Cypriots celebrate chance to cross ceasefire line

HUNDREDS of Cypriots took the first chance in decades yesterday to cross a ceasefire line on their divided island under a Turkish Cypriot scheme denounced by Greek Cypriot officials as a ploy to avoid a real peace deal.

“I feel like I am living a dream,” said 50-year-old Turkish Cypriot Emete Altuner, walking with her husband and two daughters on a day-trip to the Greek Cypriot south.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash on Tuesday authorised opening checkpoints on the so-called truce “green line” for day trips, hoping to bolster confidence between the two sides after the collapse of UN-brokered peace talks last month.

Greek Cypriots on the Mediterranean island divided since 1974 rejected his move as purely symbolic. An anticipated flood of people was initially just a trickle crossing a checkpoint in the divided capital Nicosia. However, Greek and Turkish police on either side of a UN-policed corridor at a Nicosia checkpoint later had to call in reinforcements when queues built up.

Authorities on both sides said after eight hours, 1,000 Turkish Cypriots had crossed into the south and 550 Greek Cypriots entered the north. “I have been waiting for 29 years, I can wait a bit more,” said Greek Cypriot Iakovos Nikitaras, 48, sitting patiently in his white van at the northern Turkish Cypriot checkpoint with his wife, Maria.

The sight of Turkish and Greek Cypriots walking back and forth across the line is unprecedented for many. Grassroots contact has been kept to a minimum. The proposed UN peace deal collapsed last month in arguments about land and population exchanges, ending hopes a united Cyprus, rather than just the Greek Cypriot part, could join the EU in May, 2004.

Greek Cypriot officials, while not directly discouraging visits to the north, issued a pointed reminder that it would be “unthinkable” for Cypriots to hand over passports to Turkish Cypriots to visit their own country. Many shrugged off the warning and presented their passports, which were not stamped.

“What I am doing has nothing to do with politics. I just want to visit my occupied home,” said one Greek Cypriot.

Kemal Yorgancioglu, 78, said he was crossing into the south with his two sons for the first time since partition to visit some old Greek Cypriot friends.

“This is a beautiful day,” he said. “We grew up on that side. It will be the first time I cross in 29 years.”

“I want to go to Ledra street ... to Haleppi cake shop,” said Altuner, giggling as she named a once well-known tea room in southern Nicosia.

But things change: Ledra Street is a chic thoroughfare boasting Western chains such as Woolworths, Next and the Body Shop. The cake shop is long shut and is now a Chinese takeaway.