At Nicosia airport, for 50 years, passengers preparing to depart, trolleys creaking as they carry their bags, announcements from loudspeakers about departures and arrivals, the joy of children going to eat ice cream in the cafeteria and to watch the movement of planes on the balcony with their parents.
You don't see smiles for returning passengers, or sadness for those departing. What you hear is the strong wind coming through the broken windows of the building and the roof, the relentless thud of the falling pieces of false ceiling. What you see is broken glass on the floor, the excrement of permanent residents such as pigeons, a vandalized space, a building that is a hotbed of contamination as well as criminal activity.
KYPE had written an article 14 years ago about the situation of Nicosia airport. The history of the airport has been written many times. However, the airport is of great interest, both to those who visited it in its heyday and to those who know about a building that was once an ornament and has now become an image from an apocalypse movie.
The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) Spokesperson Alim Siddique, Captain Philip Brazer and Corporal Dave Mannery gave the UNFICYP a unique tour of the airport as UNFICYP marks 60 years of its presence in Cyprus.
Peacemakers point out that the building's features, although modern at the time, are now at odds with today's reality due to the upgrading of security around the world.
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The cables have been stripped, the false ceiling has recede or fall. Only the structure of duty free, passport, health security and other kiosks remains. A sticker with the name of the Kodak company recalls the days when digital photography was unknown.
The grand staircase leading to the first floor restaurant which was open to the public to view the aircraft is closed as it is a high security risk. Part of it has collapsed from the rain coming from the roof. The interior walls are covered in mold. The pigeons have found refuge in the huge signs of companies such as BATA Intercontinental Holidays and Seiko, testimonies of another era that adorn the departure hall as much as possible. Vegetation is now evident inside the building behind the balcony, showing that even in the worst conditions, hope grows.
The facilities of an airport that had the ability to it accommodates 11 aircraft at a time, with a runway 2.7 kilometers long, considered long for its time, now in ruins.
As we walk through the broken glass and pigeon droppings, we are told that we cannot go out onto the balcony as the letters depicting the name of Nicosia Airport have mostly collapsed and are a safety hazard. We are taken to the roof through the kitchen of the first floor restaurant.
To mark its 60th anniversary, UNFICYP has established paths along the airport, which have been open for guided tours for diplomats. Images showing the airport in its prime, landmark dates such as the inauguration by the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, and even images from the days before the Turkish invasion, when foreign nationals were leaving Cyprus.
The view from the roof is unique. The capital can be seen in the distance, the Pentadaktilo mountain range below. Nicosia has seen great growth in the last 50 years and has a population of 256 thousand. Houses and apartment buildings have been erected on the outskirts of the UN-protected area, where the airport is located. It is doubtful whether an airport can reopen so close to residential areas. Corporal Mannery holds a photo of UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim visiting Nicosia Airport, looking over Nicosia where the destroyed Cyprus Airways plane is located.
From the roof you can see the first building that was the airfield and was erected by the RAF after the Second World War.
One of 3 Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E airplanes of Cyprus Airways, purchased by KA in June 1972 from BEA, (British European Airlines) and took no. registration 5B-DAC and shot down by Turkish bombing in 1974, was salvaged after extensive work by British Airways engineers and flown back to the UK in 1977. Today it is at Daxford Aviation Society, having been fully restored and repainted as a VEA aircraft and got its original UK registration.
Another Trident Sun Jet that remains in a corner as parked by its pilot in 1974 has been literally stripped bare by desolation and vandalism and was destroyed during heavy bombing by the Turkish Air Force on July 20, 1974, during the Turkish invasion. The pieces of yet another Trident remain on the airport site. Characteristically, a higher ceiling was added to the aircraft maintenance hangar at Nicosia airport to accommodate the Tridents.
From the roof we descended to the departures hall, a trademark of Nicosia airport where the impressive modern seats were located. Some broken and torn, others removed by vandals, the whole place has been turned into a paddock of excrement, the predominant element.
Since May 2014, Larnaca International Airport has been adorned with the historical work of art “Birth and Rebirth” which adorned Nicosia International Airport in the passenger hall until the Turkish invasion of 1974. The mosaic presents the history of Cyprus from antiquity to independence and it was designed by Valentinos Charalambous in 1967, following a relevant commission given to the artist by the newly established Republic of Cyprus at the time, and was the trademark of the Nicosia International Airport. Today, the same work of art is now the trademark of Larnaca International Airport.
Official positions
The KYPE tried to find out if there is any hope for the Nicosia airport site to undergo repairs or be put to good use.
