We’ve been in Cyprus for one day and have talked a lot about the big question many of us brought with us: What is up with the separation of the country? Our guide had firm opinions, as did most of the other Cypriots. She said that when she was asked to guide a group on a tour of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, she was repelled. Because the houses, shops and restaurants in this part of the nation were stolen by the Turkish when they invaded in 1974. Along with 1600 missing people, the invaders baldly took property and expelled the natives…then brought in 200,000 Turks from the mainland to occupy the land as settlers.
I asked the manager of the Hilton where we were staying when the problem would be resolved. He said ‘never.’ It is too complicated and there are too many interests in Turkey and the populace will never give it back. They are just bullies who were able to steal the land and with a 5,000 man army, the Cypriots had no chance. This photo shows the glimpse we got of the North, in the divided captital of Nicosia.
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