MEPs stopped from crossing at Limnitis

EIGHT MEPs on a tour of the north were yesterday prevented from crossing back to the south via the Limnitis crossing point after Turkish authorities there said their papers were not in order.

The MEPs had just held a meeting at the Turkish Cypriot village of Limnitis-Yesilirmak with the mukhtars of Limnitis-Yesilirmak and of Kato Pyrgos and Green party deputy George Perdikis.

The two mukhtars then separately crossed to the south to the Greek Cypriot village of Kato Pyrgos, where they awaited the party of MEPs to join them shortly later.

At around 11am the mukhtar of Kato Pyrgos received a call from MEP Alison Wood, who said she and the others would not be able to cross to the south because of complications at the Turkish Cypriot checkpoint.

Turkish Cypriot authorities reportedly said the MEPs’ papers were not in order and that they could not be allowed through.

The incident was put down to a ‘misunderstanding’ between the north’s ‘police’ and the ‘Ministry of the Interior’, Perdikis said.

By nightime the MEPs had returned to the government-controlled areas through a Nicosia checkpoint.

The Limnitis crossing point was opened last month. Part of the six-kilometre stretch of road linking Limnitis-Yesilirmak and Kato Pyrgos runs through a Turkish military-controlled zone.

The crossing is the seventh through a 180-kilometreUnited Nations-controlled no man’s land separating the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north from the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south that have opened since 2003.

The €4.2 million project was funded by the United States, Cyprus and the EU.

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