Activists discovered hundreds of pages of history, valuable documents, flight plans, and archives.
Activists from both sides of divided Cyprus are pushing for the establishment of a museum at the site of the abandoned Nicosia International Airport, which has been closed since 1974.
For over half a century, there has been absolute silence here: Nicosia International Airport on divided Cyprus has been abandoned since the Turkish invasion of the island on July 15, 1974. The last plane landed here early in the morning on July 20; it was a Cyprus Airways flight operating the London-Rome-Nicosia route. Since then, the air harbor has become a ghost.
However, activist and former Cyprus Airways employee Alexis Sofokleous does not lose hope of breathing new life into this place. His vision is for the airport to become a museum and a meeting place for representatives of the Turkish and Greek communities of Cyprus. Together with like-minded individuals from both parts of the island, in 2023, Sofokleous was able to enter the airport with the permission of the UN - the first time in half a century. Activists discovered hundreds of pages of history, valuable documents, flight plans, and archives of Cyprus Airways.
With the support of embassies, NGOs, and cultural associations, Sofokleous is preparing a request to the UN to open a permanent exhibition in Nicosia. Specifically, the museum could be housed in an abandoned aircraft - the only one that still bears the logo of the carrier Cyprus Airways, founded in 1947 as a subsidiary of British European Airways.
The goal of the new museum is to connect the past with the future. The initiative group hopes that it will become a tangible symbol of peace and solidarity. The plan is for access to the museum to be open to residents and guests from both parts of the island.
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