North Cyprus reopens contentious ghost town with Turkish support
Days before Northern Cyprus holds elections, Ankara backed the reopening of a ghost town in the island’s green zone in a polarizing move that could influence voter turnout.
ISTANBUL — Cypriots wandered freely amid ruined hotels and derelict homes Oct. 8 in the abandoned resort of Varosha, also known as Maras, for the first time since the area was sealed off 46 years ago.
Wedged in the island’s prohibited green zone following a 1974 Turkish military incursion that split Cyprus among mostly Greek and Turkish ethnic lines, Varosha has been the subject of reunification talks and property disputes ever since.
Its partial reopening with Ankara’s support touched a nerve among many residents on both sides of the island, raising the stakes for the Oct. 11 presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
“It’s an election stunt,” Andromachi Sophocleous, a political analyst and consultant in Nicosia, Cyprus, told Al-Monitor. “Turkey declared it would open Varosha multiple times in the past, but the timing caught many people off guard.”
