THERE was delight mixed with frustration yesterday as a small crowd gathered at the end of Ledra Street last night to mark the official approval for the opening of the new crossing.
“It was something they couldn’t do for two years, but see in a month what they managed to do,” said one Greek Cypriot bystander, who did not wish to be identified. “It means they can do it if they want to,” he said, referring to the previous government’s haggling over details, which delayed agreement on the symbolic opening for nearly three years.
Ledra Street has been barricaded since 1963.
Initially yesterday’s event was more like a funeral than a celebration. It was as if someone had forgotten to invite any musicians, apart from a lone Nigerian man, tapping enthusiastically on a small drum.
His friend, an asylum seeker named Kenneth, also from Nigeria, said he decided to go to Ledra Street yesterday because, as a resident of the old town, he was upset to see its beauty so destroyed. “Where there is peace, there is unity,” said Kenneth. “This is a very, very important development.”
Three English school pupils attached a banner to the barricade in Greek and Turkish calling for the crossing to be opened soon. Their teacher Evgenia Nikoforou said: “I just want to be able to pass through. There will be a better climate for rapprochement and it will give hope for a solution,” she said.
Another group was not as fortunate in their attempts to place their banner near the barricade. It read: “No Army. No Nations. No Borders” and “all states are pseudostates”. After the anarchist group unfurled the black banner, police quickly ordered them to the side of the street out of sight.
The only other distraction was the waxworks figure of Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean character Captain Jack Sparrow, standing solemnly on exhibition while people took the opportunity to have their photo taken with him.
Representatives from various NGOs, such as immigrant support group KISA, milled around chatting with anarchists, asylum seekers, students, ageing hippies, ordinary individuals, families and the mildly curious.
The crowd, which began without around 20 people and increased to over 100 in the space of an hour, faced towards the offending barrier almost as if they expected it suddenly to disappear of its own accord before their eyes.
Of course it won’t be taken down completely for another ten or 15 days. The UN must first sweep the crossing area for any rogue landmines or unexploded ordinance. “This will take a matter of days,” said a source close to the process.
The source said both sides could then enter the UN-controlled buffer zone, literally to pave the way for the crossing. Work should be completed in ten to 15 days, “if all goes well”, the source said.
“We have been fighting for three years under a heavy atmosphere for the opening,” said Valentina Sophocleous, the president of Citizens for the Opening of Ledra Street.
“Today we are happy. The message is that this opening is not just for the people of Nicosia. It’s for all Cypriots. It gives the message that we can work together.”
Sophocleous said Ledra Street was not just another road to be opened as a crossing point, but “a road full of life”.
“Now we can meet and be together.”
On the Turkish Cypriot side, around 20 people gathered at what they call Lokmaci Gate. Benin Baysal, a teacher, said: “We want all walls to fall and this is one step towards that. This time maybe Cyprus will be united.”
But in the words of another Greek Cypriot: “It’s a positive step but I’m not sure it’s going to solve the problem.”
The international community was unanimous in welcoming the agreement to open Ledra Street.
“The opening of Ledra Street is an important measure, which will contribute to building trust between the two communities,” said British High Commissioner Peter Millett.
“I congratulate the leaders on the important symbolic decision to open the Ledra Street crossing 44 years after it was closed,” said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
He said the Commission had made more than €100,000 available to the UNDP to carry out works at the crossing point.
“I look forward to walking across the Green Line at Ledra Street myself in the near future,” said Rehn.
The US embassy also welcomed the imminent opening, which it considered “as an important step to revitalise relations and bring the two communities closer together”.
