Landmark crossing opens in divided Cyprus
Foreign Desk Report

NICOSIA—A crossing point symbolising the decades-old division of Cyprus opened to great fanfare in the heart of the capital Nicosia on Thursday, underscoring a new drive to reunify the Mediterranean island. Crowds massed as coloured balloons were released into the sky to mark the opening of Ledra Street, a key thoroughfare in the world’s last divided capital, that has been sealed since inter-communal violence erupted in 1963.
Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou, a Greek Cypriot, described the move as a “first step” towards the reunification of the island, which has been partitioned along ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974. There was a carnival atmosphere as hundreds of people crossed through the passage in the commercial hub of Nicosia’s old town over the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.
In the Turkish-occupied north, hundreds of people gathered, beating drums and chanting songs of peace, some weeping with joy. Mavrou and her north Nicosia counterpart, Cemal Bulutoglulari, enjoyed a coffee and cake together on the Greek Cypriot side.
The reopening was hailed by foreign diplomats as signalling a new climate of trust after several years of stalemate following the failure of a UN peace plan in 2004 that led to a divided Cyprus joining the European Union that year. Thursday’s move was agreed at a breakthrough meeting in March between new Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who also agreed to resume full reunification talks in June.
“Today is a historic day. We are witnessing the overthrow of one of the obstacles to reunification,” said Talat aide Ozdil Nami. Some cautioned that there was still much to do before any solution, with Cyprus government spokesman Stephanos Stephanousaying: “Justice for our people is a long and difficult road which requires hard work.”
Former Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades said “this is a great day but the Cyprus problem has not been solved. It’s a crack in the wall. “Many cracks make walls come tumbling down; we have to be optimistic.” The two sectors stand about 70 metres (yards) apart on what is known in Turkish as Lokmaci Street. Before the reopening, the area had to be checked for unexploded ordnance from the 1974 fighting and buildings shored up after decades of neglect.
The barricades were among the first to be erected after inter-communal violence flared in 1963, leading to the arrival the following year of UN peacekeepers who have remained ever since. “I experienced the war, and troubles in 1963 so I came here to see exactly the opposite — the reunion of the people and city,” said 73-year-old Demitris Costantinou.
The bustling commercial area inside Nicosia’s 600-year-old Venetian walls once earned the moniker Murder Mile. During the guerilla war against British colonialism that led to independence in 1960, several British soldiers were shot dead there by pistol-packing freedom fighters.
Today the street is a popular promenade lined with shops, fast food restaurants and ice cream parlours, attracting tourists and south Asian and eastern European workers, many of whom live in the Old Town. Thursday’s move comes after a visit by top UN official Lynn Pascoe, who said on Wednesday there was a “palpable sense of momentum” to resolve the Cyprus problem.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey seized its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece. “This is tangible evidence that what seemed impossible for decades can be a achieved,” said Elizabeth Spehar, the temporary head of the UN mission in Cyprus.