Varosha – Europe’s Enclosed Town

Gathering of the diplomats

The day before SONA Cape Town is always in a tizz of cocktail parties and dinners hosted by the different diplomatic corps before the big day of the Opening of Parliament for another year.

Each year we are happy and honoured to welcome His Excellency The High Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus Mr Antonis Mandritis who, with the Honorary Consul for Cyprus in Cape Town Mr Charalambos Philippou, bring us all together at the Hellenic Community Centre in Mouille Point for a catch-up and to meet diplomats from other countries.

This year on Wednesday 5 February, before we clinked our glasses, we had a moment of seriousness as Mrs Evdokia Papachrisoudi presented the trailer of the documentary video about the ongoing plight of Varosha, a town situated on the southern corner of Famagusta in Northern Cyprus.

It’s so sad to think that this former famous area in Cyprus has been illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974 and the suburb of Varosha has been literally reduced to a ghost town.

It was once a thriving and illustrious place filled with the glory days of a Mediterranean seaside resort town.

After Varosha was occupied by the Turkish army, it remained abandoned, held on to as a key bargaining chip in negotiations with Greek Cypriots.

And despite all sorts of rules and precepts from the UN and the EU, Turkey continues to possess this forgotten territory which still looks like the forlorn and war-torn place it became on the day its residents were forced to flee.

Varosha is still in a deep sleep as there is no sign of a Prince Charming to wake her from her forced slumbers.

Did you know that urban legend has it that Famagusta was the location that inspired Shakespeare to set his famous play “Othello” and where a 14th century castle now called “Othello’s Tower” is situated?

And sadly nowadays it’s just a no-man’s land ……

Big thanks to HE Mandritis and Mr Philippou and all who put this great net-working evening together and hopefully the more we know about each other’s plights the better equipped we will be to handle them.