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IT'S the city district frozen in time for 37 years.

The dried-up ink bottles in a shop window, the almost untouched Toyota Corolla with 38 miles on the clock in the car showroom and the posters of 70s fashion could be part of the set for a Hollywood disaster movie.

Yet these exclusive images show a genuine part of Cyprus capital Nicosia that has been abandoned since the conflict engulfed the island in 1974.

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They were taken by Army photographer Sergeant Ian Forsyth, who joined corporal Kelvin Roberts working in a buffer zone established by the UN to end the fighting.

The zone stretches across the entire breadth of the island, covering 134 square miles, separating the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus.

On one side, it is bordered by barbed-wire fencing, concrete walls, watchtowers, anti-tank ditches, and minefields installed by the Turks. Although 10,000 people live in the zone, largely in villages, the buffer zone in Nicosia is largely abandoned.

Analysing its contents is now the responsibility of Corporal Kelvin Roberts, 32, of Tanyfron, Wrexham.

Cpl Roberts of 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh, who previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has found a fascinating trove of items frozen in time for nearly four decades.

"You just come across these amazing things every day," said Kelvin, who is married to Natalie, 27. "I've been to nearly every single one of the shops, making sure the area is secure and making a list of whats here.

"The people had to leave their homes and shops pretty quickly, leaving everything behind. There's children's clothing, boxes of unused shoes. Of course, all this stuff still belongs to the people who left it."

Some of the things lying in vacant blocks also include brand new cars made in 1974 that have been left in hollow shopping centres.

"Theres a Toyota Corolla 1974 which has 38 miles on the clock," said Kelvin. "When you open the doors you get hit with a fresh smell of untouched leather and the plastic wrapping remains on the inside of the doors. It's a bit spooky."

The buffer zone extends to 7km in some parts of the island and shrinks to just over three metres in other parts, such as Spear Alley.

Kelvin said: "It's called that because the two armies would attach knives to poles and stretch across to attack each other they were that close.

"This tour is unlike anything else I've done. In Iraq it was close contact fighting all the time, in Afghanistan I was based in Kabul helping train the Afghan National Army. But instead of carrying a gun here, it's replaced with a bottle of water."

Most of the Welsh soldiers are based in the UN Protected Area (UNPA), near to the abandoned Nicosia International Airport, which has been frozen in time for nearly four decades.

A Cyprus Airways Trident Airliner with strips of metal and paint flaking into sun-baked powder still sits eerily on the cracked tarmac.

Apart from Welsh soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh, based in Maindy Barracks, Cardiff, and REME, there are others from 104 Regiment Royal Artillery (V) in Newport.

About 50 soldiers from Wales are supporting 3 Royal Anglians (V) whose Regimental Headquarters is based at the Ledra Palace Hotel, a former five-star luxury building made famous by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylors many visits there.

Room 301, or the Burton and Taylor room as its become known, has followed a long tradition of being handed over to each Quartermaster of the regiment which takes the lead on British involvement in Op Tosca.

Major Chris Wright, Quartermaster for 3 Royal Anglians (V), said: "There was written evidence they stayed here, and on various occasions.

"We had a flood back in May and the floor had to be ripped out. It was the original carpet which has been in place for nearly 40 years. The room was totally drenched and ruined. The guy who came out to replace the carpet had been in the same room 45 years ago and I'm not sure he was actually laying the carpet or doing some work on it, but it looked like it had been down for that long it was pretty grotty.

"When I first moved in, I thought it was jinxed because there were hundreds and hundreds of bees outside and I had to get in pest control and then it was flooded.

"It is slightly bizarre staying in room 301 because it was the best room of its time, you can tell that from the black marble bathroom and impressive views of the Nicosia."

Colonel Gerard Hughes, Chief of Staff UNFICYP (United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus) said the role of Welsh soldiers in the buffer zone was very different to what they would normally expect.

"A soldier might find himself unarmed at night between these two huge opposing forces having to de-escalate a situation thats arisen and in some ways I think it's more difficult," he said.

"They have to be both incredibly diplomatic and political in the way that they handle themselves so that they don't in any way disturb the peace process."

Private Craig Roberts, a TA reservist whose day-to-day job back in the UK is financial consultant for Capital Finance at Canary Wharf, London, said clashes did happen.

The 22 year old, of Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, said: "Mostly, it'll be the Turkish or Cypriot National Guard doing something like throwing stones or hurling insults or trying to move their observation post forward.

"We just try and speak to them, try to get them to calm down, return things to the status quo and if that fails we have to call in other assets like the UN Police or crash out our quick reaction force."