Looking through a hole in the Green Line into the Buffer Zone, Photo: flickr

Days ago, another crossing point, one of immense practical and psychological importance, was agreed to open by the two Cypriot communities leaders. This decision, ought to be financially supported by EU, reasonably raised hopes in the context of the ongoing negotiations for a settlement. The opening of the Limnitis/ Yesilirmak crossing point will help everyday lives of both communities. But the development will knock down not only physical, but psychological barriers too.

For years, the narratives developed in the communities are conceptually conflictual and do not allow for a common Cypriot vision to emerge and facilitate a solution; Turkish Cypriots have been the reflection of the demonised other Greek Cypriot and vice versa. The physical division of the island has come also as a result of this psychological division but at the same time has played a huge role to establish and make fragmentation stronger. In this context, any action that seeks to diminish the territorial division is a massive threat to the emotional division too.

It is indeed true that measures such as the openning of Limnitis/ Yesilirmak point, besides facilitating practical issues (such as movement of persons and goods), hold a great importance for the narratives prevailing in each side. Often called ‘confidence buidling measures’, those actions address the psychological division on the island in which the physical separation is largely founded on. The faciliation of contacts between the two Cypriot sides does go a long way towards the end of mistrust which is dominating and perpertuating the conflict. If a common narrative space in which both Cypriot communities will participate and interact is unveiled, a possibility of a common territorial space and a solution will become much more possible. For every street barrier that is lifted, a new psychological road to solution is opened.