DHERYNIA: Cypriot officials opened two new border crossings Monday for the first time in eight years, the latest push for peace by the two sides after UN-backed talks collapsed last year.
Dozens of people from the island’s Greek Cypriot south streamed across the eastern Dherynia border post, walking past United Nations peacekeepers into the breakaway Turkish-backed north.
At the same time, the Lefka or Aplici crossing opened in the northwest of the Mediterranean island.
“I am very pleased,” said 65-year-old Turkish-Cypriot Hasan Uzun about the move. “I am sick, but I wanted to come here and see this beautiful day with my eyes. I am very emotional now.”
Ahead of the reopening of the Dherynia crossing, soldiers removed barriers wrapped in rusty barbed wire while a small group of riot police stood by.
Despite arguments breaking out among onlookers in the run-up to the midday (1000 GMT) opening, the crowd passed peacefully across the border.
The wreckage of a car could be seen off the main road in the UN-patrolled buffer zone, while nearby signs warned of mines beyond a barbed wire fence.
“Today is good day for Cyprus,” said Elizabeth Spehar, head of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.
“These crossing points will play an important role in helping to increase people to people contacts, contributing to build much needed trust and confidence between the communities on the island.”
The development is also seen as a vital step to reviving peace negotiations, which collapsed in acrimony in July 2017.
“It’s another asset to the peace talks,” said Chris Charalambous, who was just 18 when war broke out more than 44 years ago.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third in response to a coup sponsored by the military junta then in power in Athens seeking to unite the island with Greece.
For the first time since fleeing the conflict, Charalambous was looking forward to seeing his house which now lies in a military zone beyond the border posts.
“I’m just going to walk down and then I walk back, I don’t know if I can stand spending time in the north,” he told AFP.
While houses still line the road to the north of the checkpoint where Turkish and Turkish Cypriot flags fly, trees and bushes now cling to the abandoned buildings.
Goats were grazing in the former residential area, which remains fenced off behind wire and red military signs.
“All these houses are destroyed... time destroys everything, 44 years is too much,” said 72-year-old Iacovos Coshandis.
Before the war, he used to walk to school along the road and said he still hopes to see Cyprus reunited.
The island has been divided for more than four decades and the two communities lived isolated from one another until Turkish Cypriot authorities cleared the way for the free movement of people following a previous round of talks in 2003.
In 1996, Dherynia was the scene of riots when two Greek Cypriots were killed by Turkish forces in one of the worst incidents on the cease-fire line.
But despite being pleased that the Dherynia crossing had been opened, resident Helen said she felt anxious about going to see the conflict-hit area she once traveled through daily.
“I think the political situation is the problem. The people, we are friends, because we are all Cypriots,” she said, declining to give her surname.
The decision to open the two border crossings came after President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met last month in the UN-protected area in the divided capital Nicosia.
Can Emre Cagin, a 21-year-old Turkish Cypriot, said he was feeling excited after waiting for years for the border crossing to open.
“I think this is a really important moment for us Cypriots,” he said, as he and his mother waited to have their documents checked.
“I’m going to see that side for the first time, and I’m going to live that peace feeling inside me.”
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New border crossings open in divided Cyprus, first in 8 years
New border crossings open in divided Cyprus, first in 8 years
- Dozens of people from the island’s Greek Cypriot south streamed across the eastern Dherynia border post
- At Dherynia soldiers removed barriers wrapped in rusty barbed wire while a small group of riot police stood by
Chinese villagers struggle for heat as gas subsidies fade
XUSHUI: Almost a decade after China began curbing coal burning to stop thick winter smog, villagers in northern Hebei province are struggling to afford their heating bills with most gas subsidies now phased out.
In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favor of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
China’s central government allocated funds to refit stoves, but subsidies faded after three years and additional aid has drastically declined, local media reported this week.
In Xushui, a district in Hebei roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) outside Beijing, villagers told AFP they avoided turning on the heating because it drained their incomes.
“Regular folks can’t afford it... Spending 1,000 yuan ($143) per month on heat — no one can stand that,” a resident in his 60s told AFP at a farmers’ market.
“Everyone likes that (the air) is clean. There’s not one person that doesn’t like it,” he said, asking not to be named for fear of “trouble.”
“But... the cost of clean (air) is high,” he added.
On the clear, sunny day AFP visited, the warmest temperature was just under six degrees Celsius, with lows of minus seven.
Restaurant worker Yin Chunlan said that her elderly in-laws need to pay up to 7,000 yuan per year to heat their six-room village home.
Yin, 48, lives in an apartment in town and says her annual bill is a third of that.
“But it’s not the same in the village,” she told AFP.
“They have to set their heating much higher, and the temperature still isn’t as warm, so it wastes gas and wastes money.”
Yin’s in-laws often pile on extra blankets to stay warm.
