Northern Cyprus is some sorta Turkish ministate. Does it use the Turkish lira?
Have houses just got 15% cheaper there?
And what’s the ministate like?
Northern Cyprus is some sorta Turkish ministate. Does it use the Turkish lira?
Have houses just got 15% cheaper there?
And what’s the ministate like?
Yes, you cross the border and it is just like being in Turkey… They use the Lira but most establishments ask for payment in Sterling or €uros for obvious reasons.
Everything is much cheaper there, the Cypriot government is trying to stop Taxi Drivers going over to fill up with diesel as it is 40% cheaper. I have a couple of friends that have just moved over due to the lower cost of living and (theoretically) the ability to return to the South for free medical treatment under the new ‘NHS’…
I actually really like the place and can imagine living there but Mrs. Bloke In Cyprus is not so keen. It is really great to be able to walk or drive across the board and be in a completely different environment…
“ what’s the ministate like?”
Bloody awful, from what my brother tells me (he goes to both bits of Cyprus every year). Basically the dodgy playground for the Turks and Arabs; strip clubs, gambling, all that sort of thing. A Muslim country without the restrictions.
Plus a lot of crime; children trained to run out in front of your car and claim you hit them, whereupon half the village surrounds you demanding on-the-spot cash compensation.
But that’s just one second-hand opinion; others might have better reports.
Also, would you be allowed to buy property there? I don’t know.
@ RichardT
I went frequently (before Covid obvs.) as did most of the expats over here… I simply don’t recognise the description of the place that you have been given. Many of the British expats in my village are retired and some in their 70s… They certainly wouldn’t flock to the North if it was as you say!
And yes, you can buy property there. The only issue is the land that has been ‘stolen’ by Turkey (i.e. was previously owned by Greek Cypriots). Property with Turkish Cypriot Title Deeds are significantly more expensive.
I’m pretty familiar with London’s Greek Cypriot community. They do have considerable issues over stolen properties in N. Cyprus & very long memories. And they’re certainly not people I’d want to fuck around with. They’re also people who gave the British Army some grief & haven’t changed much
“I’m pretty familiar with London’s Greek Cypriot community. They do have considerable issues over stolen properties in N. Cyprus & very long memories. And they’re certainly not people I’d want to fuck around with. They’re also people who gave the British Army some grief & haven’t changed much”
You’re right, we can’t even say North Cyprus here in the South, you have to refer to it as ‘The Occupied Areas’…
They are still digging up bodies of ‘The Missing’ that were killed and buried in unmarked graves in 1974. They will never forgive or forget Turkey for the invasion.
To be fair, the Turks on Cyprus will probably never forgive the Greeks for their desire for enosis.
To be fair, the Turks on Cyprus will probably never forgive the Greeks for their desire for enosis.
And neither of them will forgive The British!
@Ted
The Turks on Cyprus are from the Ottoman invasion of 1570. For Cyps, that’s like the week before last. They’ve spent 500 years trying to get their own island back. 50 years of the occupation of the North is just a passing inconvenience. Left to themselves they’d genocide the lot of them.
“The Turks on Cyprus are from the Ottoman invasion of 1570.” When are the Greeks on Cyprus from? Bronze Age? Alexander? Byzantium? All of those?
Years ago, before modern DNA studies were available, I saw a documentary that pointed out that, judging by the info available then, the Greek and Turkish Cypriots were essentially the same people divided by religion. Perhaps a bit like the Serbs and Croats? Hell, the Hungarians are generically pretty similar to their neighbours, distinguished more by their language than by their genes.
“their desire for enosis.”
I’ve never understood this concept of wandering off into somebody else’s country, and then demanding it be annexed to the place you’ve just left. Texas, Sudetenland, Transylvania, the Turkish coast, Cyprus.
If what you’re talking about predated the ’74 Turkish invasion, dearieme, it probably wasn’t far from the truth. The Cypriot Turks were much the same people as the European Turks in Turkey. Who are descended from the people of the Eastern Roman Empire which fell to the Ottomans in 1453. One should avoid the heads-on-coins version of history much beloved by historians. Rulers of places may change. By & large, the populations don’t. The 74 invasion brought in a lot of Anatolian Turks as settlers, so the DNA difference now may be much greater than then.
Incidentally, one of my Cyp mates is actually Marronite rather than Greek Orthodox. The Marronite villages of N. Cyprus were largely depopulated following the Turkish invasion. So he’s Lebanese/Cypriot, which is a very good reason not to fuck with Greek Cyps. The Marronites have plenty of experience of civil wars with Muslims & access to all the arms supplies they could possibly want.