Automobiles rust, sewers collapse, prickly pears grow out of sidewalks
March 30, 2018 8:59 AM Subscribe
The strange story of Varosha, Cyprus, how one of the world's most popular tourist destinations became an empty, crumbling ruin overnight. Varosha was fenced off as a bargaining chip between Turkey and Greece in 1974, 35,000 residents left expecting a peace deal that never came. Twitter thread with history. Flickr album by Paul Dobraszczyk. Previously.
The Google maps (shown as an image in the Twitter thread) are worth an explore in satellite mode, its slightly unnerving to see entire parts of a city where - not only are the streets decaying - but there literally aren't even street names for most of the roads. And then you can tell from the map icons where the boundary suddenly stops and there is a bakery, or a supermarket, or some other completely normal business.
Unbelievable that this has been just *sitting there* for over 40 years.
(also some of the photos make it look like part of a PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds map)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:13 AM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Unbelievable that this has been just *sitting there* for over 40 years.
(also some of the photos make it look like part of a PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds map)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:13 AM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Srsly, agatha_magatha? You gotta turn off the HGTV. Everything I hear about it makes it sound like a radicalist training camp for colonialism and gentrification. The banality of evil and all that. (Sorry for the derail)...although, yes, I totally want that rusted fusebox. The whole place looks like where Joseph Cornell would go on vacation.
posted by sexyrobot at 1:25 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by sexyrobot at 1:25 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
As a mostly lurker since '08, I really had no idea how heated things on mefi could get (and sometimes still are). Previously is a distillation of such passion.
posted by 6ATR at 2:47 PM on March 30, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by 6ATR at 2:47 PM on March 30, 2018 [3 favorites]
Around ten years ago, I took the bus into Managua Nicaragua and walked to the old downtown by the lakefront, destroyed by the 1972 earthquake. A lot of it was razed and what remained looked similar to this. I was the only person walking around. Only a handful of cars passed me. There were two or three open-air restaurants built on the shore that looked like they might have business on the weekends but were empty otherwise. A parking lot held a few carnival rides that were swaying and creaking in the wind.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:12 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:12 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
You can see the abandoned Nicosia airport (to the NW of Varosha) at the beginning of this recent YT video.
posted by Twang at 5:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Twang at 5:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
I’m glad the turtles got one more place to have their babies in peace. I mean as a little something good to come out of something bad.
posted by bleep at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
As a mostly lurker since '08, I really had no idea how heated things on mefi could get (and sometimes still are). Previously is a distillation of such passion.
Such passion. The previously led to MetaTalk: what warrants a rude response like this? (168 comments) and was followed two weeks later with a 702 comment mega MeTa: Multiple sockpuppets for one user.
Spoiler alert: dhoyt was highsignal, hall of robots and jenleigh.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
Such passion. The previously led to MetaTalk: what warrants a rude response like this? (168 comments) and was followed two weeks later with a 702 comment mega MeTa: Multiple sockpuppets for one user.
Spoiler alert: dhoyt was highsignal, hall of robots and jenleigh.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
My spouse was from there. Apparently there are still pending legal actions in Turkey related to property his family once owned here, though no one actually expects anything to come of it.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:32 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:32 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Goodness me, mefi has changed beyond measure (thank goodness)
posted by glasseyes at 6:29 AM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by glasseyes at 6:29 AM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fascinating photos. Thanks.
While Varosha is currently controlled by Turkey, UNFICYP is the longest-standing UN peacekeeping mission in history. Canada, for example, has continually deployed personnel to it since 1964. 1964!
While Varosha is controlled by Turkey, this is an interesting related sidebar:
On 20 July, Turkish forces, responding to the Greek coup, launched a series of air raids on the airport. On 23 July, fighting between Turkish and Greek forces was especially fierce in the airport vicinity. The Force Commander at that time, General Prem Chand from India, ordered UNFICYP to take over the airport, declaring it a United Nations Protected Area. United Nations Headquarters in New York gave its immediate approval, and, with the agreement of the local military commanders of both sides, UNFICYP troops (from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) occupied the airport under the following conditions:
The UNPA included the whole of the airport complex, including the premises of RAF Nicosia and the UN camps.
Neither side was to approach within 500 metres of this perimeter. When ceasefire lines were drawn on 16 August 1974, the area declared as a United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) was included within the buffer zone.
In keeping with UNFICYP’s mandate to maintain the status quo, the airport has remained a United Nations Protected Area since 1974.
Time and weather have led to some structural deterioration to the terminal building and to the Cyprus Airways Trident Sunjet passenger plane resting beside it: the plane’s engines were stripped during the crisis in 1974, and used to repair another Cyprus Airways airplane to enable the latter plane to fly out. Extensive efforts were made during 1993 and 1994 to reach an agreement on a series of confidence-building measures aimed at spurring a return to normal conditions on the island. A key element in the action was an attempt to reopen Nicosia International Airport for the equal benefit of both communities.
By mid-1994, however, agreement on the measures remained beyond reach, and despite further talks between both communities, the airport remains closed.
Trident Aircraft 5B-DAB at old Nicosia Airport
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:48 AM on March 31, 2018
While Varosha is currently controlled by Turkey, UNFICYP is the longest-standing UN peacekeeping mission in history. Canada, for example, has continually deployed personnel to it since 1964. 1964!
While Varosha is controlled by Turkey, this is an interesting related sidebar:
On 20 July, Turkish forces, responding to the Greek coup, launched a series of air raids on the airport. On 23 July, fighting between Turkish and Greek forces was especially fierce in the airport vicinity. The Force Commander at that time, General Prem Chand from India, ordered UNFICYP to take over the airport, declaring it a United Nations Protected Area. United Nations Headquarters in New York gave its immediate approval, and, with the agreement of the local military commanders of both sides, UNFICYP troops (from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) occupied the airport under the following conditions:
The UNPA included the whole of the airport complex, including the premises of RAF Nicosia and the UN camps.
Neither side was to approach within 500 metres of this perimeter. When ceasefire lines were drawn on 16 August 1974, the area declared as a United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) was included within the buffer zone.
In keeping with UNFICYP’s mandate to maintain the status quo, the airport has remained a United Nations Protected Area since 1974.
Time and weather have led to some structural deterioration to the terminal building and to the Cyprus Airways Trident Sunjet passenger plane resting beside it: the plane’s engines were stripped during the crisis in 1974, and used to repair another Cyprus Airways airplane to enable the latter plane to fly out. Extensive efforts were made during 1993 and 1994 to reach an agreement on a series of confidence-building measures aimed at spurring a return to normal conditions on the island. A key element in the action was an attempt to reopen Nicosia International Airport for the equal benefit of both communities.
By mid-1994, however, agreement on the measures remained beyond reach, and despite further talks between both communities, the airport remains closed.
Trident Aircraft 5B-DAB at old Nicosia Airport
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:48 AM on March 31, 2018
That poor old Trident on the tarmac is also featured in Twang's YT link above.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:54 AM on March 31, 2018
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:54 AM on March 31, 2018
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posted by agatha_magatha at 10:32 AM on March 30, 2018 [3 favorites]