Thirty years after the Berlin Wall, Cyprus' division endures

As the world commemorates 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bullet-riddled sandstone walls of abandoned, crumbling homes and concrete machine gun nests dotting Cyprus' no man's land serve as a jarring reminder of another divided capital — the world's last — on Europe's southeastern frontier.

The United Nations-controlled buffer zone that slices across the bustling, medieval center of Nicosia is the most visible scar of this Mediterranean island nation's 45-year ethnic division, brought about in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece.

Reminiscent of Cold War tensions, Greek Cypriot conscripts still man guard posts on the internationally recognized southern side, opposite Turkish and Turkish Cypriot soldiers looking out from their positions on the island's northern breakaway part.

Although Cyprus...