Nicosia

Nicosia is the capital and largest city of Cyprus, an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and that country's administrative, commercial, and cultural center. Historically settled by Greece and Turkey, Nicosia has been a flashpoint in the struggle between these two neighboring cultures, and since the 1960s the northern and southern parts of the city, much like the island itself, have been divided between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. It is the last divided European capital. The city is also known as Lefkosia.

Landscape

Nicosia is located in the center of Cyprus in an area known as the Mesaoria Plain. The Mesaoria is a flat and barren plain isolated from the rest of the island by the Troodos Mountains, the Kyrenia Mountains, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The plain is actually the ancient seabed that separated the Troodos and Kyrenia mountains. Nicosia sits at an elevation of 220 meters (721 feet). A buffer zone, known as the Green Line, runs through the center of Cyprus, dividing the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities. Often referred to as the "Dead Zone," this United Nations-sanctioned barrier is only several meters wide in Nicosia, but fairly wide outside of the city, and includes an abandoned international airport.

The summer months are hot and dry in Nicosia and the city is entirely reliant on dams and irrigation for drinking water. Winter rains serve to fill the reservoirs but the average annual rainfall on the entire island is a paltry 358.7 millimeters (14.1 inches). The climate of Nicosia is Mediterranean with average temperatures in the summer months reaching 28° Celsius (82.8° Fahrenheit). Winter months are generally cooler, averaging a daily temperature of 10.5° Celsius (50.9° Fahrenheit).

People

Due to the continuing political conflict, no accurate census has taken place in Nicosia since 1960, as census figures have major political ramifications in Cyprus. At that time, 77 percent of the urban population was Greek and a mere 18 percent Turkish. However, there has been a significant shift in the demographics since the Turkish government in Ankara actively encouraged and subsidized Turkish migration to Cyprus; early twenty-first century estimates put the Turkish population at around 84,000. The Greek Nicosia community keeps more reliable data, and a 2007 census reported 47,832 Greek residents.

A majority of the Greek residents on the island are members of the Cypriot Orthodox Church and Nicosia is the spiritual center for many of the church's archbishops. The Cypriot Orthodox Greeks in Nicosia are considered to be some of the most devout Christians in Europe with large percentages of the population regularly attending services. The Turks of Nicosia are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

Small minorities of Palestinian, Armenian and Lebanese communities also exist in Nicosia. Since Cyprus joined the European Union (EU) in 2008, there has been an influx of immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries.

Cyprus has also seen increasing numbers of refugees. As of 2022, more than ten thousand Syrians fled to Cyprus to escape civil war in their homeland. After Russia invaded Ukraine, more than eighteen thousand Ukrainian refugees lived in Cyprus as of 2023.

Economy

On January 1, 2008, Cyprus joined the European Union (EU)—the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), dependent on and recognized only by Turkey, has yet to be recognized by both the EU and the United Nations (UN)—and adopted the Euro as the official currency for the island (the Turkish Lira is the currency of the north). Despite being a politically divided island, the Cypriot per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is higher than the EU average. However, even with these strong signs, economic policy is fragmented between the Greek and Turkish communities and little coordination exists between the two sides. While it is the political capital of the island, Nicosia reflects this divided and fragmented economy.

Even with this division, Nicosia maintains a strong local economy despite the Nicosia International Airport being permanently shut down due to the civil strife of the mid-1970s. Highly favorable laws on foreign direct investment have been essential to the local Nicosia economy, which the Greek-dominated Cypriot government passed to allow full foreign ownership of Cypriot companies. In addition, the government tax code encourages foreign companies to relocate to Nicosia. These two policies have allowed Nicosia to become the headquarters for many foreign firms, especially companies involved in the maritime trade industries and shipping. The city also manufactures textiles, pottery, plastics, leather and food and beverage products, and copper is one of the important natural resources mined outside of the capital.

With a highly educated population, Greek Nicosia has transformed into a service-based economy with over 70 percent of its population involved in telecommunications, banking or tourism. Tourism continues to be a large source of revenue for Nicosia, despite its lack of an international airport. Overall, about 85 percent of the Cypriot GDP derives from the service economy.

Turkish Nicosia does not have the same dynamic economy. Due to the political separation with the Cypriot government, the Turkish economy lacks foreign investment and is heavily subsidized by the Turkish government in Ankara. However, a construction boom in Nicosia has allowed more money to reach the Turkish economy and GDP growth rates have improved. If political reconciliation continues between the two communities, the economic conditions for all of Nicosia will likely benefit.

Landmarks

The Old Town of Nicosia is surrounded by the sixteenth-century Venetian walls designed in 1567 by the Italian architect Julio Savorgnano. Constructed in a star shape with eleven fortified bastions, the walls were considered some of the best designed military fortifications of the Renaissance. Entrances to the city were controlled by three gates—North Kyrenia Gate, West Paphos Gate and the East Famagusta Gate—all of which remain standing to this day.

