Cyprus ceasefire line open, but few venture across

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas on Tuesday authorized opening checkpoints on the so-called truce "green line" for day trips, hoping to bolster confidence between the two sides after the collapse of U.N.-brokered peace talks last month.
But Greek Cypriots on the Mediterranean island have rejected his move as a symbolic ploy rather than a real move for peace, and an anticipated flood of people was initially just a trickle crossing a checkpoint in the divided capital Nicosia.

A Turkish Cypriot police spokesman said in the first four hours 191 Turkish Cypriots went south and 57 Greek Cypriots went north through the checkpoint.

"I have been waiting for 29 years, I can wait a bit more," said Greek Cypriot driving instructor Iakovos Nikitaras, 48, sitting patiently in his white van at the northern Turkish Cypriot checkpoint with his wife Maria.

The green line, manned by troops on either side, has separated the Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south since a Turkish intervention 1974 following a short-lived Athens-engineered coup by Greek Cypriot supporters of union with Greece (enosis). A U.N. peacekeeping force guards the buffer zone.

"BEAUTIFUL DAY"
Kemal Yorgancioglu, 78, said he was crossing into the south for the first time since 1974 to visit some old Greek Cypriot friends.

"This is a beautiful day. We grew up on that side. It will be the first time I cross in 29 years," he said. Yorgancioglu was travelling with his two adult sons. His son Aydin, 46, called the crossing "long overdue".

Last February, a proposed U.N. peace deal collapsed in arguments about land and population exchanges, ending hopes that a united Cyprus, rather than just the Greek Cypriot part, could join the European Union in May 2004.

Greek Cypriot officials are not directly discouraging visits to the north, but have issued a pointed reminder that it would be "unthinkable" for Cypriots to hand over passports to Turkish Cypriots to visit their own country.

The first Greek Cypriot was allowed through three hours after the checkpoint opened. "I want to see Varosha," said Christos Michael, 51, as he crossed. Varosha is an abandoned suburb of Famagusta, a sprawling Turkish Cypriot city on the eastern coast. A group of Turkish Cypriots standing on the other side of the checkpoint applauded as he entered.

"I want to go to Ledra street… to Haleppi cake shop," said Altuner, giggling as she named a once well-known tea room in southern Nicosia. But things change: Ledra Street is now a chic thoroughfare boasting western chains such as Woolworths, Next and the Body Shop. The cake shop is long shut and is now a Chinese takeaway.