Moutallos Revisited

According to data provided by the PRIO Research Centre on the internal displacement of Cypriots following the 1974 partition of the island 31% of the population of Paphos belonged to the Turkish Cypriot community in 1960. Just like in most other areas of Cyprus the Greek, Turkish and Maronite communities of Paphos did not live in segregated areas, but were much rather each other's neighbours and shared their daily lives. However, the old centre of Paphos, 'Moutallos', located around the mosque was traditionally home to a majority of Turkish Cypriots and became resettled by Greek Cypriot refugees from the north following the partition. Nonetheless, the formerly bustling centre of commerce saw a decrease in activity as the seaside area of Kato Paphos rose in importance. In the cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic past of Cyprus its residents did not seem to be divided along the lines of their languages and their ethnicities but much rather seemed to enrich each other - the numerous Turkish loanwords in the Greek Cypriot dialect and the baklava in the bakeries of Paphos bear witness for the peaceful past until today.

43 years later I stand at the brink of Moutallos - in front of a huge hole in the ground. The derelict asphalt streets of the old town are being exchanged with polished stones as the whole area is being pedestrianised. In spite of the efforts of the local government to prepare the area on time for the ECC program, the street remains a battlefield which ironically dissects the city at the same place where the border between the Turkish Cypriot area and the Greek Cypriot area used to be.

The mosque has been closed to the public for decades and is only in use once a year when it is visited by a Mufti from Northern Cyprus. The Peace2Peace initiative, which is part of the program of the ECC '17, aims at re-integrating the almost forgotten Moutallos in Paphos' public imagination by adding crochets to the fence that wards off the mosque which is currently being renovated. Symbols such as the Cypriot dove or olive tree twigs seem to reclaim the Turkish part of Cypriot's architectural history and testify the wish of parts of the society of Paphos to return to the multi-ethnic national narrative of the past.

Right next to the mosque a local restaurant owner is having dinner with his girlfriend and another close friend after a long day of work. As I ask them whether it is possible to visit the inside of the neighbouring mosque Antonios invites me for dinner. In the following conversation I find out that he himself has been brought to Paphos from the North during the ethnic cleansing of the 70's. According to him the costly renovation of the mosque is illogical: 'Before it became a mosque, it was a church. And now they are trying to bring back a place of worship for people who have been chased away almost 50 years ago?'. As the conversation continues I find out that Antonio's girlfriend is from Slovakia, but has been living on Cyprus for 10 years, and is therefore part of the third of the population of Paphos that has its roots in other parts of Europe. Possibly the contemporary cosmopolitan narrative of Cyprus does not only include Greeks and Turks with their troubled past, but also includes people from all over Europe and the surrounding Middle East.