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"This is the Attila Line," said the guide and pointed out some green-painted pipes on one side, and bags of the same color stacked on the other. We were on the roof of a building in the center of Nicosia and it was the stretch of the city division that we could see from there. “Nicosia is the last divided city in the world,” explained the guide as we walked through its streets and suddenly we came across a wall that had the map of the country drawn next to the phrase: I DON'T FORGET AND CONTINUE FIGHTING. At one end of that wall was a staircase that invited you up to look to the side occupied by the Turks since 1974. When I looked out there I saw those stores as frozen in time, with the showcases full of dust, a shoe store that had some shoes displayed on top of their boxes and others placed on the floor caught my attention, it seemed as if someone was going to try them and suddenly ran away leaving them there. I arrived in Cyprus almost without realizing it, by accepting an invitation made by Greek embassies to journalists of Greek origin residing in other countries with the aim of making known advances in Greece in various areas and also the situation of this island. Like Greece, Cyprus was under the command of the Ottomans for more than 300 years and then under British rule. Before the conflict with Turkey more than 70% of its inhabitants were of Greek origin and the rest of Turkish, Armenian and Maronite origin. In 1960 they became independent from the British and in 1963 the conflict between Greeks and Turks broke out, the UN peacekeeping forces having to intervene to restore order. The struggle of the Greek Cypriots to annex to Greece continued. The climax of the conflict was in July 1974 when the National Guard overthrew President Makarios (leader of the Greek community) and the Turkish Cypriots requested the intervention of the United Kingdom and Turkey to avoid union with Greece. The British refused to intervene, then Turkish troops invaded the island, keeping control of 37% of the northern territory (3354 km2). Approximately 142,000 Greek Cypriots, 25% of the population of the island were expelled from there and another 1500 remain missing. The inhabitants of Turkish origin were also forced to move to the other side. A colleague from the group told us visibly moved that her family was part of the Greco-Cypriot diaspora in Australia and that they lost their property located in the occupied part of the island. Despite the stagnation of the conflict, they did not lose hope and were in a legal battle to someday recover the lost or be compensated. "Please everyone on the bus, now we will go to Famagusta," the guide informed us in a hurry. The beauty of this island makes forget at times its problem, but appears intermittently, it's like an island inside another. Upon arriving at Famagusta we were taken to a tourist hostel from where we could see a ghost holiday town with binoculars. In that area 85% of the tourist facilities of Cyprus were concentrated, which after the Turkish occupation were abandoned and hit the economy strongly. Hotels, houses, restaurants, umbrellas and sun loungers could be seen on the beach in the distance. Beautiful, serenely blue and lonely ... like a stage with everything ready waiting for the actors. I was about to graduate in journalism in those days and I was struck by the history of Cyprus, so having been there just at that time was like a great revelation: I was interested in writing about travel and experiences.