Cyprus-Forum.com

[humanist]

clear message, to Turkish Speaking Cypriots, Turks are the bossess and you the hamalides (slaves), in your own country.

Turks mull partial Ledra Street pull-out

By Menelaos Hadjicostis
TURKISH occupation army commanders are mulling a limited troop withdrawal that would allow for a crossing point opening at divided Ledra Street, reports suggest.
But despite speculation, no formal deal is in place as photos show armed Turkish troops continuing to patrol the northern side of the busy shopping street that has long symbolised the island’s division.
Reports surfaced that Turkish military chiefs have become more responsive to Nicosia’s calls for a troop pull-back from the Ledra Street area if a crossing point is to open.
With Nicosia demolishing a concrete barrier on the government-controlled side of the street, Ankara and Turkish army chiefs may be feeling the pressure to wrest back the initiative.
A foreign diplomatic source said talks for a checkpoint opening – the sixth connecting the government-controlled south and the Turkish-held north - are “on the right track”.
UN Peacekeeping Force (UNFICYP) Spokeswoman Anne Bursey confirmed that senior UN military officials are holding contacts with Turkish occupation army commanders on a possible Ledra Street opening.
But she couldn’t confirm that Turkish troops have abandoned either Ledra Street patrols or sentry posts in the near vicinity.
“Senior UN military officials met early last week with Turkish Forces commanders. Current issues were discussed including a Ledra Street Crossing.”
“The UN cannot confirm a change on the ground at Ledra Street.”
Moreover, Bursey said there has been no official communication from either the National Guard or the Turkish army on “unmanning”, military jargon for a troop reduction within walled Nicosia.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat’s spokesman Hasan ErAakiAa, said Turkish army commanders are talking with UN military liaisons on a Ledra Street opening, but denied a troop pull-back is on the agenda.
However, Halkin Sesi columnist and Radio May Editor-in-Chief Hasan Kahvecioglu spoke of a Turkish army change of heart as military commanders now look favourably on a troop pull-back.
Citing confidential sources, Kahvecioglu said Turkish commanders appear to have made an about-face on steadfast calls for an unconditional crossing point opening without a troop drawdown.
“It looks positive,” Kavhecioglu told The Cyprus Weekly.
“The Turkish military has agreed with the Greek Cypriot side to move troops back 100 metres from Ledra street positions...but there is no formal agreement yet.”
Independent daily Afrika earlier reported that “an understanding” had been reached between National Guard chiefs, UN military liaisons and Turkish occupation forces commanders on a mutual troop pull-back from either side of Ledra Street.
The paper said Turkish Land Forces Commander Ilker Basbug has taken a personal interest in Ledra Street and had secretly visited the occupied north last week for an on-the-spot assessment.
The paper said once a formal agreement is in place, work to shore up crumbling buildings lining either side of the street inside the UN-controlled buffer zone and remove booby traps or discarded invasion-era ordnance would be financed by the EU.
It added that a crossing point is expected to open in early July.
However, The Cyprus Weekly photographs indicate that in the absence of any formal deal, it’s business as usual for armed Turkish occupation army sentries patrolling on foot at regular intervals behind fencing raised to obscure their presence.
Despite the Turkish Cypriot regime’s dismantling of the controversial elevated footbridge in January, Nicosia has said no crossing point would open unless Turkish troops are removed from the area.
Nicosia offered a to pull National Guard soldiers from the area if Turkish army chiefs would consent. To back up its point, Nicosia tore down earlier this month the concrete wall used as a sentry post.
The insistence on a troop withdrawal intend to underscore the fact that Turkish army top brass commanding over 40,000 troop in the north continue to call the shots, scoffing at civilian rule.
A Ledra Street crossing point was among eight additional checkpoints the government had proposed in July 2004, more than a year after Turkish Cypriots eased restrictions on crossing the divide.
A Ledra Street opening would further erode Turkish Cypriot claims of “Greek Cypriot-imposed isolation”.
It was in Ledra Street that British colonial troops erected the first barbed wire barricades in 1955, barriers which became more permanent when intercommunal violence erupted in 1963.
A year later, UN peacekeeping troops arrived and have remained ever since.