With the new breach, the sixth, opened in the wall that divides the city of Nicosia on 9 March, the island of Cyprus has taken another step towards reunification. At dawn last Friday, the bulldozers moved into Ledra Street and demolished part of the wall testifying to the conflict between Greeks and Turks that has cast a long shadow over the island for over thirty years. The new breach in the wall has great symbolic value because Ledra Street is the street that runs along the ceasefire line and cuts the city in two. The breach de facto unifies the Greek and Turkish zones of the city. “It’s an important but not yet decisive event”, declared Msgr. Giorgio Khoury of the Cypriot Maronite Church in a comment to SIR . “But we mustn’t give way to facile enthusiasm. Three things now need to be done: demilitarising the zone, de-mining it and reconstructing the houses along the frontier line, abandoned for over thirty years. EU funding – Khoury pointed out – is available to this end. If an agreement is reached between the Greek and Cypriot sides, all this could be done in the space of a few weeks. Only then could we truly say that an important step has been taken in the reunification of the island. We need to continue to hope and to pray for the island and work in everyway life for reconciliation and forgiveness”. “Cyprus must no longer suffer the indignity of being the only European city to be divided by a wall – said the President of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, René van der Linden -; a step has been taken that could contribute to dialogue and reconciliation”.
