Beirut- The last part of the Cyprus segment of my Fabled City video series is now up. I take the viewer along the ethnic-Greek side of the UN buffer zone, the ‘Green Line’ that cuts the Cypriot capital of Nicosia in two. I omit the Greek Cypriot soldier who asked me not to film them as I walked along this war zone that is mostly populated by crumbling façades with tall weeds and stray cats weaving through them. Makeshift barrel barricades have become permanent fixtures that were I suppose meant to be temporary. The two sides have not been able to come to an accord for close to five decades. Like estranged family members, the longer time goes by, the more hope evaporates from the climate of possible outcomes.
Any feeling person can absorb the sadness this dead zone entombs at the hands of UN peacekeepers. The well intentioned mission now acts as an impediment to reunification. I wondered if there had been more kinetic contact decades ago, tragic as that would have been at the time, if Cyprus would be in a healthier place today. Beirut, where I sit as I write this post, was also once one of the Cold War era’s divided capitals during an grueling 15 year-long civil war here from 1975-1990. But it was eventually put back together, imperfectly, yes, but reunified in contrast with Cyprus off the coast in the Levantine Sea. You can use an Estonian taxi app (Bolt) to take a cab from one side of the city to the other. The same cannot be said for Nicosia. Beirut is still scarred from the civil war to be sure, but it sort of works whereas Nicosia is wildly dysfunctional with two different armies, plus the UN, two different currencies, and two different allegiances to guarantor states. Not to mention the UK still controls a sizable chunk of the island like a bad hangover from the colonial period which ended in 1960 but not fully.