Cyprus marks the tenth anniversary since the opening of the checkpoints today, which ended 29 years of physical separation between the two communities, adding another milestone to the long history of continued division on the island.
On April 23, 2003 Turkish Cypriot authorities overcame Turkish military reluctance and opened the sealed gates between the two communities, allowing thousands of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to pass each other in long queues and cross to see the ‘other’ side for the first time in three decades.
Emotional accounts of refugees on both sides returning to their homes and being welcomed by the current inhabitants with open arms and courteous hospitality were beamed and printed by media around the world.
The warnings of the late Rauf Denktash that there would be bloodshed on the streets when Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots mix again proved entirely groundless.
A few years on, one commentator noted that you could find more trouble at a Saturday afternoon football match than from the crossings.
Despite the euphoria which followed the surprise opening, a year and a day later, the mood changed significantly with the overwhelming rejection of the Annan plan by the Greek Cypriots and deep sense of disappointment by the Turkish Cypriots.
Now, 3,650 days after the opening, the initial enthusiasm has seemingly dissipated with many going about their business as if the checkpoints were always open and others as if they had never opened at all.
Ambling along Nicosia’s rejuvenated Ledra Street, the Turkish language can be heard in equal measure to Greek, with both fighting for a place among the multitude of other languages spoken among the hordes of ice-cream eaters.
People no longer double take when they see a car displaying the number plates of the ‘other’ side on any road from Ayia Napa to Kyrenia.
Teenagers who do not remember the physical separation of the two communities that so defined the anguish and sorrow of their parents and grandparents for decades, and who consider the seven crossing points across the Green Line as commonplace as the internet.
However, not everyone in Cyprus has crossed the buffer zone since 2003, nor do many continue to cross regularly.
According to Charis Psaltis, assistant professor of social and developmental psychology at the University of Cyprus, there have been approximately eight million crossings by Greek Cypriots and 14 million by Turkish Cypriots over the last ten years.
The initial massive flows of Cypriots from both communities crossing over have gradually decreased and stabilised. To this day, one third of Greek Cypriots have never crossed to the other side.
Around 40 per cent of Turkish Cypriots now regularly visit the Greek Cypriot community, primarily for shopping, notes Psaltis, while Greek Cypriots who make frequent visits north represent between 10 and 15 per cent of their community.
A long-time expert and author of numerous books on Cyprus, James Ker-Lindsay of the London School of Economics, likens the spirit of April 23, 2003 to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
“That day will go down as one of the most special days in my life. I remember the announcement went out that they’ll open the Green Line, and nobody really knew what it meant.
“We went down to the Ledra Palace crossing, saw my brothers in-law going across and just followed them without even a passport. We just walked through. It was utter chaos, surreal.”
He clearly remembers one Greek Cypriot man, married into a prominent political family, standing on the corner of the Cyta roundabout near the Ledra Palace handing out £10 notes to Turkish Cypriots to go have a cup of coffee.
Another who crossed north came back shocked and pleased, though perhaps not for the most admirable reasons, telling friends he couldn’t believe prostitutes were “a third of the price over there”.
Returning refugees were invited into their homes by the current inhabitants for coffee, who returned personal items that had been saved for decades.
“It was incredible. You don’t often get moments like that. Whatever Denktash’s reasons, all of Europe welcomed the move and yet the Cypriot government came out with the most churlish remarks, saying he was only doing what should have been done,” said Ker-Lindsay.
The government was not the only one caught unawares and on the wrong side of history. One journalist working for a British newspaper recounted going to the quaint Greek Cypriot village of Karmi in the north, where many British nationals settled after 1974.
When approached by the journalist, one British woman came out of the house she was occupying and said she had found a Greek Cypriot woman wondering around ‘her’ garden, picking lemons from ‘her’ tree.
“Do these people have no respect for other people’s property?” she asked without a hint of irony.
According to Ker-Lindsay, the Cypriot students he meets in the UK are evenly split between those who crossed and those who didn’t cross.
“There are young students who don’t remember the option didn’t exist before. Some students look embarrassed when they say they don’t cross, but they are perfectly within their rights. The ability to cross over has become a matter of personal choice.”
Before the openings, he remembers attending a bicommunal darts tournament organised by the UN at the Hilton hotel in the 1990s.
