Crossing the 'Green Line' to northern Cyprus - Green Line serving as delineation between Greek and Turkish populations, policed by United Nations peacekeeping forces

Cyprus is slightly smaller than Connecticut and has a population of approximately 700,000, divided literally, physically, into about 20% Turkish Cypriots and 80% Greek Cypriots.

This division is known as the "Green Line" and it delineates a 112-mile-long buffer zone policed by a United Nations peacekeeping force. Turkish Cypriots live in the northern third of the island and Greek Cypriots live in the southern portion.

Some background

Despite 82 years of British administration, Cyprus never has been able to separate itself from its two motherlands, Greece and Turkey. Even today, over 30 years after its independence from Britain, the Greek and Turkish flags are far more commonly flown than the respective Cypriot flags.

Both Turkey and Greece maintain military contingents on the island.

When the new constitution was written for an independent Cyprus, it was written by representatives of Britain, Turkey and Greece; no Cypriots were allowed to participate.

Britain retained two large sovereign bases in the southern part of the island.

After 14 years of uneasy independence, from 1960 to 1974, in the space of five days Cyprus was attacked by Greece and invaded by Turkey. The eventual result was the division of Cyprus and, in 1983, the declaration of independence by the Turkish sector, which calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

This declaration of independence has not been officially recognized by any country except Turkey.

Approximately one-third of each community was forced to relocate to the opposite sector, fleeing for their lives with only what they could carry. The bitterness engendered by this sudden rupture has not abated and is instilled in children who, though they have never known a village but the one in which they were born, are taught to consider themselves refugees.

Maps made by the Greek Cypriots often show a blank in the north covered with the words "Occupied" or "Inaccessible"; maps made by the Turkish Cypriots use Turkish names for towns on the Greek Cypriot side, or leave the south a virtual blank.

Because the U.S. Government does not officially recognize the independence of the TRNC, a U.S. State Department advisory warns that it is necessary to enter and exit Cyprus via the gateway cities the Greek Cypriot government has approved -- all in the south, of course.

If one enters directly into the northern sector, it is not possible to cross the Green Line to visit in the south. One will not find a U.S. Consulate in the north.

However, it is quite possible to visit the north as an ordinary tourist, as thousands of Europeans can attest.

Visiting the north

This extremely short course in the recent history of Cyprus is necessary to explain the rules and hypersensitivities that a traveler who wishes to visit the northern sector of Cyprus must understand to avoid unpleasant repercussions.

Because the Greek Cypriot government does not recognize the TRNC and avoids anything that might be considered as "legalizing" it, they must logically permit a traveler to visit the north without true border formalities.

However, they don't want "their" tourists to spend money in the north and they have, in fact, enforced an economic embargo of the north for 17 years.

They will not permit any hint of recognition of the north as a separate government, so they check you through the gate with warnings about not buying anything there, spending the night or allowing a TRNC stamp to be placed in your passport.

Many of their guidebooks and tourist personnel will insist that it is impossible to visit the north.

On the other side, the Turkish Cypriots are happy to have you visit but must make it clear that you are entering an independent country, so they require paperwork formalities and payment for a visa.

They will, however, place the entry and exit stamp on a separate piece of paper so that you will not have difficulty when you return to the Greek Cypriot guard station. Do not take photographs on either side in the immediate area of the buffer zone or near any military installation.

There are two ways to visit the northern sector of Cyprus and many, many good reasons to do so.

The two ways are by 1) taking one or more day trips from the Greek Cypriot side through the gate in the border that bisects Nicosia and 2) by visiting only the northern sector, which is easily accessed from England or Turkey (this is done by tourists, who spend $130 million annually).

Some of the many good reasons to take the trouble to visit follow.

Castles and countryside

Although Turkey has poured large quantities of money into the northern sector, it remains much less developed than the southern side. Per capita income is approximately a fourth of that in the south.

Always the more agricultural of the two halves, it still displays a predominately village-and-farm landscape, with huge orange groves, tidy vineyards and wheat fields.

There are fewer cars, more old-fashioned and labor-intensive methods of farming and an apparently slower, more relaxed way of living.

Although there are enough seaside resort hotels to meet the needs of the present tourism industry, most of the coast is undeveloped. You can walk the beach near the Roman ruins of Salamis and pick up pieces of ancient pottery scattered along the tide line.

The seaside town of Kyrenia (called Girne now) has long been noted for its charm. Lawrence Durrell, writing in "Bitter Lemons" in 1957 about his stay in pre-independence Cyprus, complained that it was becoming overdeveloped.

To the eyes of the 1990s' tourist, however, it seems to have recently emerged from a time capsule. The harbor area is relatively unspoiled and at one end has the added attraction of a seaside castle with Roman and Byzantine roots and Crusader renovations.

