Reopening of 'the ghost town': Why was Cyprus' Varosha closed to settlement?

The town actually belonged to the Ottoman Empire's Lala Mustafa Pasha, who bought and handed over it to a foundation named after him, according to the Northern Cyprus administration.

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Reopening of 'the ghost town': Why was Cyprus' Varosha closed to settlement?

Photos: AA

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Varosha, or Maraş, a coastal town in Cyprus' Famagusta (Gazimağusa) is reopening today (October 8), nearly half a century after it was closed to settlement by a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution.

In a controversial move that led his government to break down, Northern Cyprus PM Ersin Tatar announced the decision on Wednesday (October 6) during a joint press conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara.

Following Turkey's "Second Cyprus Peace Operation" in the 1974 war that eventually divided the island, the town was closed to settlement as it was on the "green line" between the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" and the "Republic of Cyprus."

Varosha in the 1960s

Passed by the UNSC in 1983, Resolution 550 stated, "... Deeply concerned about recent threats for settlement of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants, reaffirming its continuing support for the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus..."

A major tourist attraction with its beaches and hotels, Varosha has turned into a "ghost town" since then.

Russia: It's unacceptable

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday (October 7) expressed concerns over the decision to reopen Varosha. "The Russian Federation, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, remains consistent with the ways of settlement defined by the said decisions and is ready to assist in their implementation," it said in a written statement.

However, the issue came to the fore once again before the 2015 presidential elections when President Mustafa Akıncı said, "Instead of living side by side with a corpse, Maraş should become a lively place where people live, earn an income, contractors from both sides do business, their young people find jobs."

On June 18, 2019, the Council of Ministers of Northern Cyprus announced the decision that it would reopen Varosha and assign a team of experts to do scientific inventory studies.

Northern Cyprus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Kudret Özersoy, who will compete for the presidency on September 11, also took part in the inventory studies.

After the studies, the Northern Cyprus Directorate of Foundations said that Lala Mustafa Paşa of the Ottoman Empire bought the area after the 1573 conquest of the island and handed it over to a foundation named after him.

"There is a great deal of information and documents indicating that the region has been owned by foundations for 300 years," said Director Prof. İbrahim Fazıl Benter.

The Closed Maraş is entirely a foundation property and lands changed hands in violation of the foundations' law during the British administration of the island, according to Benter.

Özersay had said the properties of bo persons and foundations in the town would be preserved. (PT/VK)