“When I see it, it’s quite pitiful,” said Yin, wiping away a tear. “Nothing can be done.”
In one village, a woman in her 70s wore a green padded jacket underneath an apron as she crossed her outdoor courtyard.
Heating in her home is not turned on during the daytime, she said, showing AFP the system’s switchboard mounted above her stove displaying “off.”
The woman, who did not give her name, said the dial could reach 60C. When asked if the temperature inside could feel as warm, she laughed.
- Articles taken down -
Reports that villagers in Hebei were layering up under quilts to avoid costly heating peppered Chinese social media in the first week of the new year.
An article by Farmers’ Daily reshared in state media CCTV’s opinion section said in rural Hebei natural gas costs up to 3.4 yuan per cubic meter compared to 2.6 yuan in rural areas of Beijing.
Villagers told AFP they felt the huge price gap was unfair.
But the original article was quickly taken down, with republications, including the CCTV article, inaccessible days later.
China’s Ministry of Finance said in 2021 a total of 13.2 billion yuan in funds had been distributed for clean heating across Hebei.
But subsidies to support the installation of new systems and for gas bills, which had lasted three years, would not be renewed, it said in a letter.
The move came around the same time that international gas prices were driven up by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last year, Chinese authorities reported national gas consumption growth had slowed.
The ministry, responding to a local proposal to increase financial support for provincial pollution control, said special funds would be arranged for additional subsidies in rural areas, but gave no details of the rollout.
A local Xushui government platform said in 2017 that some households would be eligible to receive 300 yuan in gas subsidies.
For villager Zhang Yanjun, that amount hardly made a dent in his bill of several thousand yuan per season.
The 55-year-old laborer said he had already spent more than 5,000 yuan on heating his home since October.
“If you give 300 or 200 yuan or something, it’s the same as if you gave no subsidies at all,” he said.
In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favor of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
China’s central government allocated funds to refit stoves, but subsidies faded after three years and additional aid has drastically declined, local media reported this week.
In Xushui, a district in Hebei roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) outside Beijing, villagers told AFP they avoided turning on the heating because it drained their incomes.
“Regular folks can’t afford it... Spending 1,000 yuan ($143) per month on heat — no one can stand that,” a resident in his 60s told AFP at a farmers’ market.
“Everyone likes that (the air) is clean. There’s not one person that doesn’t like it,” he said, asking not to be named for fear of “trouble.”
“But... the cost of clean (air) is high,” he added.
On the clear, sunny day AFP visited, the warmest temperature was just under six degrees Celsius, with lows of minus seven.
Restaurant worker Yin Chunlan said that her elderly in-laws need to pay up to 7,000 yuan per year to heat their six-room village home.
Yin, 48, lives in an apartment in town and says her annual bill is a third of that.
“But it’s not the same in the village,” she told AFP.
“They have to set their heating much higher, and the temperature still isn’t as warm, so it wastes gas and wastes money.”
Yin’s in-laws often pile on extra blankets to stay warm.
“When I see it, it’s quite pitiful,” said Yin, wiping away a tear. “Nothing can be done.”
In one village, a woman in her 70s wore a green padded jacket underneath an apron as she crossed her outdoor courtyard.
Heating in her home is not turned on during the daytime, she said, showing AFP the system’s switchboard mounted above her stove displaying “off.”
The woman, who did not give her name, said the dial could reach 60C. When asked if the temperature inside could feel as warm, she laughed.
- Articles taken down -
Reports that villagers in Hebei were layering up under quilts to avoid costly heating peppered Chinese social media in the first week of the new year.
An article by Farmers’ Daily reshared in state media CCTV’s opinion section said in rural Hebei natural gas costs up to 3.4 yuan per cubic meter compared to 2.6 yuan in rural areas of Beijing.
Villagers told AFP they felt the huge price gap was unfair.
But the original article was quickly taken down, with republications, including the CCTV article, inaccessible days later.
China’s Ministry of Finance said in 2021 a total of 13.2 billion yuan in funds had been distributed for clean heating across Hebei.
But subsidies to support the installation of new systems and for gas bills, which had lasted three years, would not be renewed, it said in a letter.
The move came around the same time that international gas prices were driven up by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last year, Chinese authorities reported national gas consumption growth had slowed.
The ministry, responding to a local proposal to increase financial support for provincial pollution control, said special funds would be arranged for additional subsidies in rural areas, but gave no details of the rollout.
A local Xushui government platform said in 2017 that some households would be eligible to receive 300 yuan in gas subsidies.
For villager Zhang Yanjun, that amount hardly made a dent in his bill of several thousand yuan per season.
The 55-year-old laborer said he had already spent more than 5,000 yuan on heating his home since October.
“If you give 300 or 200 yuan or something, it’s the same as if you gave no subsidies at all,” he said.
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