THE NEW round of reunification talks scheduled to start today has been postponed following a Greek Cypriot pilgrimage to the occupied north yesterday being turned back at the Limnitis checkpoint.
Greek Cypriots trying to get to the Church of Ayios Mamas charged that checks by the Turkish Cypriots at the Limnitis crossing caused huge delays and led to the cancellation of the trip, casting a shadow on reunification talks that were scheduled to re-start today.
“I met with [UN envoy Alexander] Downer this morning. I expressed the view that the Turkish behaviour inevitably casts its shadow on Thursday’s scheduled meeting between the President of the Republic [Demetris Christofias] and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community [Mehmet Ali Talat], which under the circumstances is better to be postponed to review the situation,” said Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou.
Speaking from Paris, later in the day, Christofias said “more mutual respect is necessary and the other side has not shown this respect.”
Turkish Cypriots expressed disappointment at the developments.
Around 650 pilgrims on 27 buses had been scheduled to make the trip through the Limnitis crossing, to Ayios Mamas in Morphou, where a church service was held yesterday morning.
Iacovou said there had been assurances that the checking procedures would be simplified and would be based on lists submitted to the Turkish Cypriot side through the United Nations.
Reports said it took the Turkish Cypriots almost two hours – 7.30am to 9.20am – to check the first two buses carrying some 40 pilgrims.
Iacovou said the manner with which the authorities carried out their checks led to delays when discrepancies appeared on the list of passengers in the first bus.
He said some of the names on the lists did not correspond exactly with the names on the pilgrims’ identity cards and, from what Downer had told him, there were people on the bus that were not on the list.
“It is clear … that you cannot check 700 people one by one, in an area where the road is 1.5 to two metres wide, without shade,” Iacovou said.
The Turkish Cypriot side said it took all measures for all 27 buses to go through in less than 30 minutes with 27 people – one for each bus – standing by to crosscheck the names on the lists with the passengers’ identity cards.
Two buses showed up at 7.30am, despite the Turkish Cypriots being told that the service would start at that time and them being ready since 5.30am.
According to Ozdil Nami, senior aide to Talat, the identity checks were through in less than 15 minutes and 13 people whose names were not on the list were asked to step off the buses while the remaining passengers were told that they were free to pass through.
But the rest of the passengers refused and returned in protest.
Two more buses approached the crossing at around 10am but their passengers this time refused to hand over their identity cards and retuned back, the Turkish Cypriot side said.
“We did everything we could. If 27 buses had arrived all processes would have been done in 15 minutes,” Nami told the Cyprus Mail.
“This was the understanding all along anyway.”
Nami said he was very disappointed, adding that they were trying to reach Christofias to explain their side of the events “so that we don’t allow such incidents to cast a shadow on the really important things we have to do.”
The Turkish Cypriot official said they were going to try to re-schedule today’s meeting.
The service at Ayios Mamas went ahead as scheduled with Greek Cypriot pilgrims flocking there from other parts of Cyprus.
Morphou Bishop Neophytos, who led the service, said it had a spiritual character but it also carried its own “social and political message”.
“It proves to all those who feel that coexistence in Cyprus is difficult, that it is possible,” the Bishop said.
The service was also attended by the US ambassador to Cyprus Frank Urbancic.
