Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Wednesday said he is ready to open a new crossing point in Mia Milia, on the eastern edge of Nicosia.
Speaking to Kibris Postasi TV, he said he had already discussed the matter with the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel after the informal dinner with President Nikos Christodoulides and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week.
The result of the discussion with Ustel, he said, was that “a road can be built in Mia Milia and the crossing point can be prepared”.
To this end, he said the opening of a new crossing point in Mia Milia “will be a very positive development for increasing trade”.
He also said such a crossing point will “ease the traffic congestion” at and around the Ayios Dhometios crossing point.
“The opening of a crossing point at Mia Milia is on the agenda. It would be right to opene up an area of movement which would be beneficial to both peoples” on the island, he said.
It had been revealed after the informal dinner that both Tatar and Christodoulides had agreed to hold future meetings to discuss the opening of more crossing points.
Mia Milia is one of the locations which has been touted for a new crossing point, as well as the village of Pyroi between Ercan (Tymbou) airport and Larnaca, and Kokkina, the Turkish Cypriot exclave between the villages of Pomos and Kato Pyrgos.
Tatar had pushed for the opening of a crossing point in Mia Milia in June last year, but he had said the proposal met a stumbling block when the Greek Cypriot side suggested that a crossing point be opened in Kokkina.
He had at the time poured cold water on the idea of a crossing point in Kokkina, saying that it is not possible to open a crossing point there as it is a “sacred area” and functions as a military base.
In August this year, Pyroi’s mukhtar-in-exile Georgia Ioannou called for a crossing point to be constructed in her village, and said Christodoulides “promised us that [the crossing point] is the next step, together with one in Mia Milia”.
Pyroi would be a convenient place for a crossing point to be placed for a relatively large proportion of Cyprus’ population. The village is located just west of the town of Athienou, and thus a crossing point could offer an alternative and quicker route to Nicosia for residents of the town and its surrounding villages.
