Hundreds Gather for Reopening of Divided Cyprus Street

For nearly half a century, the barricades that cut across Ledra Street, in the heart of Cyprus's capital city of Nicosia, have symbolized the ethnic division of the island.

But this morning, in a gesture that has revived hopes of a solution to the so-called Cyprus problem, Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials celebrated the reopening of Ledra Street. Hundreds of people gathered to cross from one side to the other at a ceremony marked by the launching of colored balloons and expressions of goodwill on both sides.

"By opening this street, we hope the road to a solution to the Cyprus problem will also open," said George Iacavou, an aide to the president of Cyprus, Demetris Christofias.

"We are living a historic day today. We are witnessing one of the obstacles to a solution come down," said Osdil Nami, aide to the leader of the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus, Mehmet Ali Talat.

The Ledra Street crossing is now the sixth point at which people can cross between the south and north, though ID cards or passports will still be required. Ledra Street has been divided since 1964, when an outbreak of intercommunal fighting led British soldiers to lay barbed wire to cut off the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

In 1974, the island itself was divided when Turkish forces invaded in response to a short-lived coup engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece, who wanted to unify Cyprus with the mainland. Since then, numerous attempts to find a solution to the division have failed, but hopes are high on the island that a peaceful resolution can now be found.

In 2003, the Turkish Cypriots relaxed boundary restrictions, allowing people on both sides of the divide to visit homes they had abandoned decades earlier. The election in February of Christofias, who favours dialog, has raised hopes of a resumption of talks that stalled when Greek Cypriots voted against a UN reunification plan in a referendum in 2004.

Christofias and Talat are expected to sit down for full negotiations this summer, having already established working committees to assess progress. A permanent solution would remove a significant obstacle to Turkey's hoped-for membership of the EU, and a source of ongoing tension between Nato partners in Athens and Ankara.

The reopening of Ledra Street was today welcomed by the EU enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, who said in a statement: "It shows the two sides on the island are ready to put aside the difficulties of the past and work together to bring a comprehensive settlement and reunification to Cyprus."

Andreas Gregoriou, a 45-year-old Greek Cypriot refugee from Famagusta in the north, described it as a "historic day".

"These are feelings of joy and hope for our common home. Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots … we hope that the opening of this road opens a window of opportunity to reunify our island," Gregoriou told the Associated Press. Adil Kamil, a 61-year-old Turkish Cypriot refugee from Paphos in the south, said she hoped the reopening of Ledra Street would pave the way for reunification. "We are so happy. Let's hope all the gates open so we can live like before," she said

But many remain sceptical, having seen hopes of a solution dashed in the past. "This is just another crossing. Another crossing has opened, nothing more," Costas Andreou, 70, a refugee from Kyphrea in the north, told AP. "Let's hope for better days soon, before we die."

"We ought to remember that only a controlled crossing point is opening, not free and unfettered movement across Ledra," said the foreign minister of the Republic of Cyprus, Markos Kyprianou, earlier this week. "Our common wish and goal is that one day, we could walk [Ledra], as well as all of Cyprus, from one end to the other without having to go through procedures."