‘Terrible day’: anger as pictures show Varosha beach in Cyprus opening after 46 years

Greek Cypriots who fled area when troops invaded in 1976 among those embittered by Turkish move

For the first time in 46 years the public have been permitted to access the beach of Varosha in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of Cyprus, in a contentious move unveiled by its internationally unrecognised premier who is running in an election on Sunday.

Hundreds filed through a gate manned by Turkish Cypriot police on Thursday to walk on a freshly paved asphalt road leading to the beach that was the jewel of what was once a premier tourist resort in Famagusta. The road was flanked by police tape to keep pedestrians out of windowless homes and rusting business, some swallowed up by decades-old undergrowth.

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