Resisting dark tourism: Northern Cyprus’s ‘ghost city’ of Varosha

The specter of new global conflicts has brought up old questions about dark tourism: is it ever appropriate to visit recent ruins? Can ruins, and places where violence has occurred, teach lessons about peace and cooperation? Or is it merely war voyeurism? This piece considers the ruins of Varosha (a beachfront district of Famagusta, or Gazimağusa, in Turkish) a once thriving tourism hub which has been walled off from visitors since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. The invasion, and the creation of the largely-unrecognized state of Northern Cyprus, was preceded by years of interethnic tension between Turkish- and Greek-Cypriot communities. Recently, the government has reopened the destroyed city, forcing peace activists and urbanists to consider what role these ruins play in conflict resolution and in claims for space.