Cypriots delight in return of heirlooms

Similarly touching stories have emerged daily in the Cypriot media since the Turkish Cypriot authorities began allowing limited access across the island’s dividing "green line" three weeks ago.

One elderly Greek Cypriot couple returned on a day trip to the house they had fled to find their wedding photos still hanging on the wall.

Another newspaper told the story of a 45-year-old woman, Roulla Savvidou, who found that the elderly Turkish Cypriot couple living in the house where she was raised had hardly changed the furniture.

The Turkish Cypriot couple had also looked after an engagement photograph of Mrs Savvidou’s mother and late father, and athletics trophies her sister had won.

But not all returning refugees have been so delighted.

"My grandma’s house was in a terrible state. The people in it weren’t Cypriots but Turkish settlers and very unfriendly," Maria Pavlou, 35, said.