Turkish Cypriots flock to the opening
As the crowds began to gather in the morning sunshine the excitement was tangible. People had been waiting a long time for this – not just since early morning, but for decades.
“I can’t believe it. Our leaders have been playing a game of chess for so long I feel as if they are going to call it off at any moment,” said 44-year-old Aziz Ener, a printing technician based in the old town.
The crowd swelled to several hundred and the sun rose higher in the sky. Thirty or so police in the northern part of the buffer zone nervously planned who would stand or sit where, and where to place plastic bollards that would segregate those entering and leaving the Turkish Cypriot side of the crossing.
The world had been told to expect the crossing to open at 9.00am, and as the time neared, a throng of reporters, politicians and UN officials began gathering in the thin UN-controlled buffer zone a mere 20 metres away. All of a sudden virtually all the journalists posted on the Turkish Cypriot side spilled into the buffer zone to join the growing melee. Briefly, the police tried to hold them back but then gave up.
Speeches began: first the UN spokesman, then George Iacovou, then Ozdil Nami. It was during Nami’s speech that the crowd gathered on the Turkish Cypriot side began to lose patience. They had been told 9.00am, and now for perhaps for the first time in Cypriot history, punctuality was called for.
“Peace will prevail in Cyprus!” the crowd repeatedly chanted, drowning out Nami’s words.
Many of the journalists at that point headed for the northern side of the checkpoint, some for a moment believing demonstrators had turned up to mar what promised to be an historical day.
But there was no protest to be found – only ordinary people who had turned out to see the oldest symbol of division finally come down after decades.
The crowd began to sing and chant other pro-peace songs and slogans, while two men played the drums and zurna, giving the event the air of a Cypriot wedding.
To the consternation of the police, George Vassiliou and several other Greek Cypriot political figures drifted, along with the Turkish Cypriot mayor of north Nicosia, towards the checkpoint. None of them had gone through the passport formalities the Turkish Cypriot side still insisted on.
When Greek Cypriot Mayor of Nicosia Eleni Mavrou appeared and was ushered past the Turkish Cypriot police, the crowd burst into spontaneous chants of “Eleni! Eleni!” It was likely the first time in Cypriot history that a Greek Cypriot politician had been greeted by a Turkish Cypriot crowd in such a way.
By around 9.40am the first Turkish Cypriots were at the checkpoints filling in the obligatory visa forms and showing their ID cards or passports to cross.
One of the first was Rana Zincir Celal, a 31-year-old activist who said she felt “elated” to be using the new crossing.
“It’s the first of many steps to be taken in the peace process,” she said, adding that the crossing would provide “a new point of interaction for the two communities which we didn’t have before”.
Sencan Yesilada, a 39-year-old civil servant, said she crossed every day to work on the Greek Cypriot side of the buffer zone but saw yesterday as an historical event that marked the beginning of the end for borders in Cyprus.
“One day this will all be gone. We’ll tell our children but they won’t believe us,” she enthused.
Patiently waiting for her turn to cross, 17-year-old Seren Yasar Cavlan said that despite being too young to remember violent conflict in Cyprus she felt deeply the historical significance of the day. “It’s great to be here. I think everyone should be part of this. I’m going to wander round and take pictures to show to those who didn’t come,” she said.
But for others it was a journey down a road almost but not quite forgotten.
Mehmet Bolkan, a 46-year-old teacher described how he had last walked this road between the two sectors of Nicosia in 1973 to buy shoes with his father.
“I was 11 at the time. So crossing here is a trip down memory lane for me and it feels really good.”
