I can’t answer the original question, so feel free to flag this response.
With that said, my partner and I spent 10 days in Cyprus this past April or May. We stayed in the capital city of Nicosia. Just to clarify, Cyprus is a country; it is not under Greece’s rule.
The country has a fascinating history. Several other countries have taken control of it at one time or another due to its strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1974, a dispute broke out in Cyprus by the Greeks and Turks. Both were attempting to claim the land. It got messy for a bit, and the UN has stepped in to attempt to sort out matters peacefully.
What is in Nicosia now are tall walls separating Northen Nicosia, occupied by the Turks, and the rest of the country, occupied by Cypriots. The slim line of land that runs from east to west is called the Green Zone, managed by the UN.
We had no issues finding the passport control point in Nicosia and getting into the Turkish-occupied side. Nor, did it seem, anyone else coming or going. We did it again on another day from a different area manned by the UN, meaning we strolled through part of The Green Zone. No issues. It was all quite fascinating.
I got the impression that controls in place were just a formality, and no one was really bothered, as long as one had a valid passport.
Based upon the article, it sounds pretty much the same. The control standards have loosened over who can cross the border.