Cypriot officials opened two new border crossings Monday for the first time in eight years, the latest push for peace by the two sides after UN-backed talks collapsed last year.
Dozens of
people from the island's Greek Cypriot south streamed across the eastern
Dherynia border post, walking past United Nations peacekeepers into the
breakaway Turkish-backed north.
At the same
time, the Lefka or Aplici crossing opened in the northwest of the eastern
Mediterranean island.
Ahead of
the Dherynia crossing reopening, soldiers removed barriers wrapped in rusty
barbed wire and a small group of riot police stood by.
But despite
arguments breaking out among onlookers in the run-up to the midday (1000 GMT)
opening, the crowd passed peacefully through the border.
The latest
move was welcomed by Elizabeth Spehar, UN special representative and head of
the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.
"These
crossing points will play an important role in helping to increase people to
people contacts, contributing to build much needed trust and confidence between
the communities on the island."
The
development is also seen as a vital step to reviving peace negotiations, which
collapsed in acrimony in July last year.
"It's
another asset to the peace talks," said Chris Charalambous, who was just
18 when war broke out in 1974.
Cyprus has
been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and
occupied its northern third in response to a coup sponsored by the military
junta then in power in Athens seeking to unite the island with Greece.
For the
first time since fleeing the conflict Charalambous was looking forward to
seeing his house, which he said lies in a Turkish Cypriot military zone.
"I'm
just going to walk down and then I walk back, I don't know if I can stand
spending time in the north," he told AFP.
Cyprus has
been divided for more than four decades and the two communities lived isolated
from one another until Turkish Cypriot authorities cleared the way for the free
movement of people in 2003.
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