Symbolic Cypriot crossing point shut abruptly

GREECE: Greek Cypriot authorities yesterday shut a symbolic checkpoint just hours after it opened for the first time in half a century, claiming the Turkish Cypriot side had broken an agreement on the presence of police.

A little earlier in the day, Greek and Turkish Cypriots had been celebrating the tearing down of the barricades separating one end of Nicosia's Ledra Street from the other. But the presence of Turkish Cypriot police in disputed UN-controlled no-man's-land between the two sides triggered the abrupt re-closure yesterday evening, less than 12 hours after the historic opening.

"It is closed because of a violation of what was agreed by the occupation authorities," Cypriot justice minister Kypros Chrysostomides said, referring to the Turkish Cypriot side. "We are trying to determine what happened," a UN spokesman said.

Witnesses in the area said the Greek Cypriot move was followed about 30 minutes later with the Turkish Cypriots shutting the crossing on their side. The move to open the street came as the two communities prepare talks to end the Mediterranean island's division, an obstacle to Turkey's hoped-for membership of the EU and a source of tension between Nato partners Athens and Ankara.

Hundreds of Greek and Turkish Cypriots crossed to the other side after an 80m stretch of the road in the main commercial district of Nicosia was opened in a ceremony attended by UN envoys and dignitaries from both communities.

© 2008 Reuters

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times