I had been absolutely exhausted until today when I made a day out of walking around the Old City of Nicosia. I would recommend a Wikipedia search of the city if you are interested in further information, however I will give you a brief synopsis to catch you up in the modern history of this nation and my research:
The “Cyprus Problem” has been a central issue in the foreign policy agenda of the United Nations and the United States since the end of the British reign over the island. Upon the islands separation from the British Empire in 1960, after being controlled since July 5th 1878, Cyprus was granted its sovereignty. After only 14 years, Turkish Troops invaded the island creating a great humanitarian disaster as thousands of refugees left their homes seeking safety. This aggression, which followed several years of violent political dispute between the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities, indefinitely divided the island and disrupted its socioeconomic and cultural balance.
The island’s capital city of Nicosia is the last divided capital in the world. The infamous “Green Line” divides the city into Greek- and Turkish- Cypriot parts. This sad reality displays the complex dichotomy of a historical urban environment. The two parts of the ethnically divided city are separated by this UN controlled “buffer zone,” which spans for 346 km2 across the island and from the Paphos Gate to north of the Famagusta Gate through the Venetian fortification of the old city. The “Green Line” divides the capital into three principle areas; the thriving south half of the city, occupied by Greek-Cypriots, the deteriorating community to the north, which is the capital of a state under Turkey’s control not recognized by the UN, called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and the completely uninhabitable buffer zone dividing the two regions.
The buffer zone has swallowed hundreds of buildings within or adjacent to it, stands as the end of about twenty streets, and contains formerly valuable commercial properties that is now flanked by low-income residential neighborhoods and a red light district. The construction of this partition began as a voluntary threshold between communities in the late 1950’s as distinct, segregated neighborhoods had been developing since the Ottoman Empire conquered the island in 1571. Animosity was high between societies as the Greek Cypriot citizens were in support of enosis, which was the Greek campaign to annex Cyprus in the nationalistic attempt to reclaim Byzantine territories. On the opposition were the Turkish Cypriot citizens fearing their safety if enosis was sought through military force. As unrest grew between sides leading up to 1960, the British military began to realize their post on the island as their Middle Eastern headquarters was about to be overrun. Upon the signing of the London and Zurich Agreements in February 1959, Cyprus formally became a member of the United Nations and Council of Europe. However, in December of 1963, two Turkish-Cypriots were killed by a Greek Cypriot police officer and though no political or ethnic issues are known to have been the motivation, riots broke out. Physical barricades were erected along the previously voluntary Mason-Dixon Line, which only a few days later became an official line of division between sides. Major General Young of Britain laid out the double-layered partition line as a halt to hostility between ceasefires, using a green chinagraph pencil which ever since has been infamously known as the “Green Line”. Its course through the capital city relates to the natural path of the Pedieos River as it was during medieval times, and more recently the main commercial streets of the city, Ledra and Hermes Streets.
In 1974, Greek military intervention called Operation Attila installed a commander on the island who was an advocate of enosis. In response, the invasion by Turkey only days later transformed the buffer zone into an impermeable physical boundary, passable only through a single checkpoint near the UN headquarters at the Ledra Palace Hotel. The Turkish Troops held all the land to the north of the current Green Line forcing Greek-Cypriot refugee’s from their homes and completely polarizing the island. While some believe that the invasion was a defensive move to protect the Turkish Cypriots, many consider the move to be an illegal act against a sovereign nation.
Despite being inducted as a member of the European Union in 2004, Cyprus is still divided as its northern part remains under the control of Turkish troops. Throughout the tragedy that is the “Cyprus Problem” as many as 6,600 fatalities have resulted and 250,000 Cypriots have been forced from their homes and belongings creating ethnically homogenized communities and cultural segregation in the minds of Cypriots. As a country, Cyprus has suffered as its economy once relied on the tourism and agricultural industries, which don’t accept political instability very well. Because the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is not recognized outside of Turkey, trade is near impossible and as a result the region continues to deteriorate.
However, hope has recently come to the ethnically divided capital city of Nicosia in the form of the Agha Khan Award-winning Nicosia Master Plan as part of the Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT) launched by United Nations Development Programme. The intentions of the plan are to revitalize the capital city, by emphasizing bi-communal spaces to bridge the cultural gap while preserving and rehabilitating the historical city center, mending what can hopefully become a sovereign nation once again. The three phases of the project are focused on important civic spaces and monuments in the old city and their connection to each other. Although there has been strong initiative for this plan to go through, there has also been growing resistance between sides which has slowed the process immensely.
*** WARNING – This information from the paper above, written by me, is taken from multiple sources which I have cited in a document not attached here. I do not give anyone the right to use this information nor to use any bit of it as a source. Please let me know if you are interested in what sources I used and I will direct you appropriately. I apologize for the legality of this statement but I don’t want anyone to take this blog for more than it is: a reflection of my thoughts and explanation to those closest to me of what I’m doing***
Today for the first time I walked along and across the Green Line that I’ve read so much about. After dedicating my entire year to researching this phenomenon, I felt comfortable in this devastated area because it seemed as though I had been there before. However, every corner I turned I found myself putting together the streets one after another shocked at the sight. I took over 400 pictures! and I’ve attached a few of the most descriptive ones that I feel comfortable posting to the public domain. I was getting into some pretty interesting areas and will show those at a later date.
I’ve decided that my research will take a slightly different form than I had anticipated. I had originally thought that I would propose a new project for the revitalization of the city of Nicosia that would include the desperate need for the renovation of architecturally, socially, and historically significant buildings; then applying similar ideas to the Twin Cities and specifically to the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul which was a vibrant African American city divided by the installation of I-94 in the 60’s. However, it is becoming clear to me that there are many proposals already for the revitalization of Nicosia and a new proposal by me will not just fix the issues that are rooted deeply in cultures that I have no connection to outside of invested interest in the understanding of it as an outside (which I feel is important as an unbiased perspective). Instead of thinking of myself as someone that can fix the world (which I hope to do one day ) maybe it’s best I acknowledge the current efforts and struggles that occur along the way in uniting this country, analyze the methods of these policymakers, built environment professionals, and students deeply embedded in the problem, and relate these intercultural design solutions to places of ethnic diversity in the US and specifically in the Twin Cities.
America is known as a melting pot of culture and as diversity continues to grow, just as it has for millennia in many other places I’ve seen, serious rifts dividing ethnicity will harden. Strict division cultivates segregation, and a first (and necessary) step to solving such issues is design intervention. Hopefully, this argument will gain depth as I’m here talking to the people involved in (and passionate about) fixing what has developed in Cyprus over the last 35 years but began well before that.
Before embarking on my walk to each side of the Green Line, we visited a friend, Ruth, in her bookshop in south Nicosia (also known as Lefkosia by the locals) called Moufflon Bookshop. In a publication called Time Out that for this issue focused on Cyprus, they talk about her as knowing, “every publication, published anywhere,” and it’s true! She seriously knew where any book Nikos wanted was whether it was related to Cyprus or not, and she’s more than likely read anyone you ask for on the packed shelves of her shop (which seem endless. It made me want to collect more books, but also to find time to read more. I seem to like finding things on this trip to do in my free time that I never have when at school!
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