Within the walls of the old city lies the Pancyprian Gymnasium, which is an Orthodox educational school established in 1812 for the Greek Cypriot residents of Nicosia. The gymnasium is still in operation as a high school and is considered to be the leading educational institution for Greek Nicosia. Although the original building was destroyed by a fire in 1920, the reconstructed school still holds a large collection of Cypriot art, books and artifacts. The renowned Severios Library is a major repository for Greek Cypriot culture and contains over 60,000 manuscripts.

Ledra Street serves as the dividing line between the Turkish and Greek zones in Nicosia. Once the major commercial thoroughfare of the city, Ledra Street was nicknamed "Murder Mile" by the British troops patrolling the city in the 1950s due to the frequent attacks against them by Greek Cypriot nationalists. Following the partition of the city in 1964, Ledra Street was divided in half to separate the Greek and Turkish zones and was regularly patrolled by UN peacekeepers. In April 2008, the Greek Cypriot government removed barriers from Ledra Street, allowing pedestrians to cross between the two zones.

Other places of historical or cultural interest include the Cyprus Museum; the Byzantine Museum and Art Gallery; the Folk Art Museum; the Ayios Ioannis Cathedral, built in 1662; and the Chrysaliniotissa Church, believed to have been built in the fifteenth century. Areas of interest outside of Nicosia include the Machairas Monastery, established in 1148.

History

Nicosia remained a small farming settlement for much of the ancient history of Cyprus. Cypriot city-states developed on the shores of the island which gave traders access to the sea and foreign markets. By the sixth century CE, however, continual sea raids by pirates had led the Greek natives to withdraw further inland for protection. From Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire sent out administrators and soldiers to defend Cyprus, and in the ninth century Nicosia became the central administrative capital for Byzantine Cyprus.

Arab naval power cut off communications with Constantinople in the twelfth century. In 1183, Governor Issac Komenos declared himself Emperor of Cyprus and ruled the island from Nicosia. The reign was short-lived since, and in 1191 Komenos made the strategic mistake of capturing a Crusader ship belonging to King Richard I of England. Richard I detoured his armada away from the Third Crusade long enough to lay siege to Nicosia and force Komenos from power.

Nicosia then became a vassal city to the Crusader kingdoms of the Holy Land, and until 1489, Nicosia was the capital of the Crusader Lusignian dynasty. In the late fifteenth century, the mercantile Republic of Venice forced the last monarch from the throne and occupied Nicosia. Seeking to protect their trade routes to the East, the Venetians heavily fortified Nicosia in 1567 against the seafaring Ottoman Turks. The fortifications were barely completed when in 1570 the Ottomans invaded Cyprus and laid siege to Nicosia. Despite the strength of the fortified walls, the Venetians were unable to stop the Ottomans from breaching the bastions on September 9, 1570, and ending Venetian rule over Nicosia.

Under Ottoman rule, Nicosia entered a period of neglect. While the Ottoman Turks ruled Cyprus, they allowed Greeks to settle in the city and renew the ancient Cypriot Orthodox religion. However, little effort was made to renew the city's architecture or build new public spaces. The Ottoman period lasted until 1878, when at the Conference of Berlin, the Ottoman Turks awarded Cyprus to the United Kingdom in exchange for British support on Ottoman claims to Armenia.

On July 5, 1878, the British assumed administration over Nicosia and the rest of the island. Due to its proximity to the Suez Canal, the British invested heavily in re-building Nicosia and establishing military bases around the city. From this British investment, modern Nicosia began to grow outside the walls of the Old City.

In the aftermath of World War II, the situation on Cyprus became unstable. Cold War politics had created an uneasy coalition between Western European powers such as Turkey and Greece. Nationalist Greek Cypriots, increasingly frustrated with British rule, called for a political union with mainland Greece. The leader of this struggle was the Cypriot Archbishop Makarios III, formerly Mihail Christodoulou Mouskos, who was soon forced into exile by the British government. By the mid-1950s, Nicosia was an armed camp with various Greek paramilitary groups attacking the British troops. Not wanting to alienate Greece by openly attacking Greek Cypriots, the British military secretly supplied Turkish paramilitary units with arms and weapons. Street fighting broke out in Nicosia that only ended with a political compromise leading to the creation of the Republic of Cyprus in 1959.

In 1964, faced with continued fighting in the capital, the British military devised the Green Line that separated the country into Greek and Turkish areas. Archbishop Makarios, President of the Republic, soon became an unpopular figure with foreign powers by his independent calls for Cypriot reunification with Greece. In 1974, a failed coup attempt against Makarios led Turkey to try and annex the island by invading the northern half of Cyprus. The failed invasion destroyed the balance between the two communities and widespread ethnic cleansing ensued as Greeks expelled Turks and Turks expelled Greeks from Nicosia and the countryside. An uneasy cease-fire was negotiated that led to the deployment of even greater numbers of UN peacekeepers to the streets of Nicosia.

Despite entry into the EU, little tangible political reconciliation exists between the two sides. The dismantling of barriers on Ledra Street is a sign of encouragement, but it remains to be seen whether or not this progress will result in any lasting political solution to the problems dividing the city of Nicosia and the island of Cyprus as a whole.

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