The International Airport That Can Only Send Flights to Turkey

0:00 So, back in the 1900s,

0:01 Imperial Britain hastily withdrew from this area and made a series

0:04 of decisions that contributed to long-term

0:06 instability that persists to this day.

0:08 Actually, wait, sorry.

0:10 They did do that here, but I'm not talking about this one.

0:12 Okay, try again.

0:13 Back in the 1900s, Imperial Britain hastily withdrew from this area

0:16 and made a series of decisions that contributed to You know what?

0:19 This still isn't the right one.

0:20 It's so hard to keep track.

0:22 I I think it's just a little more west.

0:24 All right.

0:25 So, back in the 1900s, Impe- No, sorry, forgot about that one.

0:28 One more.

0:29 There we go.

0:30 Okay.

0:30 So, back in the 1900s,

0:32 Imperial Britain hastily withdrew from Cyprus and made a series

0:35 of decisions that contributed to long-term

0:37 instability that persists to this day.

0:39 Most political instability is not neat, but there's a very small portion

0:42 of the political instability in Cyprus that is neat.

0:45 And hear me out here.

0:46 That's because it created this airport, and this airport is illegal.

0:50 H I says you're allowed to do

0:51 political instability if it causes cool aviation logistics.

0:54 This is Northern Cyprus's Ercan International Airport.

0:58 If you peek at its destinations, you can tell it's got a tantalizing

1:01 set of international destinations including Turkey,

1:03 Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey,

1:06 Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, and even Turkey.

1:09 It's located here, just north of one

1:10 of those borders that's so messed up that it's not

1:12 actually technically accurate to even call it a border

1:15 because nobody really ever agreed it was a border.

1:17 This is just where two different groups

1:18 of people who really wanted Cyprus stopped fighting,

1:20 and it's actually the closest equivalent in the world

1:22 to the much more iconic Korean DMZ.

1:24 The Cyprus one is also run by the UN.

1:26 It's also a non-military zone flanked on two sides by much military,

1:30 and it's also supposed to be temporary, but as of yet, isn't.

1:33 It's also low-key a bummer because there's a bunch

1:35 of stuff and things in it that people used to use,

1:38 like houses and farms and this beach town,

1:40 but also an entirely unrelated airport that's kind

1:42 of cool because everyone left it in like one day,

1:44 and it still looks exactly like it did on that one day because the UN said,

1:47 "No, you're not allowed to go there." So,

1:49 anyways, border's [music] kind of cooked.

1:51 Also, Britain's still down there for some reason.

1:52 Shenanigans were clearly had here.

1:54 Those shenanigans got started really,

1:56 really early cuz Cyprus spent time under control

1:58 by the Greeks and the Persians and the Romans,

2:00 all the big guys, but eventually ended up controlled by the Ottomans.

2:03 It was near Constantinople, quick flight, nice beaches.

2:06 But then Constantinople Constantinople'd out of there as part

2:09 of a secret agreement with Britain where Britain got control

2:11 of Cyprus in exchange for backing the Ottomans at the big

2:13 Europe-wide beef squashing meeting they were about to go to.

2:16 Britain said, "Neat." And now they had another island where boats could go.

2:20 But then Britain was done with Cyprus and was like,

2:22 "You're a country now." But then everyone on it was like, "What?

2:24 Huh?

2:25 Whose country is it?" You see, there were the Greeks who were like the OGs,

2:28 and there were the Turks who moved in with them more recent empire.

2:31 Even with hundreds of years of shared history,

2:33 Greek and Turkish Cypriots lived mostly

2:35 separate from each other with distinct towns, schools, and churches.

2:38 Basically, there was little homogenization.

2:40 The Turks were really not keen on becoming part of Greece,

2:43 while the Greeks were really keen on becoming part of Greece,

2:45 and this dichotomy escalated and snowballed into outright violence.

2:49 This went off and on for year after

2:50 year as the one central government barely functioned,

2:53 and then some people who really wanted union with Greece did [music] a coup.

2:56 In response, Turkey, the country, invaded from the north under

2:59 the justification of protecting the constitutional rights

3:01 of Turkish Cypriots and basically took control of a portion of the island.

3:04 After a bunch of spicy diplomacy, they made that DMZ and sorted the two

3:07 populations into the two sides like an eighth-grade dance.

3:10 Against one wall, the Republic of Cyprus.

3:12 Against the other, North Cyprus.

3:14 And much like an eighth-grade dance,

3:16 you were forbidden from crossing to the other side and dancing with them,

3:18 even if your crush was over there.

3:20 But instead of being divided by a vast auditorium, Cyprus has a DMZ,

3:24 and people on the northern side of it really

3:26 do say they're a completely different country from the south.

3:28 The only guy who agrees with them is Big Daddy Turkey,

3:30 meaning this is a de facto state that entirely acts like a country,

3:33 but isn't recognized by anyone except Turkey.

3:36 Now, we're back to the airport.

3:38 Because literally no one but Turkey thinks Northern Cyprus is its own country,

3:41 every other country in the world is technically not allowed to fly there.

