CROSSROADS OF CIVILISATIONS

My first visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was back in 2005. I wanted to see as many places of interest as possible on the island famous for its amazingly rich history and fascinating nature, and to learn about the life of local people. However, due to a tight schedule of our meetings and events, we were able to visit the Kyrenia Castle and had a short morning swim in the Mediterranean Sea only. Fortunately,the memorable impressions from a warm and spiritual dinner hosted by the late Rauf Denktaş, known as the ‘founding father’ of the republic, added an extra value to the great deal of pallid official information collected during the trip. Imagine an evening by the sea... Rauf Denktaş and his daughter-in-law are singing an Azerbaijani folk song Alagöz accompanied by Denktaş’s son Serdar, the then foreign minister of the TRNC,on guitar. Truly a historical moment, which I still remember with my friends.

Yet I always had a rather strange feeling that these impressions were not enough. A dream to return to Cyprus to enjoy the unimaginable beauty of the island, see all the historical places and take travel notes. Now, after 13 years, I had an opportunity to make my dream come true thanks to the public association Azerbaijan Journalists Network and a popular TV host from Turkish Cyprus, Mustafa Alkan.

Legend of the Beşparmak Mountain

A man in his fifties met us at the Ercan airport. “My name is Menderes. I'm from the Ministry of Tourism and Environment,” introduced himself a smiling driver and invited us to his minivan. On the way to our hotel, we grilled Menderes-ȃbi (‘elder brother’ in Turkish, R+) with questions about almost everything that flashed past the windows of the car. He kindly answered all our questions except those he hesitated to answer without a professional assistance from a guide who would join us the next day.

A silhouette of a mountain similar to the Beşbarmaq Mountain near Baku accompanied us all along the way. It turned out that Cypriots also called this mountain range Beşparmak, which means ‘five fingers’ in Turkish. Yet unlike its Azerbaijani namesake, it is not a place of mass pilgrimage, albeit famous for the mysterious legends attached to it throughout the history. According to one of the popular ones, two young men had engaged in mortal combat to earn the recognition of one of the local beauties but had drowned in the nearby swamp after the exhausting duel. And only the elongated hand of one of them had remained above the dark pit and turned into stone.

Legacy of colonial past

Every inch of the Cypriot land is suffused with legends and fables. The third largest island in the Mediterranean has retained the culture of different civilisations through the centuries. Many empires have tried to get hold of this strategic island located at the intersection of maritime routes between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Egyptians, Arabs, Greeks, French, as well as the citizens of Byzantine, Roman, Ottoman, and British empires have made regular visits to Cyprus throughout the history. Hence the indelible marks left on the architecture, history, and lifestyle of Cyprus by virtue of the historical mixture of different cultures.

For instance, the first thing that your eyes can catch when you leave the airport is the cars designed for left-hand driving. Cypriots observe the left-hand traffic rules as a tribute to the British colonial era, and use the so-called ‘English forks’ for the three-pin power sockets. The island was a British colony up until the 1960s. Two UK military bases still occupy more than two percent of the island, an area under the British sovereignty. In Girne (Kyrenia), one can still find Christian cemeteries of the British period. Real estate and automobiles in Cyprus are also traded for pounds sterling.

Secret of the 101^st Room

As the locals say, “if you were in Cyprus but failed to visit the Saint Hilarion Castle, you did not see anything at all.” When our guide, Selin Akça, proposed us a tour to the castle, we could not even imagine the mystical atmosphere that expected us over there. One of the three mountain castles of Cyprus was built 1,200 years ago at an altitude of 730 meters above sea level by Reverend Hilarion the Great as a monastery, where he spent the last years of his life and spread Christianity among idolaters. Saint Hilarion practiced healing; a miraculous gift which has glorified him among the local people. Over time, people began to settle on this mountain, built the castle and created their own kingdom.

“The locals call the St. Hilarion Castle ‘101 houses’. In total, there were 101 rooms, and only one of them has not been found yet. It is rumoured that the treasures of rich inhabitants of the castle are hidden in that room. Maybe… But the mystery of the 101^st room is not yet revealed,” says expert Mustafa Tolgalı, who kindly agreed to take us for a tour. According to him, yellow or golden colour of stones used in the construction testifies that rich people lived at upper floors of the castle. According to guides, the castle seems to be a kind of magic world, where almost every stone has its own legend.

Turkish Cypriots are very fond of their homeland and willingly share information about the sights, history and culture of these places with tourists. Sometimes you do not even have to ask.

Journalist Mustafa Gürsel also runs a small souvenir shop and a bar in the St. Hilarion Castle. When he heard that we were from Azerbaijan, he served us a delicious homemade lemonade of his own production and thanked us for interest in his homeland. Our Cypriot colleague gladly presented us CDs with photos of his own work.

Meanwhile, from a bird's-eye view, we have a beautiful panorama of Lefkoşa (Nicosia), the capital of Turkish Cyprus. The balconies of the castle hanging over the deep gorge are quite a suitable place for selfie fans. If you get too involved however, the tour can last for days.

From ancient city to medieval abbey

Wherever you go in Cyprus, you may rest assured that you will run into ruins, churches, mosques, and castles that belong to different ancient civilisations. You can therefore see trails of tourists patiently listening to the long stories of guides and carefully examining the ancient dilapidated buildings.