UNFICYP representative Alim Siddique told KYPE that the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus “is mandated to maintain the status quo throughout the dead zone, including the old Nicosia airport”.
Despite several attempts, he said, “the sides were never able to reach an agreement to reopen the airport.”
UNFICYP, he said, “continues to patrol the airport and carry out occasional restoration work to ensure the safety of UN patrols in and around the buildings”.
Regarding the situation of the Nicosia airport, Deputy Government Spokesman Yannis Antoniou told KYPE that the issue of the maintenance of its facilities, as well as other buildings or infrastructure located in areas where control is exercised by the UN peacekeeping force, is regulated between the peacekeeping force and the Republic of Cyprus, based on the relevant convention.
“The peacekeeping force carries out maintenance work, or where deemed necessary, or where provided for by the relevant contract, the Republic of Cyprus undertakes,” he added.
The reopening of Nicosia Airport it was last raised at the level of negotiations between the two sides during the administration of Giorgos Vassiliou and at the beginning of the administration of Glaukos Clerides (in the period 1992-1993), without conclusion, in the context of the discussion of Confidence Building Measures. It has never been discussed since.
Historical Review
As the “Great Cypriot Encyclopedia” states, an airport operated for the first time in Cyprus in 1936 in Larnaca. It was a rudimentary structure used primarily by Misr Airwork, which scheduled weekly flights to and from Cairo with small four-engine De Havilland DH-86 airplanes. It was the first time that with these flights Cyprus had been connected by air with the outside world. The routes of the Egyptian airline were moved from Larnaca to the capital Nicosia where the area near the village of Gerolakkos, 8 kilometers west of the capital, was used as a landing site. The same site was used by the British Royal Air Force during World War II and the colonial government built the Nicosia International Airport there.
The first purpose-built terminal was built in 1949 and now houses the UN Goodwill Mission. According to the UNFICYP website, the airport began operating as a Royal Air Force Station in Nicosia and saw heavy use during World War II. It opened as a commercial airport two years after the end of the war, in 1947, but the area around the airport itself remained the site for the Air Station. After the independence of Cyprus in 1960, the airport and the surrounding area were transferred to the Cypriot Government.
Nicosia International Airport is located west of Nicosia. The airport was the main airport of Cyprus from the period of its construction in 1968 until 1974.
With the independence of Cyprus, the airport came under the Republic of Cyprus. A German house undertook the design of the airport and the Cypriot company Cybarco the construction and the airport was inaugurated in March 1968 by the then President of the Republic, Archbishop Makarios III.
Modern building facilities were erected, the runway was lengthened, the aircraft parking area was enlarged and several auxiliary buildings were erected, which served the handling of goods. The main runway is 2,958 meters long and 45 meters wide, while the auxiliary runway is 1,825 meters long and 45 meters wide. In 1973, at Nicosia airport there were 14,717 landings and take-offs of aircraft on regular, emergency and charter flights while 785,564 passengers were handled.
After the coup of July 15, 1974, commercial flights arrived at Nicosia airport to evacuate foreign nationals. Five days later the Turkish invasion began.
On July 20, 1974, two empty Cyprus Airways aircraft were destroyed during heavy bombing by the Turkish Air Force as part of the illegal Turkish invasion. On July 22, 1974, 20 Greek Noratlas transports and 10 C-47 Dakotas, belonging to the 354th Transport Squadron ''Pegasus', were tasked with transporting Greek commandos for the defense of Nicosia Airport from the invading forces. This company had the code name ''NIKI''. The Helladic commandos who carried Noratlas took up defensive positions around the Nicosia airport and in the following days fought heroically against the invaders. Thanks to their self-sacrifice, the invading forces failed to capture Nicosia International Airport”.
During the fighting in the airport area, the then peacekeeping commander, General Prem Chand of India, ordered UNFICYP to seize the airport, declaring it a United Nations Protected Area (UNPA). The United Nations in New York gave the green light and, with the agreement of local military commanders on both sides, UNFICYP troops (from Canada, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) occupied airport on the condition that the UNPA would include the entire airport complex, including RAF Nicosia facilities and UN camps, and that no side would come within 500 meters of that perimeter.
When the cease-fire lines were decided on August 16, 1974, the area declared as protected by the UN was included in the dead zone. Under UNFICYP's mandate to maintain the status quo, the airport has remained a protected area since 1974.
Only three flights have taken place since then. The two concerned take-offs of two KA aircraft that had been stranded there and their departure was later arranged (1976 and 1977). The third was the departure of the then UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, who after his visit to Cyprus had given a press conference and then left on the UN aircraft.
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