"Island: Divided" aims to highlight the need for dialogue and reconciliation to heal the wounds of the past and build a shared future for all Cypriots.

Between 2020 and 2023, during my longest stay since leaving Cyprus, the island of my birth,I collected photographs which turned out to be documenting how political ideologies and nationalism can fracture communities.
The UN Buffer Zone, also known as the Green Line, cuts through Cyprus like a deep wound, stretching approximately 180 km across the island (1). This division illustrates how political narratives can turn neighbors into strangers and even enemies, as experience of Greek and Turkish-speaking Cypriots and other ethnicities.
In Varosha, once a booming resort town, is converted into a ghost town by abandoned buildings and encroaching vegetation. Varosha remained strictly off-limits to civilians for decades, guarded by armed personnel, until its partial reopening in 2020(3). This town, left empty since the Turkish invasion in 1974, remains as ghost town but more of a signature how political tensions destroyed a community that once thrived (2).
The systematic destruction of cultural heritage is evident in the fate of religious sites and cemeteries. Out of numerous Greek Orthodox churches and chapels in northern Cyprus, many have been pillaged, vandalized, or demolished. This destruction reflects the deeper cultural and social rifts caused by the conflict.

Agios Amvrosios, my hometown, now called Esentepe - represents this transformation too. The forced displacement of approximately 180,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots in 1974 was not just about territorial changes(4). It demonstrated how political ideologies can sever human connections.  Subsequently, northern coast portrays all these, with its mixed linguistic remnants, tells stories of displacement, loss, and the power of political narratives to reshape lives.

So, this project is a journey into the consequences of political polarization and its ability to dismantle multicultural communities. It highlights the ongoing challenges faced by Cyprus, where attempts at reunification have failed, and the buffer zone remains. 

The photographic exploration serves as a poignant reminder through the human cost of division on the island's social fabric, on how segregative indoctrinations in societies lead to separation and inevitable wounds, regardless of human urge for belonging and peace.