23 April 2003
Green Line Crossings Open
Turkish Cypriot authorities open the Ledra Palace crossing in Nicosia, letting Cypriots cross the Green Line freely for the first time since 1974.
For almost three decades the ceasefire line, known as the Green Line, was closed to ordinary traffic. Crossing was limited to a few exceptions, and a generation grew up without seeing the other side of the island.
Spring 2003 brought change from several directions at once. At The Hague on 10 March, Rauf Denktaş told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that he would not put the UN reunification plan to a referendum, and Annan said the process had reached the end of the road. In northern Nicosia, pro reunification groups had brought Turkish Cypriots onto the streets in mass rallies, one of them possibly drawing up to 100,000 people. On 16 April the Republic of Cyprus signed its EU accession treaty in Athens. Turkey, meanwhile, was under pressure from Washington and Brussels to show it wanted a solution.
On 21 April the TRNC Council of Ministers decided to ease restrictions on movement, and on the morning of 23 April 2003 the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia opened. Almost 3,000 Turkish Cypriots and more than 1,700 Greek Cypriots crossed on the first day. Many Greek Cypriots spent the Orthodox Easter holiday visiting the homes and villages they had left in 1974, while thousands of Turkish Cypriots made the journey the other way. Queues grew to several hours. Within the first few days an estimated 10,000 Greek Cypriots had gone north and more than 7,000 Turkish Cypriots had come south. No violence was reported.
The Republic of Cyprus, which regards free movement as a right across the whole island, welcomed the step cautiously and warned that it was no substitute for a settlement. It laid on free buses for Turkish Cypriots and planned work permits for them in the south, and in the years that followed thousands of Turkish Cypriots applied for Republic of Cyprus citizenship. Analysts on both sides debated the motives behind the timing, and Serdar Denktaş, then deputy prime minister in the north, said the openings were not a replacement for a political solution.
Ayios Dometios (Metehan) opened for vehicles on 10 May 2003, and Ledra Street followed in April 2008. Today there are nine crossing points along the line.