"A forlorn gateway to the world for northern Cyprus
By Simon Bahceli
ONE CAN be forgiven for believing that Famagusta port is derelict and deserted, having been closed down in the wake of the 1974 Turkish invasion. After all, it was only last May that President Tassos Papadopoulos declared, and not for the first time, that the port was “illegal” and therefore “no goods can be imported through it”.
It would be just as disingenuous to say the eastern port – which was once the prime gateway to the island – is booming; but it is a futile denial of fact to say that it is not working at all.
According to the north’s ‘economy ministry’, the amount of trade going through Famagusta (the north’s only industrial port) is on the rise, and not from so small a base as Papadopoulos would have us believe. In 2004, around $800 million worth of imports came through the port, a figure higher than any previous year. And 2005 has also broken all previous records with $654.5 million dollars worth coming through in the first seven months of the year alone. "
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