A NEW crossing point in the Green Line at Zodhia will open on August 31 whether the Greek Cypriot side is ready or not, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“We will open the crossing on August 31. I hope the Greek Cypriot side will do what is necessary,” Soyer said.
The announcement yesterday appeared to have caught the Greek side and the UN by surprise.
Presidential Spokesman Marios Karoyian told the Cyprus Mail: “We are waiting for the checkpoint to open, but a lot of the construction work is still in progress. We are looking into Mr Soyer’s claims.”
The UN was equally confused.”We are still looking to verify the comments made by Mr Soyer,” said UN spokesman Brian Kelly.
If the crossing at Zodhia does indeed open at the end of the month, it will bring an end to more than a year of wrangling between the Cyprus government and the breakaway regime. Each side has repeatedly accused the other over delays in opening the crossing.
Soyer, however, was adamant it was the Greek Cypriots and the EU who had dragged their feet over preparations at Zodhia.
“Many months ago it was agreed between both sides and the EU that two crossings, one at Bostanci (Zodhia) and one at Lokmaci (Ledra Street), would open. We have stuck to our part of the agreement,” he said.
Soyer added that the Turkish Cypriot side had almost completed all preparations for the crossing – including de-mining the area, tarmacking the road between the town of Zodhia and the buffer zone, and the erection of buildings for police and customs officials.
“As far as I know, the Greek Cypriots and the EU, who said they would fund the tarmacking of the part of the road in the buffer zone, have done next to nothing”.
That a checkpoint should open in the west of the island near Morphou was first mooted in a proposal made by the Cypriot government in June 2004. In the proposal it suggested opening eight new crossing in the Green Line. The Turkish Cypriot authorities rejected the offer saying they preferred to see crossings open one at a time, mainly, they said, because of high policing costs.
The Cyprus government then accused the north of being unwilling to open up further crossings and insisted that in return for the opening of the Zodhia crossing, another crossing in Dherynia to the east of the island should open. This demand was later dropped but replaced by accusations that Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat did not posses the authority to open crossings in the buffer zone.
Soyer countered the accusations yesterday by saying the north’s declaration that it was ready to open the crossing proved to Greek Cypriots that Talat did in fact have the necessary authority.
“I think it is very clear now who has the authority to open crossings, and I think it is also very clear who is truly working for the reunification of the island.”
Soyer coupled his announcement yesterday with an invitation to Greek Cypriots to use the new crossing to attend Orthodox celebrations at Morphou’s Ayios Mammas church on September 1.
Being the first crossing to open in the west of the island, the crossing at Zodhia will undoubtedly benefit both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities greatly. It will hold particular importance for Turkish Cypriot citrus growers in the Morphou area who are expected to use the crossing to transport their produce south for export to markets in the EU via Limassol. The crossing should also ease congestion at the Ayios Dhometios crossing in Nicosia and reduce traffic on the notoriously dangerous Nicosia to Morphou road in the north.
Asked when the agreement to open the Ledra Street crossing in Nicosia would come to fruition Soyer said, “Things are moving and mine clearance has begun in the buffer zone there.” He declined, however, to predict when it would open, saying only that work there could take some time as the area was “full of mines and booby traps”.
With additional reporting by Photini Philippidou