Within the castle is an exhibit of amphorae, plates, and jars of almonds as well as the boat they were on, which was found by underwater archaeologists at the site of a 300 B.C shipwreck one-half mile offshore. It is the oldest boat ever salvaged.

Above the town, halfway up the Kyrenia range of mountains, is the romantic ruin of a 13th-century abbey called Bellapais, also described by Durrell in his book.

It has been a ruin since the time of the Ottoman invasion in the 1500s, but many walls stand in medieval splendor, delineating the church, the refectory and the cloisters.

From the cloister roof you can see for miles along the coast and survey Kyrenia and the intervening fields and houses far below you.

Further up this low mountain range, the Castle of St. Hilarion provides a fantastic wonderland of ever-climbing levels of ruins sprawling and tumbling over a mass of rocky outcrops.

It's a maze of royal rooms, churches, fortifications, vaulted chambers, crumbling walls and picturesque views of the shore 2,400 feet below.

There are two other Crusader castles perched along this mountain range, each within signal-fire view of the next. The middle one, Buffavento, is very difficult to visit, due to the very rough, unmarked road; however, the easternmost one, the Castle of Kantara, is easy to visit.

Kantara rivals St. Hilarion in its proliferation of aeries, towers, parapets, cisterns and vaults, some of which date from the ninth century. It is at the western end of the Karpas Peninsula, which points eastward toward Turkey.

Walled city

Famagusta (Gazimagusa) is truly unique. The old, walled city is a treasure trove of medieval buildings within 15th-century Venetian walls. Inhabitated in succession by Greeks, Romans, Genoese, Lusignans and Venetians, the city was bombarded for 11 months by the Ottoman Turks.

During and after the Turkish occupation, the many churches (legend says 365) were neither repaired nor destroyed, with one exception. Marked by cannon balls, they seem to stand exactly as they stood in 1587, some roofless, all of Gothic architecture unpolluted by the later additions found on churches in Europe which have continued in use to the present.

The walled city always was an enclave of the Turkish population, and all the later development took place in the adjoining new town.

Thus, the medieval ruins are preserved in a living museum which has more-recent homes, shops, schools and mosques tucked unobtrusively around the lovely, old, stone buildings.

The one exception is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, a remarkable example of "pure" 14th-century French Gothic. The Lusignan kings of Cyprus went there to be crowned "King of Jerusalem" (an empty honor, since they had been ejected from Jerusalem).

This cathedral was converted by the Ottoman Turks into a mosque and since 1570 has been known (except to Greek Cypriots) as Lala Mustafa Pasha.

This conversion eliminated all representations of humans, removed the altars and whitewashed the frescoes. Gothic traceries and rose windows remain, in good condition.

The caretaker will show you the medieval tombstones in one aisle. For us, he also sprinkled our hands with rose water and sang the Muslim call to prayer.

One of the best ways to enjoy Famagusta is to walk around the city on the wide top of the 8-yard-thick walls, visiting the various gates and bastions and viewing the Gothic ruins, which stand taller than most of the surrounding homes and shops.

Along the sea side of the wall is a citadel known as "Othello's Tower"; it is widely believed to be the setting Shakespeare used for "Othello."

Greco-Roman ruins

Going back further in time, there are several Greek and Roman ruins to visit. Salamis is very near Famagusta, built directly on the sea and the most interesting to see. Some excavation and restoration took place in the 1950s through the 1970s, but nothing has been done since.

The ruins seem much more accessible and romantic than most; you have the feeling that this is what the Acropolis was like when the Victorians visited it. It's empty of people and full of wildflowers, as though finally destroyed by the last earthquake only recently instead of 1,600 years ago.

The ruins include a gymnasium, a theater, villas, an agora, a very early Christian basilica and traces of temples, aqueducts and other bits and pieces.

Along the adjoining beach you can easily find fragments of pottery washing in the waves. Other interesting ruins are found along the northern coast of Soli and Vouni.

Ottoman legacy

Finally, the northern (Turkish Cypriot) half of the capital of Nicosia has many interesting remnants of the Ottoman era and many more examples of the traditional domestic architecture than the southern side has.

There is another beautiful Gothic cathedral -- once known as St. Sophia and since Ottoman times known as Selimiye Mosque -- in the center of the old, walled city.

Next to it is the Bedestan, which originally was a church but was used for many years as a market.

Although there are other interesting buildings to visit, such as khans (inns), mosques and monuments, the most interesting activity is to walk through the old town, observing the old houses with the second-story "kiosks" protruding overhead, visiting the market, walking in and out of shops along the pedestrian mall and having coffee or soda at a sidewalk cafe while people-watching.

Since this is a former British colony, most people speak at least some English; you are likely to see British retirees who have chosen the beautiful northern sector of Cyprus for its climate, low prices and, possibly, its memories for them when they were posted there.

I agree with them that it's a wonderful place to be.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Martin Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group