Isolated for almost half a century, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has just opened a half-a-billion-dollar airport terminal in the hope of boosting tourism.
Only Ankara recognizes the statehood of the TRNC, whose sole source of flights is Turkey, but the new terminal has left it dreaming of international connections.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the east Mediterranean island in response to a Greek-sponsored coup.
Photo: AFP
The northern third is inhabited by Turkish Cypriots, Turkish colonists and the military, while Greek Cypriots are the majority in the internationally-recognized south.
UN peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone that divides the two parts of the resort island. Its airspace is also split.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency that coordinates standards in the sector, does not recognize the TRNC.
Mustafa Sofi, the TRNC’s director of civil aviation, said it controls the northern part of the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR), as well as Ankara FIR under “special arrangement” for a total of 92,500km2.
Ercan airport and its new terminal, on the edge of north Nicosia, is “not recognized by the international aviation community” in accordance with UN resolutions, officials from the Republic of Cyprus Department of Civil Aviation said.
The officials, who declined to be identified, said there is not even indirect communication with Ankara FIR since Turkey “cut the direct telephone line” after the invasion.
The Republic of Cyprus controls airspace only over the southern part of the island, whose Nicosia international airport is decaying inside the buffer zone, unusable since the invasion.
Larnaca hosts the main airport in the south, where aircraft bringing tourists land alongside a popular beach in the EU member state.
Despite the international embargo, the TRNC does interact with the south. There are nine crossing points for vehicles and pedestrians. Trade across the Green Line is increasing, the UN says.
The north’s turquoise waters, historic sites and attractive prices, thanks to the sinking value of the Turkish lira, help draw tourists.
Ercan’s new terminal is six times larger than the now-closed old one and “is an important step for our country which is going to bring touristic and economic development to a higher level,” TRNC Minister of Tourism Fikri Ataoglu told local media.
Tourism provides crucial income for the north, whose economy relies on Ankara for support and, like Turkey, has suffered from soaring inflation. Ercan’s new terminal and runway cost about 450 million euros (US$486 million), Sofi said, and the airport could handle 10 million passengers annually.
“The capacity of the old terminal was 1.5 million, but we’ve done 4 million,” he said.
The 10 million figure would be roughly equal to what Larnaca and the south’s second international airport at Paphos handled last year. Their traffic totaled 9.2 million last year, official data showed.
The departure hall features duty-free shopping, but the information screens show flights only to Turkish cities, by Turkish carriers.
TRNC Minister of Public Works and Transport Erhan Arikli said that he hopes international connections will begin in “one and a half to two years.”
That is not going to happen until a political solution is found to the division of Cyprus, said Stefan Talmon, a University of Bonn professor who has studied the Cyprus conflict for decades.
The Republic of Cyprus is seeking a solution on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation in line with UN resolutions, but the TRNC insists on what it calls “sovereign equality and equal international status.”
“What northern Cyprus is looking for is not direct flights from anywhere, but direct flights from Frankfurt, Paris or London,” which would allow cheaper and easier tourist access to the north, said Talmon, a specialist in international law.
However, as long as the international community “recognizes the Greek Cypriot government in the south as the government of all of Cyprus, there cannot be any direct international flights to Ercan airport,” Talmon said. “The legal situation has not changed over the past 50 years. One cannot fly to northern Cyprus without violating international law.”
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