Veronica-K

I think you are confused. The island was not divided in 1965. I lived in Limassol for 3 years just before the invasion which happened in 1974 and we travelled around a lot exploring the island. Never saw barbed wire and the whole island was governed by one government.
There were Turkish villages and in Limassol there were Turkish areas but our experience was that everyone lived together in relative harmony.

JohnWilliams

My partner has a cousin who has lived in North Cyprus for 20 years. He owns his property.

Now this is what he says (he says, not me).

He says that most ex pats in North Cyprus who own the property they live in, do not have property insurance. The reason they don't have it is because it is virtually impossible to get because North Cyprus is not an internationally recognized state. You can apparently get Turkish insurance but this is not worth the paper its written on.
I don't think I would be happy owning a property under such circumstances.

manekeniko

People have been messaging me about this thread, when in fact I'm lost. Totally lost. Mericans have been gobsmacked and ready to commit trumpicide over the current politics.

I will have to roll back to the beginning to sort this out.

Edited to add: I'd slowly back away from settling in any and all territories in dispute. Greek and Turkish cultures have plenty of cultural overlap (whether or not they choose to admit it), and citizens of both countries are fine people. Personally, I think Cyprus should kick out both governments and declare its independence from both.

What else?

Gordon Barlow

Well, I may indeed be a bit confused; it was a long time ago, and we were there only a short time. However, I do recall checkpoints in Nicosia entering and exiting the Turkish enclave there - fairly casual ones, not bristling with barbed wire. (And it was a genuine enclave; there wasn't much inter-communal harmony in evidence!) I do recall barbed wire up in Kyrenia, which we thought was the prettiest part of the Island that we'd been to. I have a vague memory of the bus to Kyrenia being restricted to the main road; would that have been the case, in February 1965?

I've just read the Wikipedia entries, but they don't go into detail about where there was and wasn't barbed wire. You may well be right, except about Kyrenia; I wouldn't put much of a bet on my memory for details!

Veronica-K

Perhaps it was different in the early 60"s. I know when I was there in the early 70's we had total freedom throughout the island and I never witnessed any armed soldiers or barbed wire.
There may have been more evidence of disquiet in the early 60's.
However the island was certainly not split until 1974.

JohnWilliams

Hi,

As you bought property in NC, could you comment on the property insurance situation (see post above)

solanocasa

I am sorry, I have just read this thread, and your memory is a little off. I lived in Morphou and Nicosia in the early 70s (pre-invasion 74) and there were certainly armed and separate Turkish Cypriot enclaves in the north of the island. The main Turkish enclave started in the centre of Nicosia, at the green line (established after previous fighting and even then protected by UN troops) and stretched north across the plain to the mountain pass near St Hilarion castle on the Nicosia-Kyrenia road. There were armed checkpoints from both communities, and Greek Cypriots were not allowed into the Turkish sector, except for one UN-escorted convoy to and from Kyrenia on Sundays. Otherwise, to get to Kyrenia, Greeks had to drive from Nicosia via Myrthou and the northern coastal road. Ex-pats were allowed to travel from the Greek into the Turkish sector, often just waved through - perhaps this explains your recollection of "freedom of movement" ? (And Turkish Cypriots were allowed into the Greek sectors essentially freely).

The Greek Cypriot national Government had very little sway in the Turkish sectors, and the British Council, for example, had to deal separately with the Greek and Turkish communities with respect to support for English Language teaching.

There was at least one other Turkish Cypriot enclave, in the northwest of the island, I think around Kokkina. If you tried to drive from Morphou to Polis on the coast road, you would be stopped at gunpoint and carefully checked. The atmosphere there was much more tense, and Greek Cypriots were not allowed through at all.

There were no Turkish Cypriot enclaves in the south of the island, but there were certainly lots of armed soldiers, guns, and barbed wire checkpoints in other parts of the island. United Nations soldiers were stationed all over the north of the island to help keep the two communities apart. The Divisions obviously became much worse after the '74 invasion, but separation of the communities, and the establishment of Turkish Cypriot enclaves, dated back into the '60s.

scot47

Have the doings of EOKA and General Grivas been forgotten ?

solanocasa

Forgotten ? No, but rather superseded by subsequent events. Grivas actually returned to the island and EOKA-B was set up late60s/early 70s, to agitate again for Enosis. Trouble was stirred up within the Greek Cypriot community, and in 1971-72 there were various incidents, including regular car bombings (small stick of dynamite under a car, late at night - many long sleepless nights in those days). This all led up to the Greek Government/army coup against Makarios in July 1974, and the Turkish invasion a few days later.

scot47

My experience has been that most people have very little idea of the background. How many living on Cyprus could explain how and why Cyprus was lost to the Ottoman Empire and became a British Crown Colony ? How many could explain the conflict that led to independence and eventually to Partition ?