LEDRA STREET CROSSING OPENS IN NICOSIA AFTER 44-YEAR SPLIT

Greek and Turkish Cypriots opened a crossing Thursday at Ledra Street, a main shopping street in Cyprus’ divided capital that has come to symbolize the island’s ethnic partition. Ledra Street has been split for 44 years. The rival leaders on the island agreed to open a crossing there during a meeting last month that revived hopes for an overall peace deal. "We are living a historic day today. We are witnessing one of the obstacles to a solution come down," said Osdil Nami, aide to Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who said that "almost half a century of division is symbolized" in Ledra Street. "It also symbolizes for me that when Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots can overcome their fears .... they can overcome long-standing disputes and arguments," he said during a ceremony to open the street. Officials from both sides of the divide cut ribbons to colored helium balloons to mark the opening of the street at the end of a ceremony attended by Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials as well as UN peacekeepers. The Ledra Street crossing becomes the sixth point at which people can cross between Cyprus' Greek Cypriot south and Turkish occupied north. But ID cards or passports are still needed to move between the two sides. "We still have a long way to go," Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou said. "This is the first step. We hope many more will follow." “We wish all roads in this country were open for all citizens,” said Georgios Yakovu, special representative of the Cypriot President Ledra Street was split in 1964 during the outbreak of intercommunal fighting - when British peacekeepers laid barbed wire across the street between Nicosia’s Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors. Ten years later, the island was divided when Turkey invaded in response to a short-lived coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Boundary restrictions in divided Cyprus were relaxed by the Turkish Cypriots in 2003. Ledra Street’s symbolism injects momentum in a renewed reunification drive, the AP reports.

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