RENEWED efforts are under way to open a long-awaited crossing between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sectors of central Nicosia at Ledra Street, it emerged yesterday.
The latest effort, it seems, has been partly instigated by north Nicosia’s newly-elected mayor Cemal Bulutoglulari, who, sources told the Cyprus Mail, is keen to see a bridge, built by his predecessor Kutlay Erk, demolished in order to end Greek Cypriot objections to the opening of the Ledra Street crossing.
The crossing came close to being opened towards the end of last year when the Turkish Cypriot side said it was ready to go ahead the project that would have seen the commercial centre of Nicosia reunited for the first time since hostilities on the island first broke out in the early 1960s.
However, plans to do so came to a halt after the Cypriot government objected to the bridge, which the Turkish Cypriot side said it had built to allow the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot military continued access to the area.
But now the new mayor appears keen to hold his backers to their promise.
“Before standing for election Bulutoglulari insisted he would only stand if he could get assurances from the party backing him that he would be permitted to demolish the bridge,” a source close to Bulutoglulari told the Mail.
Last week Bulutoglulari met with his Greek Cypriot counterpart Michalakis Zampelas in north Nicosia. During a tour of the Ledra Street area both mayors expressed their commitment to seeing the heart of the ancient capital reunited.
Yesterday Zampelas told the Cyprus Mail, “When I met with Cemal [Bulutoglulari], he said he also wishes to see the bridge come down”.
He added that he had also spoken with Turkish Cypriot shopkeepers with whom he had agreed to “do it together” to bring down the bridge and open the crossing.
Zampelas now says he believes Ledra Street may be a step nearer to opening, and that the Turkish military’s wish for the bridge may have dissipated since it was constructed last December.
“It shows they no longer feel it [the bridge] is necessary,” he concluded.
Spokesman for the Turkish Cypriot ‘presidency’ Hasan Ercakica yesterday told the Mail references to the opening of the Ledra Street crossing had been made in a letter from the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last month. In the letter Talat is said to have proposed opening the crossing as part of wider package of confidence building measures designed to pave the way for an overall settlement of the island’s division.
“We gave [UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim] Gambari a letter that said we were ready to negotiate the issue,” Ercakica said. He added that negotiations were needed to find out whether the bridge was the only objection that needed to be overcome in order for the crossing to open.
“If there are other problems, we need to know,” he said, adding: “The aim is not to demolish a bridge, but to open a crossing”.
Asked whether the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot militaries had dropped their insistence on a bridge spanning the road they wish to continue patrolling, Ercakica said, “These are things we can discuss with the military. The problem is that if we don’t have a bridge they [the military] will still need a way of accessing their posts. We don’t really want to have armed platoons having to use the shopping streets”.
Government spokesman George Lilikas told the Mail yesterday he would welcome a Turkish Cypriot decision to demolish the bridge, but said he would reserve his judgment until he saw a formal proposal.
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