Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

The question was would you open LEDRAS AND PYRGOS PASSAGES?

Moving troops back 200 metres as it was done with the other passages that opened souldn't be a problem for Mr "PRESIDENT" Tala wouldn't it. After all he claims to be the president od a country.

I don't see what difference it makes if Tpap was pressured or not to open the crossings. The fact is that the side refusing to open then now is the side that has been shouting that RoC refused to open the crossing. Let's now see mr Talat's balls...

We have seen Tpaps balls. He tears down the wall then promptly erects Greek flags and has his boys march up and down only feet from the wall in full battle gear.....Both the army and his nationalistic boys.

The flags was there before and stayed there. Let me remind you that Tpap proposed to remove all symbols and Talat said that this is another condition. So the ball is in your pitch now...lets both remove the symbols since you agree.

Btw you haven't answered to my original question again..
Will you open the Ledras and Pyrgos crossings? Will we see the famous Mr Talat's balls?

What I think is both sides should put away their balls and start talking. There is a rumour that they are about to begin but I will not hold my breath. THe RoC has done a fantastic job of alienating the people as well as the government so it is becoming harder to see an end to this.

[G.Man]

Not to seem rediculous, but what kind of message was sent to the rest of the island when a GREEK flag was raised at the demolition of the Ledra wall?

If you ask me that is like the US raising a British flag on independence day... It doesnt promote harmony, it offers a slap round the face and says we are still more serious about enosis than re-unification..

How can you take the upper moral hand over the Turkish flags if you play childish games with the greek flag?

Seems the politicians here are more concerned with point scoring than solving the problem..

[observer]

Out of curiosity, I went to the South over the weekend to look at the new hole in the wall. To me, it seems that there is still a GC barrier, a high plastic wall (higher than the previous barrier?) guarded by two rifle carrying soldiers in combat uniform. In front of the barrier a large Greek flag dominates.

There used to be a viewing platform, with slogans saying things like 'see our occupied homes' and 'we demand the right to return'. Once there was no barrier on the TC side, just a banner saying 'tear down the wall of shame', it rather lost its impact on innocent tourists. Especially when after a brisk walk of 15 to 20 minutes they could be on the other side, looking at the only barrier - on the GC side.

It came as no surprise to see that the viewing platform had been removed. I don't think that it's too cynical to say that that may have been the whole purpose of the exercise.

On the TC side, at least at the time of my visit, no soldiers that I could see, although they might have been away somewhere having their lunch as it was a nice sunny day.

The other crossing points being touted by the South seem merely to deflect attention from their barrier on Ledra Street. I grow more and more to the conclusion that the biggest partitionist on the Island is Papadopoulos.

[observer]

askimwos

Moving troops back 200 metres as it was done with the other passages that opened

Is this actually true? I've never seen any written reference to this being a requirement, but I have seen Turkish/TC soldiers on the buildings by the Metehan/Kermia crossing and Greek/GC soldiers on the GC side either parked or inside a small concrete sentry box.

Neither worry me too much since they mostly seem to use their binoculars to watch the pretty girls, which seems a very sensible thing to do.