A man walks along one of the eight border crossings dividing Cyprus. /Matthieu Clavel/CFP
The Presidency of Cyprus announced on Friday a list of measures intended at supporting and extending citizenship benefits to more Turkish Cypriots, left estranged by physical partition and political situation dividing the Island nation.
The list of 14 measures includes expediting the examination of citizenship applications, broadening access for Turkish Cypriots to a range of state services, and easing bottlenecks at crossing points between the two sides of the island.
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"We remain committed in our efforts to create the conditions for the resumption of the negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem based on the United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and the principles and the European Union acquis," Cyprus's presidency said in a statement.
The statement comes just days before a visit from United Nations Special Envoy Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, who will assess prospects for the resumption of long-stalled five-decade running peace talks.
Once Cyprus's most visited cities, Famagusta ,is now a ghost town in the Turkish militarized zone. /CFP
An Island divided
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish military offensive claimed and occupied 37 percent of the Island following a short lived Greek Cypriot coup aimed at unifying the island nation with mainland Greece.
The conflict saw thousands of Cypriots and hundreds of Turks lose their lives, while a combined 2,000 people from both are still reported missing and unaccounted for from the month long conflict.
The old Nicosia Airport, left abandoned with the demilitarized zone. /CFP
Today the Island remains divided with a demilitarized border 50 years after Turkish paratroopers made landfall on the island. Greek Cypriots - whose government is internationally recognized as representing the entire island - live in the south, and Turkish Cypriots in an unrecognised breakaway state in the north recognized by only Türkiye.
Cyprus was split in two following a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military which was then ruling Greece. Attempts to reunite the island have repeatedly failed.
Trapped in time
Most Cypriots live in the north or south of the island, based on their ethnicity, since the passing of the August 2, 1975 Voluntary Exchange of Populations Agreement which saw the governments of Cyprus and at Türkiye swap populations according to their ancestral background.
Cities such as Famagusta, once the Island's main touristic attraction, and other residential areas along the demilitarized still remain abandoned today as a result of this population exchange.
Cyprus has been a European Union member state since 2004, recognized as a nation in its entirety, meaning the residents in the northern defacto-state are also entitled to citizenship rights and union benefits. But with the physical partition separating the two halves of the island, passing on and enforcing these entitlements has proven a challenge.
A Trident of Cyprus Airways passenger plane left abandoned by the Turkish invasion in 1974. /CFP
The new measures offered on Friday look to provide some headway into addressing the inequalities seen across the island as a result of its partition and military occupation.
Though both halves of the island are members of the European Union, the north is administered by its own government, and has been home to over 40,000 active duty Turkish soldiers since its occupation. This division has seen many disparities emerge across the island including in the standard of living across both halves. Residents of the island’s south earn on average double that of their northern compatriots in the Turkish administered zone.
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