Cyprus Green Line Today
The Green Line takes its name from a green chinagraph pencil used by British Major General Peter Young on December 30, 1963. He drew a ceasefire line on a map of Nicosia during a twelve-hour meeting following intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. That pencil mark became the basis for one of Europe's most visible political divisions. Today the Green Line stretches 180 kilometers from Kato Pyrgos in the west to Paralimni in the east, cutting across the entire island. It varies from just 3.3 meters wide in central Nicosia to 7.4 kilometers wide in rural areas. The buffer zone covers 346 square kilometers, roughly 3.7 percent of Cyprus's total land area. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989,…
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