PYLA, Cyprus -- Maksim Restaurant sits on the United Nations "green line," which separates the Greek and Turkish sides of this divided island, but it's a popular stop for members of both ethnic groups.
On Friday nights the restaurant thumps with music and dancing, and Greeks drive 40 minutes to get here from the capital in Nicosia. Yet owner Hasan Celebi dismisses a suggestion that his business might offer hope for two peoples who share a bloody history and now a cold peace on this small Mediterranean island.
"Greeks from our village never come here," Celebi said. "Only from Larnaca and Nicosia. . . . If you talk to a Pyla Greek, the other Greeks think you're spying for Turkey. They say, 'No, don't talk to him.' "