Bicommunal group denounces partial opening of Varosha

An informal bicommunal group, ‘Imaginary Famagusta’, on Friday denounced the opening of part of the fenced area of Varosha as a violation of UN resolutions and of European Court of Human Rights decisions on property rights of Greek Cypriots by Turkey which reduces chances for an agreement for a federal Cyprus.

Members of the informal group of architects, planners, academics are Socrates Stratis, Emre Akbil, Esra Can, Munevver Ozgur Ozersay, Chrysanthe Constantinou and Lara Anna Scharf.

Since 2012, IF, together with AA&U for Architecture Art and Urbanism, (www.aaplusu.com ) and LUCY (Laboratory for Urbanism University of Cyprus), the group has been working on the “Hands-on Famagusta” project which supports Famagusta’s inclusive urban reconstruction within a federal Cyprus. (www.handsonfamagusta.org).

The group’s latest on-going initiative, is titled the “F.U.T-U.Re Famagusta” platform, an acronym for Federal Urbanism Team for Unified Reconstruction of Famagusta. It advocates the constitution of a joint technical committee between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots under the auspices of the United Nations, that will discuss the common concerns regarding the urban future of Famagusta in its entirety and its role in Federal Cyprus. Famagusta cannot be reduced just to Varosha, it said.

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