Ledra Street Crossing, Nicosia, Cyprus

EDM number 1094 in 2006-07, proposed by Andrew Dismore on 12/03/2007.

That this House welcomes the action of President Papadopoulos to remove the wall at the end of Ledra Street, to link this famous shopping area with the equivalent Turkish Cypriot area of Lokmaci; views this as a positive development following the decision by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to remove the military bridge in January; congratulates those Greek and Turkish Cypriots, shopkeepers and others, who have worked together to create this check point, including the bicommunal `Committee for the opening of the check point'; urges the UN to secure the abandoned buildings and complete all other necessary safety measures to allow for safe crossings, following their considerable success in demining the Buffer Zone in the Nicosia area, and to negotiate demilitarisation in the area of the crossing, as part of the eventual demilitarisation of the Old City of Nicosia, to allow Cypriot civilians and visitors from abroad to meet, shop and sightsee the capital of Cyprus as a whole, rather than to view the division of the island as before; and believes that these moves demonstrate that unilateral steps made by Cypriot leaders can help create an atmosphere that can lead to the establishment of the proposed UN committees, with co-operation by Cypriots in their own future, in preparation for a settlement.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs.