The open crossing points perpetuating partition

Opinion Cyprus problemNikos ChristodoulidesTufan ErhurmanUnited Nations The open crossing points perpetuating partition File Nicosia Green Line 10 Relevant News Man hospitalised as West Nile virus case confirmed in Cyprus 20 August 2026 The open crossing points perpetuating partition 20 August 2026 Admire the state: how it recycles its own inertia 20 August 2026 Alecos Michaelides 20 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Every so often, Cyprus’s political scene stumbles on a “new” opportunity for the Cyprus problem. This time round it’s the Christodoulides–Erhürman meetings, the Confidence Building Measures, the prospect of new crossing points opening, and the fresh burst of activity expected from the UN and its Secretary-General. The government talks of restarting negotiations. The parties trot out the same old line about a “window of opportunity.” And everyone is told, once again, to be optimistic. There’s just one uncomfortable question. One that’s treated as pure provocation by anyone who’s already made peace with apartheid as the final answer to the Cyprus problem: where exactly has this policy actually got us? For decades now, under occupation, instead of asking how we overturn that occupation and the division it created, we ask how we make the division a little more… functional. Open one more crossing point. Smooth the passage across. Boost the contacts. Sign off on another round of confidence-building measures, which end up doing nothing more than legitimising the occupation regime and flattering whichever Erhurman fancies himself a statesman. Crossing points don’t dismantle the division. They cement it. They inflate the illusion of prosperity and a peace that was never real, the very illusion the big parties, and the small ones, keep selling us. They create apartheid conditions, so the poor souls caught in it can convince themselves the coffee at Büyük Han tastes of peace, not of war. Bit by bit, we’re getting used to it: two separate administrations, two entirely different economic and political realities, with a handful of crossings stitched between them. We’re being trained to live with division, so long as it’s a “comfortable” division, an accessible one, one that keeps the economy ticking over. That isn’t liberation. That’s adaptation. And this is exactly where the political establishment, DISY and AKEL alike, still alive and kicking, carries the real blame. Whatever differences they claim to have, they’re both locked into the same strategic thinking: the bizonal, bicommunal federation as the starting point, now elevated to dogma; talks for the sake of talks; every confidence-building measure trotted out as proof that “something is moving.” They still back a new UN Secretary-General initiative, still back restarting the process on the same framework that has already failed, spectacularly. And they do this despite the fact that 2004 should have closed the book on an entire cycle of illusions. It didn’t. What followed were years of talks, “historic convergences,” fresh initiatives, fresh “hopes.” Then in 2017, Crans-Montana arrived to confirm, once again, that we were exactly nowhere. And still, the political establishment carries on as if all that’s missing is one more push. The Christodoulides government, unfortunately, insists on breathing life back into a process that’s already flatlined. Rather than opening a real debate about what a solution and liberation actually mean today, it settles for managing things as they already are. So presidential elections, candidacies, alliances and opinion polls have started muscling their way onto the political horizon. The Cyprus problem is turning, once again, into a bargaining chip for pre-election positioning, instead of being the battleground where genuinely different visions for this country’s future ought to be fought out. What we need is a peaceful revolution at home. A clean break from this inertia. A constant reminder that our homeland lies behind the Pentadaktylos, not in party headquarters, not in the Presidential Palace, and not along Limassol’s seafront. No government gets to simply manage division and occupation. To rebrand everyday coexistence as a “solution.” To settle for the noise of yet another negotiating round, or to keep promising solution plans the people have already thrown out. What we need is a new policy for Cyprus, one that starts from the liberation and reunification of the country: the withdrawal of the occupying troops, the abolition of the guarantees, the restoration of the rights of all Cypriots, and the return of every refugee to their home. And if all of that sounds like nothing more than a nice slogan, then what exactly is the CBM policy? What is this fixation on a bizonal, bicommunal federation that has already failed and been discredited? The vultures who’ve caught the scent of a carcass and are praying for one more crossing point to open, supposedly to “help the process,” what do they actually have to offer, if not a division dressed up as a “loose federation,” while the other side is already talking about two separate states? Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Man hospitalised as West Nile virus case confirmed in Cyprus Admire the state: how it recycles its own inertia He wanted to exist only on paper South Korea estimates North Korea has up to 120 nuclear warheads, far above Trump’s figure Israeli warns Turkey against ‘dangerous adventures’ in Syria; Syria says no Turkish build-up planned Trump warns of economic consequences for any country that supports Iran Cyprus ranks mid-tier on EU minimum wage when adjusted for purchasing power Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.