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LEDRA STREET CROSSING OPENS IN NICOSIA AFTER 44-YEAR SPLIT
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2008 12:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greek and Turkish Cypriots opened a crossing Thursday
at Ledra Street, a main shopping street in Cyprus' divided capital
that has come to symbolize the island's ethnic partition. Ledra Street
has been split for 44 years. The rival leaders on the island agreed
to open a crossing there during a meeting last month that revived
hopes for an overall peace deal.
"We are living a historic day today. We are witnessing one of the
obstacles to a solution come down," said Osdil Nami, aide to Turkish
Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who said that "almost half a century
of division is symbolized" in Ledra Street. "It also symbolizes for
me that when Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots can overcome their
fears .... they can overcome long-standing disputes and arguments,"
he said during a ceremony to open the street.
Officials from both sides of the divide cut ribbons to colored
helium balloons to mark the opening of the street at the end of a
ceremony attended by Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials as well as
UN peacekeepers.
The Ledra Street crossing becomes the sixth point at which people
can cross between Cyprus' Greek Cypriot south and Turkish occupied
north. But ID cards or passports are still needed to move between
the two sides.
"We still have a long way to go," Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou
said. "This is the first step. We hope many more will follow."
"We wish all roads in this country were open for all citizens,"
said Georgios Yakovu, special representative of the Cypriot President
Ledra Street was split in 1964 during the outbreak of intercommunal
fighting - when British peacekeepers laid barbed wire across the street
between Nicosia's Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors. Ten years later,
the island was divided when Turkey invaded in response to a short-lived
coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece.
Boundary restrictions in divided Cyprus were relaxed by the Turkish
Cypriots in 2003. Ledra Street's symbolism injects momentum in a
renewed reunification drive, the AP reports.
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2008 12:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greek and Turkish Cypriots opened a crossing Thursday
at Ledra Street, a main shopping street in Cyprus' divided capital
that has come to symbolize the island's ethnic partition. Ledra Street
has been split for 44 years. The rival leaders on the island agreed
to open a crossing there during a meeting last month that revived
hopes for an overall peace deal.
"We are living a historic day today. We are witnessing one of the
obstacles to a solution come down," said Osdil Nami, aide to Turkish
Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who said that "almost half a century
of division is symbolized" in Ledra Street. "It also symbolizes for
me that when Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots can overcome their
fears .... they can overcome long-standing disputes and arguments,"
he said during a ceremony to open the street.
Officials from both sides of the divide cut ribbons to colored
helium balloons to mark the opening of the street at the end of a
ceremony attended by Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials as well as
UN peacekeepers.
The Ledra Street crossing becomes the sixth point at which people
can cross between Cyprus' Greek Cypriot south and Turkish occupied
north. But ID cards or passports are still needed to move between
the two sides.
"We still have a long way to go," Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou
said. "This is the first step. We hope many more will follow."
"We wish all roads in this country were open for all citizens,"
said Georgios Yakovu, special representative of the Cypriot President
Ledra Street was split in 1964 during the outbreak of intercommunal
fighting - when British peacekeepers laid barbed wire across the street
between Nicosia's Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors. Ten years later,
the island was divided when Turkey invaded in response to a short-lived
coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece.
Boundary restrictions in divided Cyprus were relaxed by the Turkish
Cypriots in 2003. Ledra Street's symbolism injects momentum in a
renewed reunification drive, the AP reports.