Varosha was once a beautiful seaside town that was bustling with tourists - including famous faces - but now, it has become an abandoned ghost town. The locals of the Cypriot town have remained furious with the conflict that turned the town into a frozen-in-time village, reports the Mirror.
The decades of issues left Varosha with crumbling buildings, and areas still cordoned off by militia - with local businesses now long forgotten. Travel restrictions have been imposed for years, easing just slightly in 2003 and again in 2020.
This was due to the Turkish army's invasion of the northern part of Cyprus, in response to an attempted coup. This coup was sponsored by the Greek junta in 1974.
The arrival of the army forced 180,000 Greek Cypriots to abandon Cyprus' northern third - which included 15,000 Varosha residents. These residents had to leave behind the majority of their possessions and properties.
Tens of thousands of Turkish nationals relocated on the invaded areas to create Northern Cyprus, which is a country only recognised by Ankara. Before all these issues, A-listers like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor vacationed often in Varosha.
Now, the town tops the charts of the dark tourism destinations, which is a specific section of tourism that involves travelling to places that are historically associated with tragedy and death.
Costantinides, 53, lives in the town. He said: "There’s tremendous anger about what has happened here. Turkey has committed a huge crime. Today, we’re living the same crime again.
"It’s as if they’re performing an autopsy and tourists are coming to witness it. It’s a shame, a shame for humanity."
Hubert Faustmann, a professor of history and international relations at the University of Nicosia, said: "Varosha was intended from the beginning as a bargaining chip.
"It was actually offered three times during the negotiations by the Turkish Cypriot side for various concessions, the most common is that they wanted the opening of the Famagusta port, but also of the Ercan airport for international traffic.
"The section found itself in the top tourist sites in terms of dark tourism, so they started to open up certain parts of Varosha, and it's now a tourist destination with guided tours, with e-bikes, vehicles and coffee shops.
"Varosha is being used as a tourist destination, as a tourist attraction, without a single inhabitant prior to 1974 returning. It's changed in the sense that it's open to the public, but it's not open for return."
For decades, this settlement has remained an abandoned ghost village, cordoned off by the military and frozen in time. Travel restrictions were eased somewhat in 2003, when former residents had been allowed to peer into the forgotten resort - but not to repossess their homes.
After partially reopening the town to tourism since then, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar also invited Greek Cypriots to return and reclaim their homes. However, the people had to live under the Northern Cyprus administration, rather than in a united Cyprus, as ruled by the UN.
Workers have been trying to tidy the area up ahead of tourists arriving by laying cement, roping off edifices sealed from public view and removing debris. Mobile canteens and tables have also been implemented to provide service to visitors.
However, these works would not be enough to allow a full-scale reopening of the town to residents as well as tourists, Professor Faustmann noted.
He said: "Do [Northern Cyprus] consider it as a dark tourism highlight that needs to be developed further? Or, given the reopening, do they allow the return and selling of the properties to investors, which is probably much more profitable?
"What we can see is that they opened up further areas, they prepare to open up further areas but they have not made any moves towards infrastructure in terms of sewage system and electricity, which would allow the return of Greek Cypriots."
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