CY – 2 Sides For Nicosia

I was in Cyprus on Wednesday and as most of you know, Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus is the last divided capital in the world after the invasion of the Turkish forces for the island in 1974.

At the end of Ledra street in Nicosia, you could for many years, walk and get to the wall that turned into a landmark of the invasion history. In a peaceful step during April 2008, both Cypriot and Turkish authorities decided to break down the wall in order to give a push for their talks in order to unify the island again.

While strolling on Ledra on Wednesday with my Cypriot friend Marios, he proposed talking a walk to the Turkish side, funniest thing happened when at the Turkish police checkpoint, you have to issue a visa, which is a piece of paper, I got a visa valid for 10 days stay, while Marios had his visa for 90 days stay.

Having a Lebanese passport i would 100% understand my need for a “visa”, but how sarcastic it is for a Cypriot to need a visa just walk to the other side of his own country capital.