Morphou: a dying town, but no longer up for grabs
The almost-new dual carriageway connecting it to Nicosia might at first make Morphou, or Guzelyurt as it’s called in Turkish, seem somewhat less far-flung than it used to be. But once in the town, its sense of forlorn abandonment is oppressive.
Barely a soul is on the high street as I watch a couple of middle-aged tourists arrive at the town’s archeology and history museum. Finding it closed, they leave. Barred too is their access to the beautiful church of St Mamas; the key has to be obtained from the museum’s curator, but he’s not around. I see the couple later wandering the streets, clearly baffled as to why the north Cyprus tourist board has listed the place as an attraction.
The shops lining the main drag are either closed or closed down, and the ones that are open offer nothing more desirable than dusty old shoes, household equipment or mobile phones. I find it unlikely too that the couple will be interested in placing a bet in one of the numerous betting shops that have become second homes to the unemployed.
In 2004, the approximately 8,000 people living here gave the strongest ‘yes’ vote from among the Turkish Cypriot community to the UN-backed referendum that aimed to reunite the island along federal lines. This they did despite the fact that if the plan had been approved by both sides it would have meant the whole population leaving the town to make way for the return of its mostly Greek Cypriot owners.
As history tells us, the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected the Annan plan, and the Turkish Cypriots of Morphou stayed put. Or at least some of them did.
Now, seven years on, and with negotiations for reunification drawing to a make-or-break end, there is again a tangible feeling that a similar choice might soon be put on the table for the current residents of Morphou. But things are more than a little different this time around.
The first difference is that the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu, unlike his dovish predecessor, insists he will not give up Morphou. To backtrack on this could be politically suicidal for Eroglu as he promised the town’s populace, in return for the their votes in the 2009 ‘parliamentary’ and 2010 ‘presidential’ elections, that Morphou would remain in Turkish Cypriot hands in perpetuity. To justify his insistence that the town remains Turkish, and in an effort to provide a reason for people to stay, he has made big noises about the investments his administration have made in and around the town.
Similar noises arise from President Demetris Christofias, who insists there will be no reunification if Morphou is not included among lands to be given to the Greek Cypriot side of the federation. After all, the Greek Cypriots could not be expected to accept a plan worse than the one they rejected in 2004, and that plan included Morphou.
Of course, one cannot have it both ways, and if there is to be a reunification blueprint put to referendum as in 2004, then a compromise will need to be found.
But many worry however that feelings have hardened so much among the populace that compromises will not be easy to come by. Among these worriers is Sevki Meteci, head of the Morphou Development Association (GUKAD).
“I’m not sure if we will be able to gain that level of support for a solution again,” he says. As a dedicated supporter of reunification, Meteci is saddened by but understanding of what he sees as “bitterness” among his compatriots.
“In 2004, we felt we were making a sacrifice for the better good. We felt we were being generous. But ultimately we felt betrayed,” he explains.
As the dust settled in the wake of the disastrous Annan plan referendum, the discontent among people in Morphou grew. Having been convinced they would soon move to a new town with new homes in an internationally recognised EU member state, it is not hard to understand why.
Unable to express this discontent in any other way, the people of the town turned on the ‘government’ of Mehmet Ali Talat, and joining a general wave of dissatisfaction in the north, voted it out of office, thereby securing the return of Eroglu’s pre-Annan plan National Unity Party (UBP) regime that espouses a rigid line in relations with Greek Cypriots.
Head of works at the town’s municipality Suleyman Aldar is one of those who believes that no one should again ask the Turkish Cypriot population of Morphou to leave. In fact, he says his administration is doing all it can to keep people in the town and that complaints about a lack of investment in the area are no longer justified. Since 2006, he says, the authorities have been “pouring investment into the area”.
Evidence of this is hard to come by, and the examples Aldar gives mostly refer to projects that were started well before the return of the UBP, such as the completion of a dual carriageway linking Morphou to the capital, and the opening of Ankara’s prestigious Middle East Technical University’s (ODTU) Cyprus campus just five km outside the town. Furthermore, he fails to mention that the university was sensibly located inside the area earmarked for the relocation of the Turkish Cypriot residents of Morphou after a settlement. The dual carriageway too does nothing to negate the possibility of handing back the town to its previous Greek Cypriot owners as it also links the university and “new Morphou” to Nicosia.
Aldar also likes to talk of infrastructural improvements being made to the town. But again, much of the funding for them comes from a 12 million euro grant from the EU. Other than that, there is little or nothing the administration can really call investment.
His claim also that the town’s traditional mainstay of citrus production is also doing well is something vehemently contested by the head of the citrus grower’s union Ali Ayber who says that the land under cultivation has shrunk from 75,000 donums in 1974 to just 32,000 now. He adds that income from the once-thriving industry has halved in the last few years, which has led to mass migration from Morphou and its surrounding villages. Salination of the water supply, and its redirection to other users, he says, has also denigrated the industry.
“We lost five thousand donums of groves last year alone because of lack of water,” he says.
Arguments aside, the fact that Morphou is currently a dying town cannot credibly be denied. What’s more, the municipality’s so-called grand plans to promote the covered market and provide a bus service to the nearby university will do nothing to bring employment to it residents.
The opening of the crossing to the south, meanwhile, at nearby Zodhia has not, as once planned, facilitated a gateway for citrus exports to the EU because of squabbles over Turkish Cypriot haulage. Consequently, virtually all are sent to Turkish buyers, who by all accounts do not pay well. The crossing is as deathly quiet as the high street.
It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to remain in this depressingly run down town. Hopefully it will return to its former glory one day, but as a bargaining chip, or as a place to stir up nationalistic discontent, it will never amount to anything worth holding on to. But as the man from the municipality says, “Even though people are depressed, they still don’t want to give it to the Greek Cypriots.”
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/features/mor ... s/20110619
