Ledra Palace gate scrapped for ‘political reasons’

By Martin Hellicar

CONSTRUCTION of a four-metre high metal barrier at the Ledra Palace check- point has been abandoned due to “political sensitivities”.

Police spokesman Glafcos Xenos said yesterday plans for an automatic steel gate had been shelved for “legal and political reasons”, but declined to say what these were.

The huge gate was to be erected by Christmas to control daily traffic and demonstrators but when workmen went to erect the barrier they were told by police the order had been cancelled.

The contractor said at the time he had “no idea” what had prompted the last- minute cancellation. A trench for the gate had already been dug when installation was stopped.

“It has been decided it would be better for the status quo (at the checkpoint) to remain as it is,” Xenos told the Cyprus Mail. “Everything (in buffer zone areas) now has legal and political significance,” he added.

He said the cancellation had not been prompted by objections from the UN. “We are always in full co-operation with the UN. They did not say they objected to the gate,” Xenos said.

The UN, for their part, did not want to say whether they had raised objections to the gate or not.

“The construction work which was started was on territory controlled by the Cyprus government and so we had no direct say in the matter,” UN spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski said.

Rokoszewski did say the UN were, in principal, opposed to any construction tending to deepen the divide between the two sides.

“Any sign of further division is not something we would applaud,” he said.

The cost of the gate was estimated at £7,500, but Xenos did not want to comment yesterday on what the cancelled order might have cost the tax- payer.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.