Europe Features
Wall comes down, passports come out in once divided Cyprus
By DPA
Apr 22, 2008, 14:08 GMT

Nicosia - Ask anyone in the Cypriot capital Nicosia these days what the one thing they never leave home without is and you will find that the unlikely reply is - 'a passport.'

For travellers visiting the eastern Mediterranean island, Nicosia has suddenly become a larger and more interesting city since the barricades that separated the capital's main shopping district along Ledra Street for nearly half a century were torn down earlier this month.

Now, carrying around a passport has become a way of life for many people living in Europe's last divided capital.

'Psychologically it is completely different - now I am walking around with a passport all the time because you never know when I will get a call to meet friends for coffee on the other side,' says Michael Cohen while eating lunch at Il Sabor Latino, an Italian restaurant not far from the crossing on the north.

'After years of division, we feel like we are living in one city.'

The move to open up the symbolic crossing over the United Nations- controlled buffer zone was agreed upon at a landmark meeting in March between newly elected President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who also decided to restart reunification talks within three months.

Ledra Street has been barricaded since 1964 when British peacekeepers decided to divide the street between Nicosia's Greek and Turkish communities as a result of inter-communal fighting.

The entire island has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to a Athens-led coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

While Ledra Street operates like any other crossing requiring a passport or ID for pedestrians to pass through from one side to the other, its reopening signals a climate of trust in efforts to solve the long-running Cyprus problem after years of stalemate.

A UN peace plan to reunite the island in 2004 failed after it was largely rejected by Greek Cypriots in a referendum, although the Turkish Cypriots voted overwhelmingly in favour.

'It has a history - no barricade symbolizes so strongly the island's division or decades of failed reunification attempts as much as this one,' says Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou.

For the first time in 40 years, Cypriots are able to walk the entire length of the Ledra Street or Lokmaci, as the street is known in Turkish, without having their stroll disrupted due to armed military posts that block the entry into a 80-metre strip of weed- infested no-man's land.

Now open, many find the maze of tea houses, kebab stands and traditional merchants' shops in the north a pleasant contrast to the variety of upmarket boutiques and fast food outlets located on its southern stretch.

Although Ledra Street is the sixth crossing to open on the island since Turkish Cypriots lifted restrictions in 2003, the fact that it is directly connected at the heart of the city's commercial sector makes it of psychological as well as practical importance.

'It makes crossing to the other side of the divide more approachable and a part of everyday life,' says Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou.

'People do not feel the same as they do with other crossings where the process can be intimidating,' she added, referring to the only other pedestrian crossing as Ledra Palace.

There, visitors wishing to enter either side of the divided city are forced to trek about 180 metres into no man's land, past dilapidated buildings, including the UN's headquarters, which is filled with prominent bullet holes.

Aside from being visually more pleasing, practically speaking the new crossing in central Nicosia is also easier and more convenient.

'Rather than walking a good 15 minutes from the town centre and a further 10 minutes to swing around the commercial areas in the north of Nicosia, pedestrians can now use the 80-metre crossing to directly walk from one end of Ledra Street in the south and into the Arasta area of Ledra Street in the north,' says Turkish Cypriot Mayor Cemal Bulutoglulari.

UN de-mining experts and Greek and Turkish Cypriot crews spent weeks preparing the crossing for pedestrian traffic - paving roads, installing street lights and securing crumbling buildings with scaffolding.

'Almost half a century of division is symbolized in Ledra Street,' said Osdil Nami, an aide to Talat.

'It also symbolizes for me that when Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots can overcome their fears they can also overcome long- standing disputes and arguments.'