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[Jerry]

Had a holiday in Cyprus last week and went north and took pictures of my house and my cousin’s near Trikomo. We stopped off at Bogazi, which was almost deserted, we were welcomed by a café owner who was obviously desperate for business. Drove on to Komi Kebir (temporarily named Buyukkonuk) and took photos of the family home, church, and graveyard where my grandparents are buried, it seems that someone has “adjusted” the gravestones with a sledgehammer.

Komi Kebir is now a first class shit hole with semi derelict buildings that are still inhabited. Actually they don’t appear to have shitholes ‘cos my wife had the misfortune to see a “gentleman” not using “the Gents” but freely urinating in his front yard as we drove by. The school is now a bar, restaurant and reception area for a dozen or so lodges that do B&B for about £30 per night per couple. The “resort” was quite attractive but during the one hour or so that we were there enjoying our coffee (3 nescafe and ena metrio 4.50 Euros) it had no other customers, resident or passing through.

The biggest surprise was the Big Old Bazzaar on the main road outside Bogazi. The Turks must have a peculiar attraction to ghost towns; they have just created another one; it’s a HUGE shopping/residential centre that has hundreds of units to let (only one occupied that I could see) in the middle of nowhere. The place would struggle to do business in the centre of Nicosia, it will need to employ thousands but have few customers. Take a look at the website http://www.bigoldbazaar.net/gallery.php Marketing is obviously not one of the “owner’s” talents.

A few more to follow.

[Jerry]

More pics,

[Nikitas]

"We stopped off at Bogazi, which was almost deserted, we were welcomed by a café owner who was obviously desperate for business."

How things change! In 1973 Boghazi was a thriving place with many restaurants and a couple of bouzouki joints. It was the place to go for GCs who wanted to get away from tourist swamped Famagusta.

That Old Bazzaar place shouts out "subsidised construction". The builders built it to get the state subsidy and then buggered off.

If the north is inhabited by over one million people as VP used to taunt us, where are they? They cannot all fit in Nicosia and Kyrenia.

We lived in Famagusta but traveled throughot the Karpasia region due to my father's work. All the villages along the peninsula had character and were full of life.

[Jerry]

Last few.

Nikitas, we spent most of our time in the Protaras Paralimni area, the place was very busy for the time of year, the beaches we used were almost full and one cafe owner told us he was 35% up on the same time last year. The comparison between the north and south was quite marked, if the Turkish Cypriots ever want to improve their lot they need to dump Turkey and look to the south but I think it may be too late, Turkey has too strong a grip on them. If there is no solution soon I think many more will leave Cyprus or move south but their presence without a solution may be resented by the dispossessed GCs.

[Nikitas]

I have been to Cyprus three times since the opening of the crossings, but have not crossed north. It is a matter of stubborness on one level, and not wanting to lose the memories I have of places like Boghazi and Yalousa and Kyrenia.

But, I have stood with binoculars and looked at the north for some time. It is obvious that there are not that many people there. Unless they are all hiding behind Pentadaktylos. I am beginning to suspect that the reason they do not want to publicise the census results, or carry out a UN controlled census, is because there are fewer people than they lead us to believe.

The south is bigger in area, it has 800 000 people and everywhere you look there is human presence. They say there are almost as many people in the north, which sounds unlikely.

[Pyrpolizer]

There are so many places/areas in the occupied that haven't changed not only from 1974 but even before that.The first thing I recognized unchanged was that little round about in Nicosia that we used to take to go to Morphou, it is still there, same size as it was before 1963!!
Generally there is not much activity in the occupied, and there are many deserted or half deserted places. Even places where there are people for example the neighborhoods outside the barbed area of famagusta seem to have stagnated in time.You often see rusted street signs with the street name written in Greek The only new things you see everywhere are turkish flags, together with the flag of the pseudo

The bazaar shown in the pictures is a typical example of the many investments mainland Turks have done in the occupied-almost all of them a total economic failure, and abandoned. With the exception of the Kibrislis who hold government jobs the rest seem to be subemployed...
One thing that really puzzled me was that Kibrislis at their 30s could of speak Greek!!Wherefrom they learned it I don't know..

Prostitution is also thriving. Gambling is also everywhere, but to be honest there are less places in numbers compared to all those internet casinos we have in the Roc controlled areas, the OPAP offices, and so many others.

Crossing to the occupied always upsets me though. I never managed to overcome that feeling.

[B25]

Crossing to the occupied always upsets me though. I never managed to overcome that feeling.

Simple, don't go!

Why do you want to go and see our trashed country, filled with whores and gamblers and illegal anatolian gypsies??

It would break any decent person heart. May they all burn in hell, including their supporters.

[Jerry]

One thing that really puzzled me was that Kibrislis at their 30s could of speak Greek!!Wherefrom they learned it I don't know..

My cousin said exactly the same thing Pyro, the TC young policeman at the crossing point spoke good Greek yet he must have been born after 1974.

It was the second time my cousin (from Komi Kebir) went to the north, the first time he was obviously curious to see what had changed but this time he was quite upset especially when he saw what they had done to his school. We may go again next year but to areas that he is not so familiar with. His wife got scared at the graveyard so we had to abandon the search for our grandparent's headstones after a few minutes.

I could understand the TCs determination to hang on to the north if they had a flourishing economy there but it appears to be going backwards. Perhaps it's Turkey's plan to make the more educated and industrious inhabitants leave and transform the area into a poor Anatolian peasant economy.

[Pyrpolizer]

Crossing to the occupied always upsets me though. I never managed to overcome that feeling.

Simple, don't go!

Why do you want to go and see our trashed country, filled with whores and gamblers and illegal anatolian gypsies??

It would break any decent person heart. May they all burn in hell, including their supporters.

Hey man, not everybody goes there as a tourist or out of curiosity to see his house/properties....
There are still some relations between Cypriots, either friendly relations, or job related, or both.

[Pyrpolizer]

One thing that really puzzled me was that Kibrislis at their 30s could of speak Greek!!Wherefrom they learned it I don't know..

My cousin said exactly the same thing Pyro, the TC young policeman at the crossing point spoke good Greek yet he must have been born after 1974.

It was the second time my cousin (from Komi Kebir) went to the north, the first time he was obviously curious to see what had changed but this time he was quite upset especially when he saw what they had done to his school. We may go again next year but to areas that he is not so familiar with. His wife got scared at the graveyard so we had to abandon the search for our grandparent's headstones after a few minutes.

I could understand the TCs determination to hang on to the north if they had a flourishing economy there but it appears to be going backwards. Perhaps it's Turkey's plan to make the more educated and industrious inhabitants leave and transform the area into a poor Anatolian peasant economy.

The first time I went there was with my whole family. That day we went to my wife's town. When we visited her school we lost her and we thought something happened to her. We found her outside the teachers hall crying in a corner. Very very sad day...That was the first and last time she accepted to go...

Kibrislis who hang on to the north are those who benefit from the situation, and those who have no other choice.The rest have already abandoned the place. Imo it is a matter of 1-2 generations for all the Kibrislis to be replaced by settlers.

This makes me wonder what kind of solution are we really heading to? I mean if we take the settlers out, then the population of the Kibrislis is not such that would justify a BBF with all those provisions for political equality and stuff. We are talking for only 8-10% of the total population here!! If we account for the settlers too, then we are actually heading to a solution with people who are not even Cypriots...