Famagusta shopkeepers are organising a demonstration in the the old city to demand the immediate opening of the Derynia border crossing (Main picture updated).
The demo is being supported by the Turkish Cypriot teachers’ union (KTOS), the Ancient Famagusta Foundation and the New Cyprus Party (YKP).
In a written statement issued yesterday, the organisers of the event said that they will demand the opening of the barricade before the tourism season is over.
Yilmaz Parlan, shopkeeper in Famagusta and one of the organisers of the demonstration, told Kibris Gazetesi that politics is the “art of solving problems”, but in the TRNC, it has been turned into the art of postponing the solution of problems. He noted that the Cyprus problem has existed for 43 years and that they have been exerting efforts during the past 13 years to open the Derynia crossing point.
Parlan said that the generation which has fought for the opening of Derynia will not be alive in ten years’ time and complained that in spite of this, the politicians are still telling them to wait.
He added that their debts to the state and the banks cannot wait and get bigger every month with the added interest.
Parlan said that the shopkeepers have always been saying that trade will become a bridge for peace and added that those who cannot conduct trade will not be able to survive. Giving the example of the Arasta area in North Nicosia, he said that the volume of trade had been zero in that area and after the crossing points opened, trade had reached 42 million TL. He further complained that the status quo and the politicians committed to upholding it, do not want them to become free as a community and earn money. He noted that these politicians are responsible for the non-opening of Derynia crossing point to date.
Kibris Gazetesi
