Residents of the Tillyria region on Saturday held a protest to demand that crossing points be opened to the Turkish Cypriot Kokkina exclave.
The demonstrators gathered in the village of Pachyammos, which is situated immediately west of Kokkina, and stressed that it would be unfair for other parts of the island to have crossing points opened before them.
“Others cannot have their lives made easier while some of our residents have been living in isolation for more than 60 years,” Polis Chrysochous mayor Yiotis Papachristofi said, adding that should crossing points be opened on either side of Kokkina, “the journey to Nicosia would be reduced by half an hour”.
Kato Pyrgos mukhtar Nikos Kleanthous said the current initiative to open new crossing points presents a “unique and final” opportunity to Tillyria, and said the Greek Cypriot side “must exploit this” and place Kokkina “high on the list of priorities to be submitted”.
“If it is not exploited at this time, it will be difficult for such an opportunity to arise again. For us, the opening of Kokkina is a matter of survival, since this region is at risk of extinction,” he said.
Green party leader Giorgos Perdikis said that if a crossing point is not opened in Kokkina, the Mia Milia crossing point in eastern Nicosia “cannot be opened”, and added that his position on the matter is “irrevocable”.
President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar are set to meet on Monday to discuss the matter of new crossing points, with the pair yet to see eye to eye on the matter.
Tatar has in the past said that while his aim is to open new crossing points linking the Republic and the north, he believes it is the Greek Cypriot side’s aim to open what would effectively be transit roads connecting the Republic with other parts of the Republic.
While crossing point near Kokkina, for example, would make life easier for the residents of the surrounding Greek Cypriot villages, the exclave itself has a civilian population of zero, thus raising questions of whether such a crossing point would be beneficial for Turkish Cypriots.
The focus on potential crossing points in Kokkina and potentially Pyroi has drawn criticism from some in Nicosia, with Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci saying the capital has been “made a slave” to crossing points in less populated areas.
“The crossing points in Nicosia have been made a slave to these two crossing points. We still think that this can be advanced through different diplomatic channels on the table,” he told television channel Kanal Sim on Friday.
Earlier, Tatar had described the Greek Cypriot side’s focus on Pyroi and Kokkina as “unacceptable”, and both he and Harmanci visited Mia Milia earlier this month to show support for such a crossing point.
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