Yet another over-reaction

Ledra street hitch overcome
UNFICYP teams this morning went into the Ledra Street buffer zone and begun the demining process ahead of the opening of the crossing point there. The Turkish forces had barred them from entering the area yesterday amid reports the army was unhappy at not having been consulted over the deal. Last night, however, an UNFICYP spokesman told the Cyprus Mail that the obstacles to starting the process had been removed. Earlier, President Christofias had refrained from pointing the finger and expressed the hope that whatever had prompted the Turkish army suddenly to stall on opening Ledra Street would be resolved soon. However, House President and Diko President, Marios Karoyan, had no such qualms, saying the Turkish army's apparent move to renege on the agreement to open Ledra Street “proves yet again its intransigent stance”, while Diko's parliamentary spokesman Andreas Angelides claimed the hitch was due to the arrival in the north today of the Turkish Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit.

An editorial in Politis says that the Cyprus problem remains unsolved for many reasons one being the blame game. Every time a new procedure begins, the press, analysts and politicians are lying in wait for the first stumble, the first difficulty, the first lie. Then a flood of criticism breaks out against the other side - that it is intransigent, that it doesn't want a solution, that it doesn't implement what was agreed, that it tricked us. This is exactly what happened just now over the Ledra Street opening. The details have not become totally clear. Yet our side as usual over-reacted. "Complications over Ledra Street. Attilla doesn't let us open the road blocks" was the gist of the TV and press coverage. This is not the way to solve the Cyprus problem. We must show some understanding for the problems of the T/Cs. We're not the only ones suffering because of the invasion. Christofias is showing that he does understand. But for him to succeed we must all do so too. And first and foremost the mass media.