Cyprus fieldwork: fieldwork sites; borderline writings

Cyprus fieldwork notes extracts

Contemplating fieldwork sites and (later) recording writings on the borderline, at 1.20am on the 20th of January 2006, I wrote that,

I think I shall stay in Lefkosia/Nikosia for four months (until about the 3rd of May), then spend a month each in two large towns - maybe Larnaka and Pafos - and another in a small, rural area - ideally one of the historic, listed buildings in the foothills of the Troodos mountains.

Obviously, a visit to or stay in the villages in the Dead Zone [or Green Line], like Pyla, would be wonderful, but I don't know how to do it or where it's easiest from; maybe, if I couldn't find another town apart from Larnaka, I could take the 'spare' month and use it there, if I were able to stay.

I could take a month out of my four in northern Cyprus, but I'm already going to stay in southern Cyprus for three more months because of the Greek language learning (whilst nine months of Turkish language learning will take place in Turkey).

At 1.05pm, I saw "'Sergi 11/6/89', '4KPPsy' and 'PAT85B'" graffitied inside a dilapidated building within the Green Line, which I believe are soldiers' tags of one form or another.

At 2.20pm, I jotted down the notice in one dead-end street abutting the Dead Zone:

Restricted Area
Keep Away! No photographs allowed.

At 2.25pm, I scribbled down the text of another sign on the borderline of the Dead Zone, this time, "a notice on a gate laced with barbed wire":

Alt
Pros
Tourkokratoumeni Periochi,

which, I believe, translates semantically as:

Halt.
From here forwards,
Turkish-occupied Area.

At 3pm, I saw "born to lose" on a wall; at 3.25pm, "ohi", "no" to the UN's Annan Plan for reunification and reconciliation and "prodotes politiko", which translates as some permutation of "traitorous politicians", "political traitors" or such like, accompanied by crosshairs; and, at 3.45pm, "'F.M. 14/5/[1]993', 'Nikos 15/5/93'".