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New border crossings open in divided Cyprus, first in 8 years
DHERYNIA, Cyprus, Nov 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Cypriot officials opened two new
border crossings Monday for the first time in eight years, the latest push
for peace by the two sides after UN-backed talks collapsed last year.
Dozens of people from the island’s Greek Cypriot south streamed across the
eastern Dherynia border post, walking past United Nations peacekeepers into
the breakaway Turkish-backed north.
At the same time, the Lefka or Aplici crossing opened in the northwest of
the eastern Mediterranean island.
Ahead of the Dherynia crossing reopening, soldiers removed barriers
wrapped in rusty barbed wire and a small group of riot police stood by.
But despite arguments breaking out among onlookers in the run-up to the
midday (1000 GMT) opening, the crowd passed peacefully through the border.
The latest move was welcomed by Elizabeth Spehar, UN special
representative and head of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.
“Today is good day for Cyprus,” she said in a statement.
“These crossing points will play an important role in helping to increase
people to people contacts, contributing to build much needed trust and
confidence between the communities on the island.”
The development is also seen as a vital step to reviving peace
negotiations, which collapsed in acrimony in July last year.
“It’s another asset to the peace talks,” said Chris Charalambous, who was
just 18 when war broke out in 1974.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops
invaded and occupied its northern third in response to a coup sponsored by
the military junta then in power in Athens seeking to unite the island with
Greece.
For the first time since fleeing the conflict Charalambous was looking
forward to seeing his house, which he said lies in a Turkish Cypriot military
zone.
“I’m just going to walk down and then I walk back, I don’t know if I can
stand spending time in the north,” he told AFP.
Cyprus has been divided for more than four decades and the two communities
lived isolated from one another until Turkish Cypriot authorities cleared the
way for the free movement of people in 2003.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1724 hrs