Green Line Nicosia – Cyprus

green line nicosia saray hotel 4   nicosia green line saray hotel 5
Look at the Green Line Nicosia – Cyprus from above in these pictures and you can easily see 2 cities here: the Turkish one, in front and the Greek one, further away.nicosia green line UN post Nicosia Invisible here, inbetween the two city parts lies the Green Line, a 100 meter large strip where the UN rules since 40 years (!) to separate the Greek Cypriots from the Turkish Cypriots… Easy to understand how bored the UN-soldiers are here, they just ride around in expensive UN-cars as there is nothing else to do. The fighting has stopped long ago and the frontier is even ‘open’ since 2003 at three points at the Green Line Nicosia. Parties make small steps forward that symbolize progress like the abolishment of giving stamps every time a person crosses the transit point; this step was the first result of the new peace negotiations that started 2 weeks ago. It lead to quite some confusion especially at the Turkish side: the protocol had to change but Turkish officials love stamps – clearly that was really a thing to give up for them 🙂 Anyway the international community was investing here at least 30 years in vain, paying for useless UN-presence, boycoting the North / Turkish side without any result. For how long will we continue to do so? And why?
Nnicosia green line greek soil versus turkish sideinicosia green line turkish soil versus greek sidecosia could be a beautiful and flourishing city but it is not because it has no heart but a Green Line, a real wall in the middle of it: see the pictures, where we walk on the Greek side with theTurkish Cypriot and Turkish flags on the old city walls, and the walk on the Turkish side limited by a sudden wall to stop us going to the Greek side: no entrance, no photographs allowed either by the way.
I found the transit point at Ledra Palace the most sad one I have seen so far, although there are several peace seeking initiatives in the buildings there (and also the German Goethe Institut as if nothing happened, very funny). This transit point is at the Greek side surrounded by despair, no investment, no renovation, and even 40 year old remains of fighting (kept there deliberately?):
nicosia green line house at ledra palace  nicosia green line remains of fighting close to ledra palace
Coming from the city of Amsterdam where we love to restore houses and to let original beauty come out at the max, I have to say my hands were itching to take on the job. But well, there is certainly a reason for the non-investment and Nicosia will stay a city without a heart untill the political problems are solved – I hope: soon!

What to do in Nicosia as a tourist? Go to the Museum of the history of Cypriot coinage.

Want to read political stuff? Read about the so-called Freedom Day in Northern Cyprus

Street cats in Cyprus

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Street cats in Cyprus

Cyprus is not a poor area in the world. People in Cyprus do have their struggle with daily life but they could do better with cats and dogs than we see them do now. In this case, the North and the South of the island (Turkish or Greek Cypriot) are alike. They are kind to the animals, for sure, and that is nice. One can recognize gentle people from the fact that the cats and dogs are not afraid. The street cats in Cyprus as well as the dogs see mankind as their friends, although the responsibility mankind in Cyprus takes is only partial.
street cat in cyprus 3Street cats in Cyprus ats freely approach people for food, and everywhere around houses we see plates with foods or bowls with water for cats and dogs. This is the nice side. There are projects, usually cooperation of private citizens/asylums and local governments, to sterilize and castrate the animals in the street to stop the overpopulation of cats and dogs. This is very nice too. But, strange enough, private owners of cats and dogs refuse to invest in sterilization and castration. Their animals gets youngs and the young ones are sadly left and abandoned in fields, forests or faraway streets: just like that. This is such a shame! And it means there will be no end to the efforts of the asylums and local governments, because new animals keep appearing in the streetsstreet cat in cyprus 1
A few years ago I wrote this in a blog about Istanbul street cats: ‘Changes can sometimes be perceived in small signs that function as a symbol for deeper lying norms and values. Being valued as a human means that one can value an animal as an animal and embrace animals in their very existence close to mankind. Once the concurrency for food and survival is gone, care can be deployed”. https://grethevangeffen.nl/2012/03/03/istanbul-and-its-street-cats/
What could bring Cypriots, Turkish and Greek alike, to value these animals and take the measures necessary to prevent this endless row of new cats and dogs in their streets? Do we need peace between the North and the South side before further care for animals can be deployed? Or is this a conviction rooted deeply in Cypriot culture, that cats and dogs don’t matter and that you throw them in the street whenever it suits you?

A blog about street cats in Adana, Turkey
A blog about street dogs in Famagusta, Cyprus

A blog about the great documentary Kedi that follows street cats in Istanbul