Cyprus demolition shows scars, unlocks memories

Nicosia, Mar 10: In just a few hours, a wall that divided the Cypriot capital for over 40 years was torn down, unlocking a flood of memories and revealing crumbling mansions and shop windows displaying goods from a bygone era.

The Greek Cypriot decision to raze the blockade across Ledra Street, carried out in the dead of night, surprised residents and startled bureaucrats more used to tortuous diplomacy between the island's Greek and Turkish communities.

As bulldozers cleared away the debris, the ugly decay lying at the heart of the city for decades was exposed.

''This place was full of life once, I used to cycle through here to work at a shoe factory in 1956, but then the troubles started,'' said Nicosia resident Andreas Lambionides.

''None of us deserved this,'' said Lambionides, now a frail pensioner at 79, leaning on his walking stick as he gazed at an area out of bounds to civilians for decades.

The ''green line'', so called because it was first marked on a map of the island with a green felt-tip pen in 1964, is a UN corridor of land separating the Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Ledra Street in central Nicosia, abandoned amid fighting a decade later, came to symbolise the abrupt division of the city, one with probably more dead ends than any other in the world.

Once-graceful mansions are crumbling with neglect. A battered sign on an abandoned shop advertises cashmere fabrics and ''Harrison Worsteds''.

The shop next door, No 43 Ledra Street, is bolted shut, its window crammed with the milk cartons of long-defunct companies and soft drinks bottles with 1970s labels. Rubbish left by troops stationed here for decades heightens the air of decay.

The enduring partition of the capital took place in 1974, when a brief Greek-inspired coup by Greek Cypriots was met by a Turkish invasion of the northern third of the island.

Cafes, Chain Stores, Textiles Shops

Nowhere are the effects of the division more profound than in Ledra Street.

Greek Cypriot Ledra, a typical bustling high street, boasts a Starbucks, chain stores like Debenhams and Next, and, inevitably, a McDonalds.

A short walk down the road beyond the now-demolished barrier the Turkish Cypriot Ledra looks depressed by comparison. Half the shops are bolted shut and between them are scattered textile shops, jewellers and vegetable markets.

Only Turkey recognises Turkish Cyprus as a state, and this has starved the area of tourists and foreign shops and businesses.

Turkish Cypriots hope the opening of the checkpoint will bring a wave of new customers to their end of Ledra Street.

''It's wonderful,'' said clothes shop owner Salih Doktoroglu, 56. ''If there are 3 million tourists going to the Greek Cypriot side every year and only 20 per cent come here, that would be enough for us.'' While broadly welcoming the end of the barrier, some Greek Cypriots were less enthusiastic. ''Tourists won't come here, they will go there because it is cheaper,'' said Maria Georgiou, 25, a secretary who works in the district.

Greek Cypriots say dismantling the barrier is a first step, but the crossing will not open to civilians until Turkey pulls back its troops.

Diplomats say that if the crossing opens, the impact on the city of 250,000 people will be huge. At present, Cypriots wanting to cross to the other side have to retrace their steps, emerge from the Venetian walls ringing the city and cross at Ledra Palace, some distance away.

''Opening the checkpoint caters to spontaneity, it removes the decision (to cross). Psychologically and symbolically this is different from any other crossing opening,'' said a foreign diplomat familiar with the area.

Reuters