Frozen in time, an airport rots as Cyprus logjam persists, 50 years on

By Yiannis Kourtoglou

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Once a bustling hub, Nicosia International Airport has stood deserted for the past 50 years, a still enduring symbol of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus half a century ago following a brief Greek-inspired coup.

Time has been standing still ever since at this air terminal - perched on a hill on the western outskirts of Cyprus' ethnically split capital, Nicosia - in a location once used by Britain's RAF during World War Two.

With a few letters missing here and there, its large airport sign is still legible, but the only sign of life these days are the coos of pigeons roosting in its rotting ceiling or the howling wind blowing through its shattered windows.

Built in 1968, this airport was the theatre of some of the fiercest battles between Greek Cypriot troops and an invading Turkish army in 1974, prompting the United Nations to take control of the area in a ceasefire.

July 20 marks 50 years since Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a brief coup orchestrated by the military then ruling Greece. Greek Cypriots live in Cyprus' south, and Turkish Cypriots in its north, separated by a U.N. controlled ceasefire line cleaving the island east to west. Reunification talks have failed to yield any result.

After 1974 Greek Cypriots quickly created an air hub in the southern coastal town of Larnaca, about 50 km (31 miles) away. It has remained the primary international airport until today.

Nicosia airport, a so-called United Nations protected area that falls within a U.N. buffer zone, is also off bounds for safety reasons and the air terminal has been bolted shut for decades.

A reception hall is a time capsule of trends of the era; peeling adboards advertise shoes and holidays promising to take travellers to "the ends of the earth". Upstairs, a departure lounge lies empty, with rows of seats that look like they were taken out of an early sci-fi movie set coated in dust, and pigeon droppings.

"It is actually frozen in time ... Although there were several attempts over the years by the sides to reach an agreement, to see the airport being re-opened, restored, rehabilitated, the sides were unable to reach an agreement so gradually the condition of the airport had deteriorated," said Aleem Siddique, spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus, UNFICYP.

"No planes have left or arrived since 1974," he said.

The shell of a solitary Trident passenger jet sits on the apron of the runway riddled with bullet holes, a testament to past violence.

(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Sandra Maler)