Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

He is just a villager wearing 'hunting staff'....

What kind of civilian in the right mind would get into the dead zone in hunting gear?

[paliometoxo]

so is any one going to be using this crossing regularly?

[EricSeans]

so is any one going to be using this crossing regularly?

Me for one seeing as the only way I crossed before was by swimming round the big Petra!

Politics apart, the scenery on the drive up from Polis past Mansoura and Kokkina to Pyrgos has got to rate as among the best in Cyprus. To be able to continue on through Limnidis towards Xeros and Lefke would be the icing on the cake and as others have pointed out a business boost for the locals.

[halil]

so is any one going to be using this crossing regularly?

Me for one seeing as the only way I crossed before was by swimming round the big Petra!

Politics apart, the scenery on the drive up from Polis past Mansoura and Kokkina to Pyrgos has got to rate as among the best in Cyprus. To be able to continue on through Limnidis towards Xeros and Lefke would be the icing on the cake and as others have pointed out a business boost for the locals.

Advise to drivers
drivers must be very careful because lots of zigzags on their way..... Maximum speed is 30 kM--/h at most of the ways.

[paliometoxo]

the turks have been using the crossing just fine every year in the thousands of them, with a few buses. i think if i ever use it i will see people doing 100km at least in the roads

[halil]

the turks have been using the crossing just fine every year in the thousands of them, with a few buses. i think if i ever use it i will see people doing 100km at least in the roads

when u have time to use the road Palio u will understand why i am warning the people...... it's up to u how fast u drive.... doesn't matter who is the driver Turk or Greek ..... at the end lives will lost.... lots of road signs they put .... maximum speed is 30 KM's/h....

[paliometoxo]

yes halil your probably right, but i dont think it will stop people doing fast speeds down there

[halil]

SPEECH/10/544

Stefan Füle

European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy

Opening of the Limnitis/Yesilirmak crossing point

Official visit to Cyprus

Nicosia, 14 October 2010

Your Excellencies, Honourable guests, Dear residents of Kato Pyrgos and Yesilirmak, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to be here today amongst you to mark the opening of the seventh crossing point in Cyprus.

In the early 1990s, I have personally witnessed another opening. One that led to swift change and which transformed a huge part of the European continent. That opening was driven by the strong desire of the people to overcome an existing physical and political division in Europe, to tear down a wall that for a third of a century had kept apart half a city, half a country and half a continent.

And see what the result is; a European continent united, a European Union of 27 member countries with a population of nearly half a billion people, living peacefully together.

The European project will however not be complete without a solution of the Cyprus problem. Since 2004 it has been the EU policy - and I quote
- "to ensure that the people of Cyprus will soon achieve their shared destiny of a united Cyprus in the European Union".

Today's opening is an encouraging signal.

Today here in the midst of the beautiful surrounding of the Tylliria mountains, we are witnessing another example of this pursuit of peace. Another physical barrier is gone. Slowly but surely, confidence building measures are spreading.

The European Union is fully behind these confidence building measures and is proud to have contributed with its financial support to some of the major landmarks of this pursuit of peace. Since 2005, the European Union has supported the opening of three crossing points, including Limnitis/Yesilirmak.

The EU is also the major contributor to the efforts of the Committee on Missing Persons helping many Cypriot families to come to terms with tragic events of the past I will have the privilege to meet some of these families later today.

We can only conclude that there is progress in Cyprus. Your Excellencies, that is encouraging.

Let me thank the local village leaders for their determination in wanting this to happen. The opening of this crossing point will inject new life and optimism in your communities.

Let me thank the UN and UNDP for their relentless work in facilitating confidence building measures.

Lastly, let me praise the two Cypriot leaders, Demetris Christofias and Dervis Eroglu for their determination to pursue an overall settlement of the Cyprus problem for the benefit of all Cypriots.

I am convinced that you can manage the historical task to arrive at a comprehensive settlement. A settlement that reunites the island; that does away with all crossing points and the Green Line; that makes the only "Green" remaining, the beautiful green of these magnificent mountains.

We will spare no efforts to see this happen. The European Commission will continue to be your ally and friend in this difficult but achievable task. Thank you

[halil]

New crossing point opens in UN-backed efforts to reunify Cyprus


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?N ... yprus&Cr1=

14 October 2010 – A new road crossing between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities was opened today, a step a senior United Nations official said proved the pessimists wrong and raised hopes that the Mediterranean island can be reunited.

“There is hope that the two leaders now can bring this country together and reunite Cyprus,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Alexander Downer said referring to the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders whose talks he has been facilitating in an effort to reunify the island, where a UN peacekeeping mission has been in place since inter-communal violence erupted in 1964.

“That is possible and the success of this project simply demonstrates that point and I think demonstrates it very clearly. It will require a lot of political will, a lot of political courage and the leaders can rest assured that they will get great support, not just from us in the United Nations, but from the broader international community.”

The new Limnitis/Yesilirmak crossing in the northwest of the island required upgrading some six kilometres of road and is the seventh such link facilitating movement between the two communities.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban voiced the hope that it will help strengthen “the climate of trust and goodwill necessary for the UN-supported negotiations to achieve a mutually-acceptable and lasting settlement as soon as possible.”

For the past two years Mr. Downer has been facilitating the talks between Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and his Turkish Cypriot counterparts, first Mehmet Ali Talat and after April elections Dervis Eroglu, in a bid to establish a Federal Government with a single international personality, along with a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State, which would be of equal status.

Other issues include the economy, European Union (EU) matters and property.

Mr. Downer did not underestimate the difficulties in the process and paid tribute to the leaders and the two communities for completing the new project. “I can remember not all that long ago some people saying that this project would never be complete,” he said.

“Others said it was a test of whether it would be possible to reunite Cyprus. “That if it wasn’t even possible to build this crossing and to open it, then it wouldn’t be possible to reunite Cyprus – probably a fair point.

“But it was of course the pessimists that were wrong and the determination of the two sides that made this possible. And it does demonstrate a point that none of this work here in Cyprus, bringing the two sides together, is easy work.”

[paliometoxo]

shared destiny? tell this to the tc side that is doing everything in its power to have two states