THE OPENING of a new crossing in the Green Line at Ledra Street in central Nicosia appeared a step closer as Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat crossed into the buffer zone for a viewing of the proposed crossing yesterday.
Talat’s renewed efforts to see a crossing at Ledra Street come in the wake of the opening of a checkpoint at Zodhia in the west of the island last August.
“The Turkish Cypriot side is working consistently, without seeking to score political points, to increase contacts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots,” Talat told a group of exclusively Turkish Cypriot and Turkish journalists gathered inside the buffer zone at the closed Ledra Street barricade yesterday.
Talat said the purpose of opening further crossing points in the Green Line was to enhance relations between the two communities. It is also believed, however, that a crossing into the Turkish-controlled areas from the end of the popular Ledra Street would have significant benefits for Turkish Cypriot traders in relatively undeveloped northern Nicosia.
“Increased contact between the two communities is important for lasting peace on the island. And this is something we are committed to working towards,” Talat said.
However, he predicted that the Cypriot government could try to obstruct the opening of Ledra Street by raising questions of expropriation of lands in the buffer zone.
“We saw such problems at Bostanci [Zodhia]. We originally thought it would take two months to install the crossing there, but in the end, because of Greek Cypriot stalling, it took two years. I hope we don’t have the same problems here.”
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrisostomides reacted angrily to Talat’s comments: “It is a long time since the Cyprus government asked for eight new crossings, including the one at Ledra Street. All delays have been due to the occupation regime.”
He added, however, that as soon as the north declared itself ready to open the crossing, the government would reciprocate.
Despite his apparent willingness to open more crossings in the UN-controlled buffer zone Talat said it was not Turkish Cypriot policy to keep opening up new ones. Rather, the policy was to achieve a solution to the Cyprus problem, he said.
“It is not crossings we want; we want a solution.”
However, he referred to the Ledra barricade as “uniquely symbolic” and said that its opening would reflect a thaw in relations between the two communities. Ledra Street holds historical significance by being the first place on the island to see the physical division of the two communities, having been erected, not after the 1974 invasion, but during intercommunal fighting in the early sixties.
He is now hoping the Cypriot government and the EU will be forthcoming in helping to see the crossing open.
Traders and restaurant owners in the area say they are keen to see the crossing open. However, Mete Mertsoy, owner of the Sedirhan restaurant in the restored Ottoman Buyuk Khan, said he hoped the authorities would give him at least two months warning prior to the opening.
“If they don’t, we will be overrun and will not be able to supply the increased demand,” he told the Mail.
