an island: divided.
Between 2020 and 2023, when the world slowed down, I stayed with my parents in Cyprus for the longest period since I left the island. During my stay, I captured my surroundings, which ended up as my first documentary project; "an island:divided", besides documenting the societal distortions and degeneration as a result of ideological, political manipulations on the society of a small island, and eventually also visualising some of the issues why I left the country and moved to Berlin in 2013.
NORTHERN SHORE
It was inevitable that I would come across garbage on the coast, clearly affected by the influx of garbage from neighbouring Mediterranean countries, alongside the common practice of littering by the locals.
After a short walk along coast near our village, some of the items I found among the garbage beside those labelled in Greek, Hebrew or Turkish were unusual, such as the emergency medical supplies especially labelled in Arabic and English.
Although I have no source to prove where all the debris might have come from, my initial devastating feelings about a terrorised environment were quickly replaced by sadness at the thought of the unfortunate people who had sought refuge from their war-torn countries in the region, only to be left to drown in the Mediterranean.
GHOST TOWN / VAROSHA
After the 1950s, the island gained its independence from British colonisation. However, this was soon followed by the rise of Greek nationalism in the 1960s, which led to a Turkish invasion in 1974. Before the invasion, Varosha was the most developed and attractive tourist town in Cyprus. Since the invasion, it has ceased and remained as a ghost town under the Turkish army. For almost half a century, the area remained a forbidden zone for everyone except the Turkish army and their relatives, and it was guarded by the Turkish army as it was used as a valuable 'key' during the Cypriot peace negotiations table. Since 2020, the town has been open to the public as a 'tourist attraction', allowing visitors to explore on foot or by bicycle along designated renovated roads.
Despite my doubts and unpleasant feelings about this 'open-air museum' based on all the consequences of war and the damage and misery caused to the people who once lived here, I decided to go inside, along with the other visitors.
The wild plants that have taken over the living rooms or bedrooms of the displaced people, the bullet holes in the facades of shops, houses, ... the bullet holes in the broken glass, the broken glass in the doors of the houses that have been looted.
Walking through this abandoned city, which was once the most vibrant, was just another confirmation and confrontation of how heavy and ugly the history of this island is.
"FOREIGNERS' CEMETERY"
As I followed an indistinct path during a walk in the countryside, the appearance of a yellow stone wall between the green surface and the blue sky continued horizontally until my eyes caught a partially demolished gate to access behind the wall. The walk continued in the hope of capturing more picturesque landscapes that would provide a true palette of Cyprus' winter greens and blues.
As I entered the half-arched gate, I was struck by the sight of vandalised gravestones with names and dates (all before July 1974) carved in the Greek alphabet. I felt pure shame and anger, thinking what could have motivated such violence? Greed, hatred, revenge, apathy or a combination of all these?
After this discovery, I researched Christian cemeteries, locally known as 'Greek cemeteries', and found that the same scenario was prevalent in other villages in the northern part of the Green Line.
I also read that some British people now living in the northern part of the island had recently asked the authorities to restore the Christian cemeteries, which would also benefit them. However, they were met with a refusal which was conveyed in the following statement: "The restoration of the 'foreign cemeteries' is not the responsibility of the authorities, but of the relatives of the deceased, who are 'not interested' in the matter," referring to Greek-speaking people who have been expelled from their homes and don't have access to any facilities.
Disgrace.
Still, I could not stop asking myself again the question: "Could it be apathy, hatred, revenge, greed or a combination of all of these?", stemming from the pain caused by nationalism and the indoctrination of the education system to call what used to be/is a "friend" or a neighbour next door, an "enemy".
Eventually I realised that what I was depicting was not just vandalism, but the consequences of distortion on manipulated societies and indoctrinated hatred by nationalist rethorics.
AGIOS AMVROSIOS/AYGURUŞ
The subsequent displacement of people on the basis of their ethnic identity can be traced back to British colonial rule, which designated them as either Turkish/Muslim or Greek/Christian.
The village of Agios Amvrosios was previously inhabited by Greek-speaking Cypriot communities until the 1974 invasion forced the population to relocate. Turkish-speaking Cypriots were then relocated from their village of Aynikola (Agios Nikolaus) in the southwest of the island, near Paphos, to Agios Amvrosios (known as "Ayguruş") on the north-east coast of the island.
Agios Amvrosios or Ayguruş is where I grew up and where most of my family still live. The house I grew up in was given to my parents as temporary accommodation until a peace agreement was signed, which never happened, and it has become our home, which we do not actually "own".
Late 70s, the failure of peace negotiations, the Turkish-speaking community formed an autonomous government called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" in 1983, with the full economic and military support of Turkey.
Subsequently, many Greek names of villages and towns underwent a process of Turkish renaming and Agios Amvrosios was renamed Esentepe (translated as Breezy Hill in English) in order to facilitate Turkish assimilation. Alongside converting churches to mosques and the migration of Turks from central and north-eastern Turkey (known as the former region of Pontus where Greeks lived) to the village.