3:44 Like, it's not even their choice.

3:46 By international law, they're actually not allowed to fly there.

3:50 This is the international law.

3:51 It's called the Chicago Convention, and it's one of the couple

3:54 that countries actually occasionally follow sometimes.

3:57 In one bit, it says every state has complete

3:59 and exclusive control over the airspace above its territory.

4:01 And basically, in the international law sense, that means they get to say which

4:05 international airports within their borders are legit.

4:08 Obviously, someone's got to be in charge

4:09 of saying which airports are international

4:11 ports of entry because they got to manage their ports of entry and stuff.

4:13 But if all the other countries don't consider one country a country,

4:16 that non-country doesn't get to decide what's an international airport

4:19 or not in the bit of land they claim is their country.

4:21 It's like how under the Chicago Convention,

4:23 if I declare this chunk of Colorado Samlandia,

4:26 I still can't build an airport and send flights

4:27 to Cancun without the permission of Big Papa USA.

4:30 That would be a violation of international law,

4:32 and then someone in Montreal would be mad at me, which I'm so scared.

4:35 What if they throw a weird sweet bagel at me?

4:36 Oh mon Dieu!

4:38 That's basically the situation with Ercan International Airport.

4:41 But the good news is,

4:42 not many other places really want to fly to Northern Cyprus anyway.

4:45 Really only the British have tried because the British really

4:47 love to go be really loud at hot beaches around Europe,

4:49 especially if it's a beach that used to be British,

4:51 like Gibraltar or Malta or Cyprus.

4:54 So, that's why, in practice,

4:55 the only country served by this illegal international airport is Turkey,

4:59 the ethnic homeland of the majority of Northern Cyprus residents.

5:02 But even though this airport is illegal,

5:04 it is undoubtedly an international airport.

5:06 Nobody considers Northern Cyprus part of Turkey,

5:08 and that creates its own whole mess.

5:11 You see, there are a number of crossings between the two halves of the island,

5:13 meaning someone could fly into Ercan International Airport in Northern Cyprus

5:16 and then attempt to enter the Republic of Cyprus by land.

5:19 But from Cyprus's perspective, that person would have violated immigration law

5:23 because they entered the country of Cyprus,

5:24 specifically occupied territory of the country of Cyprus,

5:27 without having gone through a Cyprus immigration checkpoint.

5:31 It's like if someone just parachuted onto the island.

5:33 Not allowed.

5:34 And the DMZ crossing doesn't count either since,

5:36 again, according to them, it's all one country.

5:39 In practice, authorities generally let tourists through without trouble,

5:42 but residents sometimes get a talking-to,

5:44 and it causes issues for anyone who then

5:46 tries to exit Cyprus from one of the legal

5:48 airports as exit immigration authorities will see that there's

5:50 no valid record of entry into the country.

5:52 Does any of this matter in practice?

5:54 Not really.

5:55 Is it neat?

5:55 Kind of.

5:56 Is this video over?

5:57 As long as you're on Nebula.

5:59 But here on YouTube, you have to decide between the agony of shifting

6:02 your sitting position to X out of this video,

6:04 or the agony of listening to me beg

6:06 you to subscribe to Nebula for the 300th time.

6:08 Why should you?

6:09 Uh, content?

6:12 Good content.

6:13 Like, Abolish Everything.

6:14 Basically, we tell comedians to come armed with a PowerPoint

6:17 and a passion for abolishing some societal ill,

6:18 like going to Antarctica, your friends' other friends, or the number five.

6:22 Then a panel of improvisers in suits tells

6:23 them why society would collapse if we abolished that.

6:26 It's good fun, and like all fun, it's exclusive to Nebula.

6:29 Other fun?

6:30 Scav.

6:31 It's the world's largest annual scavenger hunt where a bunch of college

6:33 students basically don't sleep for 4 days and put their lives

6:36 on the line for nothing but the honor of winning and a fleeting

6:38 moment of screen time on a docuseries on a very cool,

6:41 but admittedly niche upstart streaming service.

6:43 Also, maybe watch Jetlag and go watch it

6:44 1 week earlier and listen to exclusive companion podcasts,

6:47 and watch our other projects like The Getaway.

6:49 Also, there are like hundreds of other creators on Nebula,

6:51 and many of them have made their own fantastic exclusive projects.

6:54 Basically, Nebula's like here,

6:55 except our budgets are more than the coins the YouTube

6:58 AdSense gods dribble upon us when the sun shines our way,

7:01 meaning we make bigger, more ambitious [music] projects.

7:03 Also, we post all our normal videos there, too, ad and sponsorship free,

7:06 meaning once you finally give in to us begging you for money,

7:09 we'll never beg you for money again.

7:10 Is this blackmail?

7:11 Maybe.

7:12 But if it's working, head over to nebula.tv/hai,

7:15 and as a special little thank you for listening to me,

7:17 I'll even give you 50% off an annual subscription,

7:20 which brings the cost down to just $30 a year.