By Filipe Rufino - 9th March 2007
Cypriot MEPs are backing their government’s decision to raze a section of a wall dividing the island’s capital.
Soldiers acting under their government’s orders tore down the wall at Ledra street, a popular shopping area in Nicosia, in a bid to open the city to trade with the north.
The move was timed to coincide with the Cypriot’s president’s trip to the EU leaders' summit in Brussels, and to keep Turkey enlargement talks on EU diplomats' radars, analysts say.
Cypriot MEPs from both sides of the political spectrum are urging Turkish Cypriot authorities to pull back and clear the minefields.
Cypriot MEP Yiannakis Matsis told this website "it is a very positive development provided the Turkish army withdraws from the area”.
Matsis, a Christian democrat, added that both sides should step up work demilitarize Nicosia “as soon as possible”.
As long as Turkish troops remain in the area, civilians will not be allowed to cross the checkpoint, Cypriot MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides told this website.
Triantaphyllides, who is from the Nordic green group, underlined that the Turkish side needs to remove landmines in the area before civilians are allowed to cross the border.
He also added a 40-year-old bridge connecting the two sides must be repaired, stressing that “this demand is a question of safety”.
Cypriot president President Tassos Papadopoulos said in Brussels he is waiting for a reaction from the Turkish authorities across the border.
“Now we will see whether Turkey's troops will withdraw so that the passage will be opened or not”, he said, adding that the checkpoint could be reopened within 24 hours if they do so.
But the Turkish Cypriot government has yet to issue new orders to its soldiers.
Turkish Cypriot prime minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer said Nicosia’s move “it is a late but positive development”, however.
The EU’s enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn has earmarked €100.000 to fund the de-mining and repairs needed at the border crossing.
Rehn said today the move is “a major symbolic step” which will encourage efforts to bring the two estranged communities together under a UN plan.
The wall has divided the island of Cyprus since 1974, though since 2003 there have been five checkpoints operating under UN supervision.
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