Whatever you do, do not refuse the pleasure of visiting the ruins of the ancient city of Salamis near Gazimağusa (Famagusta). The gymnasium, Hellenistic amphitheatre, as well as the baths of the Roman period are a real paradise for admirers of ancient history and those who love taking photos standing next to colonnades, headless ancient statues or the amphitheatre. Our guide Sinan Esen had a long wait under the baking sun until we finished our photo session on the ruins of the ancient city.

Equally interesting is the medieval Bellapais Abbey – a Gothic monument constructed at the beginning of the 13^th century by the Crusaders. It is believed that the names of the monument and the adjoining village come from French and mean “the abbey of peace”. According to another interpretation, Bellapais stands for a “beautiful place”. It's hard to argue because the place is indeed beautiful and interesting.

Cyprus is also an island of love and romance. It is no wonder that it was so popular among poets, writers, and philosophers. Thus, a medieval castle built by the ruling Lusignans dynasty in the 14^th century in Gazimağusa was named in the colonial period in honour of Shakespeare's Othello. Mağusa was considered the most impregnable medieval castle in the world. It is believed that the Ottoman Empire had sieged the castle for eleven months before it was able to take control over it when the Benedictines exhausted the supplies of weapons and food. British researchers claim that the events described in Shakespeare’s eponymous masterpiece have indeed taken place in the Othello Citadel.

The Ottoman period

“Is it possible that the Ottoman Empire has not left behind any monuments of Muslim heritage in Cyprus?” may tourists wonder during the tours to churches, cathedrals and other Christian monuments, albeit the minarets of Cypriot mosques of the Ottoman period are visible even from afar. There are mosques built ‘from scratch’ but there are also jamees (‘big mosques’ in Turkish, R+) previously known as Christian cathedrals. By attaching minarets to these gorgeous buildings, the Ottoman conquerors “re-qualified” the churches as mosques. Hence, the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Gazimağusa became the Lala Mustafa Paşa Mosque, and the St. Sophia Cathedral in Lefkoşa – to the Selimiye Mosque.

Another piece of Ottoman architecture is the Büyük Han Caravanserai not far from Selimiye. This two-storey building made as a small square fortress is very similar to the famous caravanserai in Sheki, Azerbaijan. Although Büyük Han is not used as an accommodation house anymore, the adjoining art workshops, souvenir shops and restaurants are favourite stops of foreign tourists.

From a Catholic church to Armenian monastery

Walking along the old streets of Lefkoşa, not far from the so-called “green line” between the Turkish and Greek parts of the city, we stumbled upon another church. “This is Notre Dame de Tire, a temple that has belonged to the Armenian Church since the Ottoman period,” explains our guide Selin Akça. “And who was the owner of it before?” I asked. It turned out that the temple has previously belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Virgin Mary founded in the 13^th century. In the 15^th century, the Ottomans presented it to the Armenian Church as a reward for the alliance against the Benedictines. “What a familiar scenario!” I thought recalling that a few centuries later, the Russian Empire gifted the Albanian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenians as a reward for their collaboration against the Ottomans.

At the same time, Turkish Cypriots do not hide the true origin of some mosques that were originally Christian cathedrals, while Armenian pseudo-scientists rewrite history in order to appropriate the heritage of Albanian temples in Karabakh. But this is a completely different topic...

Happy tiredness and rest on the golden shore

If you are still reading my travel notes, you are not tired of a virtual tour to the Northern Cyprus. You will not get tired in real life either. According to my personal experience, one can walk for 10-12 hours a day on the island without getting tired at all. You will not feel fatigue as long as you try to see as much as possible. You can safely turn on the pedometer on your smartphone to impress your friends with the length of distance travelled, apart from the distance and time travelled to watch the other famous symbols of the island, Cypriot donkeys and sea turtles on turtle beaches.

But even if you are tired of excursions under the scorching heat of the sun, you can still enjoy your trip. After all, North Cyprus is not only monuments and legends but also a Mediterranean climate, modern hotels, crystal clear sea, golden beaches, and restaurants with delicious local cuisine.

Paradise for tourists

Turkish Cypriots are confident that Northern Cyprus can guarantee its economic independence through tourism. The government is doing everything to achieve the growth of the tourist flow. According to Hürriyet, the Ercan airport received about 1.5 million tourists in 2017. At the same time, passenger traffic is steadily increasing every year. Therefore, the authorities are implementing a set of plans to expand the airport's passenger traffic from 4 to 10 million passengers annually.

Apart from travellers coming from Turkey, German and British tourists are the largest groups of tourists from Europe followed by tourists from Northern Europe, particularly the Scandinavian countries. If European tourists visit the island almost throughout the year, Russians prefer the warm season and local beaches. By the way, most of the villas along the Long Beach in the Iskele area belong to Russians.

According to our guides, the key factors attracting tourists to the island are the warm climate, acceptable accommodation prices, rich Christian heritage and cheap shopping experience. They basically buy carpets and jewellery. A lion share of the revenues from tourism comes from local casinos. Only at the Kyrenia Port, we counted a number of them.

The great advantage of tourism in Northern Cyprus is that it takes a maximum of three hours to travel from one end of the country to the other. Europeans can safely cross both parts (Turkish and Greek) of the island through the seven border checkpoints. The same is true for Greek and Turk nationals of Cyprus.

In general, crossing the ‘green line’ and the passport control for tourists visiting the Turkish Cyprus is just a formality. And even the barbed wire and watch towers with the UN peacekeepers along the border line that separates the island in two halves have long become the objects of tourist attraction.