Symbolic wall taken down by Greek Cypriots

GREEK Cypriots yesterday demolished a wall along the boundary that for decades has split Europe’s last divided capital, in a dramatic gesture officials hope will kick-start reconciliation on the east Mediterranean island.

The four-metre-high concrete wall that stretched along the breadth of Ledra Street, which runs through the heart of the Nicosia’s tourist area, has long been seen as the strongest symbol of the island’s 32-year partition into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north.

A bulldozer began dismantling the wall late on Thursday night in an unannounced move that Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos said had been planned more than two weeks ago.