“The Turkish Cypriots threw their first round matches so they could hop into taxis and dart off to Limassol and even Paphos. I took three to Larnaca in my tiny Peugeot,” said Ker-Lindsay.
After spending years immersed in the memory and nostalgia of home, the impact of returning for a temporary visit only was perhaps too much for many Cypriots.
“One has to wonder if the openings gave Greek Cypriots the chance to see what the north is like, and made them think: ‘It’s gone, it’s not really home for us anymore. It’s still our island, but it’s different.’ I think it affected the way they saw reunification,” he said.
One clear message that can be taken from the openings is that economic interaction is key to normalising relations, he argued.
“The best benefit of opening the checkpoints has been economic interaction… It may be minimal but it shows interaction and cordial relations can happen. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots don’t have to be best friends, but there is no reason why they can’t coexist,” he said.
Head of the bicommunal cultural heritage committee Takis Hadjidemetriou is adamant that Cypriots have proven they can live together.
“Of course the situation is much better with the opening of the checkpoints,” he said.
Just last Sunday, 120 Greek Cypriots went to Diorios (a former mixed village in the Kyrenia district, west of Myrtou) and were welcomed by the Turkish Cypriots there. Together they cleaned up the local church, while the Greek Cypriots held a service without obtaining permits.
“They had a lovely time,” he said, adding that many villages have taken advantage of the openings to enhance ties between former and present inhabitants.
“When the checkpoints opened, we could have grabbed the opportunity to solve the Cyprus problem but we didn’t, so people are solving it on an individual basis.
“If the Cyprus problem is solved, there is a good foundation for Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots to work together,” said Hadjidemetriou.
“We have people who are willing to accept certain things, but their leaderships operate with slogans, chauvinism and nationalism.”
Former UN adviser on economic matters Fiona Mullen said the high hopes and exhilaration felt after the checkpoints opened rapidly turned into disappointment by 2004.
Ten years on, she questions whether interaction has increased the level of trust between the two sides, noting that trade along the Green Line has proved frustrating to most, with many reluctant to engage without higher up political approval.
“I think it’s an exaggeration to say people live happily side by side, more like shop happily side by side. The positive is that the expected violence did not happen. Instead, we see a lot of mutual indifference.”
Mullen argued that interaction is mainly taking place either between hardcore peaceniks or specific social groups.
“Intercommunal relations are always related to what the big political leaders are doing. If we didn’t have the sudden economic crisis, we might have hoped something would change, but it’s hard to expect that now.”
However, according to Psaltis, the news is not all bad, at least from an academic perspective.
According to research on intergroup relations, the more contact that takes place between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, the less prejudice and more trust each side has for the other.
“The models of contact we tested apply to both pro-reconciliation people and non-reconciliation people. Contact reduces prejudice more for reconciliation people but we still find significant and positive effects of contact for non-reconciliation people.
“We find especially high and positive effects of contact for elementary, secondary school and university students who usually do not have contact,” said Psaltis.
“In our recent study, we found that 35 per cent of Turkish Cypriots have at least one Greek Cypriot friend while the corresponding figure for Greek Cypriots is 15 per cent,” he added.
And in recent years, these figures are on an upward trend, though they rarely get discussed in public. There is much discussion on the group of Greek Cypriots who visit casinos in the north, but these represent a tiny fraction of the community, he added.
“Finally, perhaps the most important finding from a political perspective is that the positive effects of contact increase the desire for coexistence and reunification with the other community and this applies to both communities.
“Therefore, the argument that the checkpoints should be closed because they consolidate the faits accomplis on the ground is completely contrary to the research data not only in Cyprus but also around the world.”
Psaltis called on the political leadership to support and increase the quantity and quality of contact between the two communities.
Asked how the research factors in with the low figures of Greek Cypriots crossing north, he said: “There is no contradiction. The more contact people have the less prejudiced they become but not many Greek Cypriots have contact, this is the problem.”
Regarding a perceived sense of indifference and lack of enthusiasm over intercommunal relations, he agreed that a lot of Greek Cypriots crossed in the beginning to see their homes and then slowly stopped because they don’t see the sense in going back to a place they can’t call their own anymore.
“But this concerns crossing to the north. They can still have contact with Turkish Cypriots in the south when the Turkish Cypriots cross to go shopping.”

Cyprus Mail