CYPRUS: Opening of new crossings will depend on outcome of UN talks

Whether two new crossings at Dherynia and Lefka open soon will depend on the outcome of separate discussions UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will have with Cypriot leaders this week.

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On the agenda will be the first crossings to open to enable the free movement of Cypriots across the Green Line in eight years.

The UN chief will hold separate talks with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on September 28 and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on September 29.

And any decisions on the crossings will be taken at the leaders’ level on the basis of these deliberations, a well-informed source told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

Referring to the Dherynia crossing in the Famagusta district, the source said that a manned Turkish military post has not been removed from the area, while at Lefka, in the north, the Turkish Cypriot side has not completed the technical works that need to be done for its opening.

The Greek Cypriot side says its technical preparations for the opening of the crossing point at Lefka, are almost done, while at Dherynia it is ready for the crossing to operate.

 “Everything will depend on the meetings in New York,” the informed source told CNA.

The source said the situation on the ground has not changed, a manned Turkish military post remains in the area "and our information during the last 48 hours is that they will not remove it”.

The same source said that it is up to the two leaders to decide when the crossing points will open and once this is done then the whole process will move forward.

Cypriot leaders had agreed in 2015 that these two crossings should be made ready for people movement.

The opening of more crossings is seen as an essential element of trust building between the two communities that lived in virtual isolation of each other until Turkish Cypriot authorities paved the way for free people movement in 2003.

Currently, there are seven official crossing points between the Turkish-held north and government south, but the last crossing to open was in 2010.