I almost zipped right past the small headline on BBC yesterday because I wasn’t looking directly at it, but fortunately I saw it before I clicked on something else. On Thursday night, Greek Cypriot authorities dismantled part of the barrier that runs through the capital city, Nicosia, where it bisects Ledras Street, a former thoroughfare in the Venetian-built round city.

This is a pretty big step — I think. Assuming that the Greek Cypriot authorities are doing it for the ‘right’ reason (stepping toward rapprochement and reconciliation with the Turkish Cypriot north) and not for the ‘wrong’ reason (trying to embarrass Ankara at upcoming EU talks), this could be a sign that things are moving in the right direction on Cyprus once again.

You may recall … if you’ve been with me that long … that I was on Cyprus in 2004 right after the UN-backed referendum on reunification failed after the Greek Cypriots rejected a plan that they considered unfair to them. I’ll admit that I see their point–there was a lot of swagger over the fact that the Turks voted yes and the Greeks voted no, but even some people that I talked to in Turkey admitted that they would have voted against the Annan plan if they were Greek Cypriot. The people who authored the document said that it wasn’t ideal, but it was ‘the best they could come up with.’ Hardly a ringing endorsement. Add to this that there was incredible political pressure in the south once the administration of Tassos Papadopoulos came out against the document, and it was a recipe for disaster through and through.

Enough about that.

Here’s Ledras Street as I photographed it on June 30, 2004 (Click for a larger view, click again to close — it’ll take a second):

And here it is Thursday night:

And here it is on Friday morning:

Both sides say they’re working to get the new crossing open as soon as possible. Could this be the start of something new on Cyprus? Can we hope? It would be awfully nice to have some good news out of the eastern Mediterranean for a change …

Tags: Cyprus, greek_cypriot, Nicosia, turkish_cypriot