CLOSE to 20,000 people are said to have gone through the Ledra Street crossing since it opened last Thursday, the majority on Saturday and Sunday.
Although Ledra Street is the fifth crossing point to open since the Turkish Cypriot side lifted restrictions in 2003, it is the only opening that has engendered such an amount of movement since the Ledra Palace crossing was first opened five years ago.
Numerous reports also testify to the fact that many Greek Cypriots who had not crossed to the north before were doing so now.
“I think it’s because there are sentimental reasons attached to it,” said Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou. “It has a history. It was always closed when there was tension.”
Mavrou said the fact that Ledra Street is in the heart of the city also has something to do with its popularity as a crossing point.
“It makes crossing more approachable. People don’t feel the same as they do when it comes to other crossings where the process can be intimidating. It’s more a part of everyday life,” Mavrou added.
The only other pedestrian crossing is at the Ledra Palace, which is not as convenient for people on foot, being a ten-minute walk from the town centre, and a further ten minutes to swing around to the commercial areas in the north of Nicosia. The other crossings are used only by cars.
Former Nicosia Mayor Lellos Demetriades, who remembers Ledra Street as it was before the 1974 Turkish invasion, when it was finally sealed for 34 years, said it was not only the convenience and the sentimentality that was making people cross over for the first time ever.
“A change has happened,” he said, referring to the recent elections when the Cypriot people “told someone and his entourage” to “go away”.
“Suddenly overnight, there were smiles all over the place,” Demetriades said.
“So this changed the whole atmosphere and we also got a President who is acting responsibly. People realise there is a change in the climate.”
Demetriades was expecting some teething problems, he said, which did surface briefly on Thursday 12 hours after the opening.
The Greek Cypriot side shut the crossing for nearly three hours due to the presence of Turkish Cypriot police officers in the UN-controlled part of the crossing between the two sides.
The Turkish Cypriot side still insists they entered the area to ward off Greek Cypriot demonstrators, but eyewitness accounts verify their presence well before that.
It was considered serious enough for President Demetris Christofias to cut short his London trip to return to the island.
Demetriades said he didn’t consider the Ledra crossing all that important in the bigger picture. “It’s conducive,” he said referring to likely Cyprus negotiations before summer.
“It’s better this way than the other. As I have already said, the wall is still there. There are some small cracks, which can lead to big cracks.”
Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said yesterday they wanted to see the Ledra crossing as an aid to creating a climate of confidence for the implementation of other confidence-building measures, and the negotiations ahead.
“The road ahead is long and difficult and problems will exist where we will need patience and the flexibility to overcome those problems like the one that led to the closure of Ledra for three hours,” he said.
“A huge effort went into the opening of Ledra and this is a small sample of what will be needed when it comes to a resolution of the Cyprus issue.”
