SIGHTSEEING CONTESTED in VAROSHA, CYPRUS Savia Palate
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PEER REVIEW Border Con- ditions: Sightseeing Contested in Varosha, Cyprus Savia Palate KEYWORDS Tourism, conflict, borders, informality, grassroots, Cyprus Turismo, conflicto, bordes, informalidad, grassroots, Chipre Palate, Savia. 2019. “Border Conditions: Sightseeing Contested in Varosha, Cyprus.” informa 12: 204–215. informa Issue #12 ‘Site Conditions’ 205 BORDER CONDITIONS: SIGHTSEEING CONTESTED IN VAROSHA, CYPRUS Savia Palate ABSTRACT tries during the mid-twentieth century as they tried to become key players in the so-called ‘pleasure How can a prohibited and enclosed military zone periphery.’2 The Mediterranean island of Cyprus be changed back into an attractive place for sight- shares physical characteristics with Costa Brava and seeing? This essay explores Varosha (Cyprus), one Costa del Sol in Spain, as well as the Italian Adri- of the most cosmopolitan tourist resorts in the atic Beaches and the Greek coast. Since the1960s, Mediterranean during the 1960s, which was trans- resorts emerged for middle classes tourists formed into a prohibited military zone in 1974. The coming from industrialized countries.3 These locals living near the area of Varosha, confronted Mediterranean tourism enclaves sought to grab the with institutional intransigence, have found ways to opportunity to foster economic growth and become temper the predominant conflict-zone image of a independent, evolving regions.4 Embracing the ruined and prohibited ghost town by appropriating three S’s—sea, sun, and sand—they also embraced it as a tourist attraction. This paper describes how subsidizing the tourism industry through private the voyeuristic fascination of tourists to get closer to and state funds. The town of Famagusta—and Varosha has enticed the locals to improvise tourism specifically, the district of Varosha, with its silky practices along the perimeter of the prohibited beachfront—was swiftly groomed to become one zone, thus furthering the complexities of the juxta- of the major cosmopolitan tourist destinations of posed landscapes of tourism and militarism. the Mediterranean, visited by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot.5 To support this devel- opment, the government assumed a primary role by devising an iconographic brand that would place DERELICTS OF A GLAMOROUS PAST Varosha among other state-of-the-art destinations while remaining in tune with the rest of the coun- “Make no mistake about it, they desperately want try’s development. In order to attract foreign capital, tourists and that precious foreign exchange. Many Cyprus turned to architecture: hotels were designed of them can see no other industry open to them following the modern, Euro-American standards for which has anywhere near the same promise. So they the leisure and hospitality industry.6 go to practically any length to attract the airlines, hotel chains and tour operators. They set up Minis- The government guided, and even more sponsored, tries of Tourism; they build airports and subsidize several schemes and proposals to support this hotel building; they launch ‘Be Nice’ campaigns in new industry, which held the promise for not only which they instruct their citizens that tourists are of economic but also political, stability.7 Examples vital importance and must be treated as friends— include the erection of a Hilton Hotel in the capital not as a group of rich, idle, white voyeurs who are, of Cyprus, Nicosia, and the ambitious resort in the in the classic complaint, ‘Over rich, over sexed, and Golden Sands area in Famagusta.8 It was not long over here.’”1 after the island’s independence that internal turmoil between Greek and Turkish Cypriots threatened the This pattern of development, as described by John nation’s peaceful future.9 While the Greek Cypriots Turner, was followed by many postcolonial coun- were fighting for enosis, meaning integration with 01. Quoted in Turner, Louis, and John Theory of the Leisure Class.’ The World Bank in 1979, Jehuda, De Kadt Ash. 1976. The Golden Hordes Economic History Review25 (4): 737. Emanuel. 1984. Tourism: Passport International Tourism and the https://doi.org/10.2307/2593997. See to Development? Perspectives on Pleasure Periphery. New York, NY: St. also more contemporary accounts, the Social and Cultural Effects of Martins Pr; Easterling, Keller. 2008. Enduring Tourism in Developing Countries. 02. The term is used in Turner, Louis, Innocence: Global Architecture and New York: Oxford University Press. and John Ash. 1976. The Golden Its Political Masquerades. Cambridge, 05. See images of the current condition Hordes International Tourism and MA: MIT; Fainstein, Susan S., and in several articles online, ‘From the Pleasure Periphery. New York, Dennis R. Judd. 1999. The Tourist Coast Town to Ghost Town: NY: St. Martins Pr; IBID City. New Haven: Yale University Eerie Images of Derelict ...’ n.d. 03. On the shortcomings of tourism Press; MacCannell, Dean. 2013. Accessed April 12, 2019. https:// in developing countries when the The Tourist: a New Theory of the www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ industry started to develop see also, Leisure Class. Berkeley: University of article-2689220/From-coast-town- Veblen, Thorstein. 1970. The Theory California Press. ghost-town-Eerie-images-derelict- of the Leisure Class. Tokyo: Iwanami 04. Particularly during the 1960s-1980s houses-hotels-planes-Nicosia- Shoten; Lockhart, Douglas G. 1993. major global institutions were divided-capital-city-world-Turkey- The Development Process in Small encouraging tourism development invaded-Cyprus-40-years-ago. Island States. London u.a.: Routledge. to developing countries and small html; ‘Varosha Drone Footage Shows Also, on the politics of tourism see, postcolonial nations, see for Stunning View of Cyprus Ghost ...’ Veblen. Thorstein. Perkin, Harold, example the proceedings of the n.d. Accessed April 12, 2019. https:// and Thorstein Veblen. 1972. ‘The Joint Conference of Unesco and www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_ Palate, Savia. 2019. “Border Conditions: Sightseeing Contested in Varosha, Cyprus.” informa 12: 204–215. Greece, the Turkish Cypriots supported taksim, the nuances between restriction and permission, meaning partition. Eventually, the Turkish armed rigidness and relaxation. This paper focuses on the intervention in 1974, which led to a physical division current conditions of the site and outlines the way along ethnic lines, conclusively put an end Varosha’s locals, following touristic initiatives, have appropri- glamorous era. The Republic of Cyprus lost 37% ated the ongoing conflicted landscape of the derelict of the island to the Turkish occupation, which Varosha, maintained by unresolved political issues furthermore caused the displacement of around and social conflicts.14 For this reason, we will look 150,000 Greek Cypriots (who were forced to move at both the big picture (the politics) and the lived from north to south), and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots reality in the actual city, where locals must go about (from south to north). their lives while confronted by the untenable conflict situation. This separation along ethnic lines led to Varosha being fenced-off and deemed a prohibited zone. Famagusta’s site conditions—which make it an ideal After more than forty years of abandonment and touristic terrain, due to its physical characteris- enclosure, the area has eventually evolved into a tics—were simultaneously a temptation for military decaying ‘ghost-town.’10 Due to a UN Resolution conquest because of the city’s strategic geographical that ‘considers attempts to settle any part of location—with west-to-east access. Each of these Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as in- conquerors has left their mark on the territory, in- admissible and calls for the transfer of this area to cluding monuments and archaeological sites and, as the administration of the United Nations,’ it is still a result, this past haunts Famagusta’s identity, while an unutilized space.11 With a majority of the Greek increasing their ‘touristic’ value.15 The history of Cypriot population settled in an area enclosed Famagusta starts in antiquity, as historians consider and barricaded by Turkish troops, the possibility it a successor of Arsinoe, Constantia, Salamis, and of reopening Varosha is especially complex. This Enkomi colonies that the ancient Greeks founded has turned the area into a place consumed by the during their heyday in the eastern Mediterranean. politics of negotiations and attempts at reconcilia- While Greek culture and language were dominant tion.12 The once-luxurious hotels built to celebrate elements on the island, Famagusta’s natural harbor Cyprus’ vision of a peaceful and independent gained importance after the Lusignan rule in 1191, future have become ruins; reminders of a glamor- and helped Famagusta become a flourishing trade ous modernity occupied and appropriated by the hub in the eastern Mediterranean. Consequently, troops of a military post. it became an object of desire among the strongest kingdoms of the times. France, Genoa and Venice, THE MILITARY TRACES OF TOURISM the most important commercial and naval forces during the Medieval Ages, occupied Famagusta and Varosha is a small area in the town of Famagusta, often fought each other for its control. located on the eastern coast of Cyprus, and which is home to the deepest harbor in the island. His- After being under siege by the Ottomans, the torically, the case of Famagusta proves that the Venetians were forced to surrender in 1571 and seemingly contradictory landscapes of tourism