decried by the EU & UN as an illegal occupation.

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· 3月29日

From then on, Cyprus was divided along a UN buffer zone. Famagusta had fallen on the Turkish side. So it remained, with no formal ceasefire or settlement between Greece & Turkey.

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· 3月29日

Underground pipes have rusted, & the sewer system has almost collapsed, creating sinkholes that buckle the streets. Turkish troops still patrol the area, & are authorised to use lethal force on trespassers.

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· 3月29日

Turkey's ultimate goal was to achieve a peace settlement & make its new state in northern Cyprus official. To do that, it saw the rich tourist district of Varosha as an invaluable bargaining chip.

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· 3月29日

With the island's tourist industry in tatters, Varosha's luxurious high rise hotels were suddenly worthless. But to the rich Greek Cypriots that owned them, they were still valuable. Turkey wanted to keep hold of Varosha & trade it back to Greece in exchange for recognition.

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· 3月29日

Soon after the invasion, Turkish soldiers quickly fenced off the district of Varosha, & made it illegal for anyone to enter. They assumed a peace deal would come soon. But the peace deal never came.

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· 3月29日

In the decades since 1974, nature has taken over in Varosha. Prickly pears and grasses have cracked the roads & concrete buildings. Some have even reported seeing sea turtles laying eggs on the deserted beaches where people once sunbathed.

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· 3月29日

Apartments & hotels damaged by artillery fire were never repaired. They create a crumbling skyline that seems strange in the idyllic Mediterranean setting.

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· 3月29日

People fleeing Varosha left everything just where it was. People famously left meals half-eaten on the table. One garage is even still fully-stocked with rusting 1970s automobiles.

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· 3月29日

Sunbeds & umbrellas, along with other paraphernalia of the tourist industry still litter the beach of Varosha. Bedding still lies on the beds of the hotels, & curtains are still drawn over the windows.

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· 3月29日

After decades of abandonment, images from Google maps tell you all you need to know: the shining white rooftops of Famagusta in the north, & the blackened husks of Varosha in the south.

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· 3月29日

It's hard to say what the future holds for Varosha. The city has fallen between the cracks of international diplomacy, held as a bargaining chip for decades, its life on pause. Meanwhile, the sea & winds batter it, & turn the once thriving tourist resort into a crumbling ruin.

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· 3月29日

Every ruined place is somewhere where the future was one day cancelled. Varosha seems to wear that future more visibly than any other place, a future that never had a chance to live but lives on only in the traces left behind.

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· 3月29日

Thanks for reading! Many photo credits go to Paul Dobraszczyk for his brave photography inside Varosha:

Into the Forbidden Zone: Varosha, ghost city of Cyprus
In 1974, the glamorous resort town of Varosha in Cyprus was abandoned by its 35,000 mainly Greek Cypriot residents after the Turkish army invaded the northern part of the island. Now fenced off and…
ragpickinghistory.co.uk
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