The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is aiming to revive the ghost town of Varosha (Maraş) and bring it to the national economy in the long run, TRNC President Ersin Tatar announced on the fourth anniversary of the town’s reopening.
Varosha is a disputed area along the divided island’s northeastern coast that virtually became a ghost town in 1984 during the struggle between the north and the south. A portion of it, about 3.5% of its total area, reopened on Oct. 8, 2020, and has attracted over 2.2 million visitors since.
"Over 90% of tourists coming to Cyprus visit Varosha for certain," Tatar said, noting that the reopening has yielded significant political and economic returns for Turkish Cyprus.
"Opening Varosha also meant the TRNC has backed up its sovereign, equal two-state policy we lead in the international arena," Tatar stressed.
The TRNC entirely broke away from the south and declared independence in 1983 after a coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention, dubbed the Cyprus Peace Operation, as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
An international embargo against Turkish Cyprus is currently in place in several areas that allow access to international communications, postal services and transport only through Türkiye.
Turkish Cyprus has been committed to demanding a two-state solution that would ensure international recognition and equal sovereignty and status, something the Greek Cypriots reject out of hand.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years. U.N.-backed reunification talks have been in limbo since the last round collapsed at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in July 2017 between guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the U.K.
The Greek Cypriot administration joined the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Today, the Turkish side supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.
According to Tatar, Varosha’s reintegration is also important for the "Blue Homeland," the Turkish initiative for more assertive policies in Turkish territorial waters, which have long been a source of dispute between Türkiye and Greece.
"As an independent Turkish state in the Mediterranean and the southernmost representative of the entire Turkish world, the opening of Varosha by exercising our sovereignty has been a great service to the Turkish world in a way, in terms of further strengthening the independence and freedom of this state within itself," Tatar argued.
He laid out his government’s long-term plans for Varosha, which included demolishing and rebuilding certain buildings in the area, as well as objections to what he called the "give-away of foundational properties" in Varosha.
A large chunk of Cyprus became foundation property after 1571 and in violation of an agreement with Britain. Foundational properties in Varosha were given away to the Greeks in 1878.
Tatar said the Cyprus Foundations Administration (EVKAF) was currently working on the issue, mailing objections through the Immovable Property Commission.
In the meantime, Tatar is set to attend an informal dinner with Greek Cypriot administration leader Nikos Christodoulides, based on the proposal of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, next week in New York.
The Turkish Cypriots, however, have made it clear they will not entertain the controversial "federation" idea for the divided island, which will not be included at next week’s meeting.
Guterres assigned a special representative to the island earlier this year. Maria Cuellar has met with Tatar and Christodoulides several times to explore the possibility of common ground for transitioning to a new and official negotiation process to resolve decades of conflict on the ethnically divided Island.
Many observers see this latest U.N. initiative as a last chance for Cyprus. Guterres warned in a recent report: "The prospects of a solution that everyone can accept are gradually fading."
A Cyprus peace deal would reduce a source of potential conflict next door to an unstable Middle East and allow for the easier harnessing of hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean's natural gas-rich waters where Türkiye has a drillship probing the seabed.