armychef
Member
I was on a UN tour in Cyprus two years ago and even though I'm a chef in the Army, I asked to go on a few foot patrols along the Green Line (officially described as 'The Demilitarised Zone') through the very middle of Nicosia. There is an underground garage / car park facility along the route of the patrol which has been out of bounds and therefore out of the reach of destructive thieves and robbers, kept under lock and key. In that garage there are dozens of derelict cars which have been been trapped there since the Turkish invasion of the north of the island in 1974.
The basic story of how the cars came to be there is briefly as follows. All the cars were stored in or near the docks of Ayia Napa, I believe, and when the Turks were advancing lightening fast around the Famagusta area, the owner of the vehicles diced to move them somewhere 'safer'. He got them moved to this underground storage facility right in the centr of Nicosia, thinking the Turks would never advance so far. Eventually the Turks did manage to advance that far and took over half of the city and when the dust finally settled and a 'peace line' had been drawn and UN peace keepers installed, all these dozens of cars were discovered ensconced in this underground garage.
All modern cars of their time, quite a few have sadly been damaged and ransacked, allegedly by some Canadian soldiers not long before they left the island and handed over the sector to the British. One or two of the cars have actually been worked on and made to work! A few are stored within what became a Canadian / British troop house.
In that troop house, it's former occupants put together a little museum of 60s and 70s artifacts including TVs, parafinn cookers, maps and loads of other everyday items. It really is a gem.
The Cypriot public have been denied access to this and hundreds of other areas and there are miles of proprties lying completely abandoned on each side of the track which is the DMZ.
Please forgive me if these pics are not relevant in any way, it's the first time I've posted pics on here.
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
<< I've seen that I should or could add a title to the pics for ease of description. I'll do this in the future. >>
The basic story of how the cars came to be there is briefly as follows. All the cars were stored in or near the docks of Ayia Napa, I believe, and when the Turks were advancing lightening fast around the Famagusta area, the owner of the vehicles diced to move them somewhere 'safer'. He got them moved to this underground storage facility right in the centr of Nicosia, thinking the Turks would never advance so far. Eventually the Turks did manage to advance that far and took over half of the city and when the dust finally settled and a 'peace line' had been drawn and UN peace keepers installed, all these dozens of cars were discovered ensconced in this underground garage.
All modern cars of their time, quite a few have sadly been damaged and ransacked, allegedly by some Canadian soldiers not long before they left the island and handed over the sector to the British. One or two of the cars have actually been worked on and made to work! A few are stored within what became a Canadian / British troop house.
In that troop house, it's former occupants put together a little museum of 60s and 70s artifacts including TVs, parafinn cookers, maps and loads of other everyday items. It really is a gem.
The Cypriot public have been denied access to this and hundreds of other areas and there are miles of proprties lying completely abandoned on each side of the track which is the DMZ.
Please forgive me if these pics are not relevant in any way, it's the first time I've posted pics on here.
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
Untitled by armychef, on Flickr
<< I've seen that I should or could add a title to the pics for ease of description. I'll do this in the future. >>
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