{"id":140706,"date":"2017-05-11T08:31:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T05:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/north-cyprus-the-meds-last-unspoiled-paradise\/"},"modified":"2017-05-11T08:31:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T05:31:15","slug":"north-cyprus-the-meds-last-unspoiled-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/north-cyprus-the-meds-last-unspoiled-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"North Cyprus: The Med\u2019s last unspoiled paradise?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Busch<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0explores one of the few places in the Mediterranean to remain fairly\u00a0untouched by rampant tourism\u2026 so far.<\/p>\n

My poor little turtle wasn\u2019t getting an easy start in life. It had a misshapen flipper, to start with, probably the result of being squashed against the side of its sandy nest by 100 or so pushy brothers or sisters: inconvenient when you spend most of your life paddling.<\/p>\n

Not that the odd body shape of this fledgling sea creature I\u2019d been given to release into the north Cyprus sea was actually that unusual.\u00a0\u201cI saw a concave one once; it was sad but really cool,\u201d says Chloe Slevin, a young volunteer with the\u00a0Society for Protection of Turtles<\/strong>, who\u2019s taken me to the scrub-fringed Alagadi Beach to help usher the late season hatchlings on to the next stage of life.<\/p>\n

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Yet a sleek physique probably helps, because the perils the baby turtles face, Chloe explains, are formidable, from predators (and they do rather resemble exotic, waggling canap\u00e9s) to coastal hotels whose lights confuse the tiny animals as they follow reflected moonlight to the sea. Clearly they need all the volunteers they can get (hint: more are wanted!).<\/p>\n

The turtles\u2019 obstacle course says a lot about the new threats to a place that otherwise knocks for six the idea that we\u2019ve ruined the Med, that there are no more unspoilt places along this once wild and beautiful shore. As you\u00a0continue up the island from Alagadi Beach, the signs of civilisation begin to slip away. The blockish hotels dwindle, as do the weird skeletons of abandoned time-share constructions, giving way to coastal dunes dotted with trees stunted and twisted eerily by the wind. When you finally reach the Karpas Peninsula, also known as\u00a0\u2018the Cyprus Panhandle\u2019, you find a land of implausibly emerald seas, wild donkeys and, you suspect, the kind of characters\u00a0who are equally suited to\u00a0roaming where they like.<\/p>\n

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The isolation of the resulting swathe of land Turkey carved off, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus \u2013 recognised by no one but Turkey itself \u2013 partly explains its relatively pristine preservation. And did I mention that it\u2019s cheap?\u00a0The pound has more punch in the north, where they use the Turkish lira rather than the euro.<\/p>\n

Yet you can\u2019t help feeling that a conclusion to the conflict could also click the timer on the north\u2019s rare retro charm. There are signs of progress, if you want to call it that, already: a slick new marina halfway up the coast, and the road I\u2019m travelling on to the northeast, whose bumpy, windy predecessor took twice as long but would have looked much better in a J Crew advert.<\/p>\n

Grumpy mascots of the Panhandle (the rest of the island being the \u201cpan\u201d \u2013 it feels like one in high summer) are the donkeys that patrol its tip like renegade badasses, pun intended. Who knows where their ancestors escaped \u2013 or were merely let go \u2013\u00a0from but it\u2019s tempting to think it was the original olive mills where, blindfolded, they powered the huge stone wheels that crushed the oil from the fruit.<\/p>\n

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Now the feral donkeys block the road, using cuteness and simple immovability to extort bread or whatever\u2019s going, really, from tourist pilgrims to the stately monastery near the headland. With the blinding sun overhead, the silhouetted beast in front of you and a vague air of menace, you\u00a0feel transported to the setting of a spaghetti western, minus only one of those jangling musical scores.<\/p>\n

Head around Cape Apostolos Andreas to the east and you come across another possible sign of God, Golden Sands Beach \u2013 and when you look this splendid, who needs an imaginative name? Turtles come ashore here, too, at this long, lonely stretch of silk-soft powder fading into a sea that\u2019s a blotchy palette of gorgeous blue hues.<\/p>\n

