14 April 2010

Daily Police Photo: International Edition

If you read my Twitter feed, you will have noticed that over the past week I was on holiday in Cyprus, for my sister's wedding.

Last Saturday I took a day trip over to Famagusta in the Turkish part of Cyprus, the self-styled "Turkish Republic of North Cyprus".

Famagusta is effectively in two separate parts: the Turkish bit around the old castle and the ex-Greek bit which is full of hotels, which were abandoned due to the 1974 invasion by Turkish troops.

Big sections are fenced off with barbed wire and wooden panels and are patrolled by Turkish troops.

While my coach was passing through this section - after having had a short stay at one of the beaches which you can access - I was taking pictures randomly in order to get a general idea of the atmosphere of the area; it's best described as a ghost-town, because the ex-Greek areas are just as they were back in 1974, and have not been touched since.


As you can see, one of my photographs appears to have inadvertently broken North Cypriot law. If you do not hear from me again then that's because I've been shipped off to northern Cyprus and will be in a police cell or prison.*

* However, given that neither we, nor anyone else, other than Turkey, recognise the north Cypriot government, there may be difficulties in any attempted extradition.