CYPRUS: Greek and Turkish Cypriots re-unite and celebrate after years after Ledra street opens

Record ID: 423301

  • Title: CYPRUS: Greek and Turkish Cypriots re-unite and celebrate after years after Ledra street opens
  • Date: 4th April 2008
  • Summary: CROWDS OF PEOPLE PASSING THROUGH LEDRA CROSSING TO BOTH SIDES
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cyprus
  • Country: Cyprus
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE6FT6FHECLEURDTJPY2YMJL7Y
  • Story Text: Turkish Cypriot Mustafa Rifat, 54, an economist, and Greek Cypriot Antonis Laskaridis, 58, a school teacher, were childhood friends in Nicosia when the city was still united. They lived together until the Turkish invasion of 1974. After the invasion they lost touch, when Rifat left the island, seeing each other once only more than 20 years ago before losing contact again. Both came to the Ledra crossing on Thursday in the hopes they might find lost friends. The reunion was an emotional one as tears filled their eyes and they hugged and exchanged their news of the last 20 years and telephone numbers.

    "Quite some time we haven't seen each other Its been years more than 20, 25 years, but it doesn't matter it is important that we see each other now. I knew that they will come, and I was just sitting waiting for my friends to come, any one of them to come," said Rifat with tears in his eyes.
    It was an emotional day all around on Ledra street when the most symbolic barrier in Nicosia was taken down. There were some Greek and Turkish Cypriots who had not seen the other side again after the Turkish invasion that split the island into the two communities divided by a United Nations buffer zone.

    "It was emotional because these were familiar places for us in the past, we used to go shopping there, like shoe shopping, when we were young.
    Now we are strangers until we get used to each other again," said Greek Cypriot Tasoula Stylianou, who crossed to the Turkish Cypriot side for the first time since 1974.
    Officials estimated at least four thousand people crossed from both sides on Thursday. The crossing was still not as simple as the citizens would have hoped however, they still had to show passports at a passport control on either side of Ledra street to cross.
    A committee of Greek and Turkish Cypriots who have been campaigning for the opening of Ledra made a symbolic crossing from the Greek Cypriot to the Turkish Cypriot side of the street carrying flowers and a banner that read "no more borders".
    On the Turkish Cypriot side musicians sang as people clapped, people carried balloons, Greek and Turkish Cypriots met for coffee, and fireworks lit up the sky in a festive atmosphere.
    One citizens group performed a 'freeze' an artistic performance where people freeze in mid motion on the street, created in New York. The performers wanted to symbolize how it has taken too long for a peace solution to be found on the island, freezing time on the island while the division lasted.
    Many from both sides said opening Ledra street was an important step to build trust and confidence between the two peoples, but now the difficult journey was to begin, that of negotiations between political leaders, which will begin at the end of June.

    "We must find a solution in Cyprus. It doesn't matter one door, one gate," said Turkish Cypriot citizen Gunar Kamil, referring to the opening of the Ledra street barrier.
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