Cruising south from Karpas, you can continue a circle of north Cyprus by stopping at the great walled city of Famagusta. Any history fan, or just anyone with a little imagination, should be in heaven here (or take your pick of afterlives from a succession of conquerors). Those \u2018bugger off\u2019 crusader walls instantly transport you back to a time of sword and armour and cruel and unusual punishments that make you glad you haven\u2019t really been transported back there.<\/p>\n

The fate of Famagusta\u2019s famed Venetian defender,\u00a0Bragadino<\/strong>, gives you a flavour of the times. Conned into surrendering by the Ottoman Turks after one of the greatest holdouts in military history, the commander had his nose and ears cut off before being flayed alive and his hide stuffed with straw; not satisfied, the victors paraded his corpse strung from a ship\u2019s prow all the way to Constantinople. Luckily it hasn\u2019t made it into the local tourism museum (although do see below).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s criminal that the conflict has stopped Famagusta, crammed with enough medieval relics to rival any other city and with a brace of beautiful beaches, from getting more attention. A strange sight adjoining the city equally repays a visit.<\/p>\n

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Crossing over to other other side of the island again, Kyrenia, the north\u2019s holiday hub, offers yet more time-travel pleasures. Parts of the vast restored castle in the seaside town \u2013 its main attraction \u2013 appear pleasingly quite untouched by the latest, sensitive developments in museum design. Garish naked mannequins with what could be barber\u2019s offcuts for chest hair represent torture victims in the dungeons. A naughty mistress of the king has been imagined down a pit, her impressive bosom meant to be either attention-grabbing or what got her into trouble in the first place.<\/p>\n

Kyrenia has its vintage pleasures \u2013\u00a0and most of the north\u2019s best restaurants \u2013 but it\u2019s not what\u2019s so precious about this part of the world. For more of that, and to complete your circuit of north Cyprus, drive for an hour or so onwards to Cape Kormakitis. You soon pass the ramshackle houses of sleepy villages and a Christian Maronite church. Beyond lies the opposite extremity to the Panhandle of this disputed region: no donkeys here (or turtles) but a few lonely old stone houses and a spindly, rusted metal lighthouse on whose base someone\u2019s graffitied in fading, elegant vintage script, \u201cThe End.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Northern flavours<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Traditional food in the north naturally has a more Turkish inflection than in the south, including the use of goat or lamb rather than pork.<\/p>\n

One tasty dish to look out for is\u00a0bulgur k\u00f6ftesi<\/em>, a crunchy bulgur wheat tube enclosing moist fried lamb and onions. You\u2019ll find a similar filling in\u00a0tatar b\u00f6regi<\/em>\u00a0but in soft, ravioli-like parcels with\u00a0hellim<\/em>\u00a0cheese on top.<\/p>\n

Delicious pumpkin-flower\u00a0dolma<\/em>\u00a0are packed with the usual rice and flavoured with tomatoes, lemon juice and mint \u2013 a vegetarian treat. Sweets include\u00a0sams\u0131<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 fried pastry parcels of crushed almonds and cinnamon, dipped in syrup.\u00a0Sucuk<\/em>\u00a0are almonds in layers of dried grape juice, with no extra sugar.<\/p>\n

Fish and seafood, served simply, are likely to be sparkling fresh on the Karpas Peninsula, in particular. Long-time North Cyprus expat Lois Ismael Cemal offers traditional food activities in Buyukkonuk village where Kemeralt\u0131 A\u015fevi restaurant serves some of the dishes above.<\/p>\n

(excerpted<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>from\u00a0North Cyprus: The Med\u2019s last unspoiled paradise?<\/strong> by\u00a0S<\/em>imon Busch<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Busch\u00a0explores one of the few places in the Mediterranean to remain fairly\u00a0untouched by rampant tourism\u2026 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyprus-in-world-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}