Associated Press Writer
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Yiltan Tasci's daily cross-town commute is no ordinary one. For the past five months, the Turkish Cypriot teacher has been crossing the border that cuts across Cyprus to reach his school on the Greek Cypriot south of Nicosia, passing over the barbed wire barrier that has divided the island for 30 years.
Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders met at the United Nations in New York Tuesday to negotiate an end to the division of this Mediterranean island, but for some Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the barriers are already down.
"The arrow has left the bow," said Tasci as he walked into his classroom in Nicosia's English School. "We have blended in each other's lives so much that it is too late now to reverse things."
Since Turkish Cypriot leaders eased the travel ban last April, over 2 million crossings have been recorded on this Mediterranean island of less than 1 million people. The move was widely seen as an attempt to appease Turkish Cypriots angry over the collapse of earlier reunification negotiations.
Tasci, who was 17 when the island was divided in 1974, was among those who rushed to see what the other side looked like.