THAT’S REALLY TOO MUCH

We don’t use Larnaca or Paphos airports just for the sake of it… We prefer them for the convenience of direct flights and cheaper tickets…

Our children come and go, and we go to see them. I checked flights from Ercan to the Netherlands… All of them are connecting flights, with waiting times of 5 hours, 9 hours, 12 hours for the next flight. It’s too long; you arrive at your destination a day later.

We traveled comfortably from Larnaca to the Netherlands with a direct flight, but we had to wait nearly three hours at the damn Agios Dometios border crossing. The border crossing is so exhausting and frustrating that finding a direct and cheap flight loses its meaning.

Living in this country, but especially in the northern part of the country, is inevitably a hardship in some way. Yesterday afternoon, as we approached the border, guess what we saw? A line of cars around the roundabout near the university. “No way, it is not possible for the queue to reach this point!” we said. I’d never seen anything like it before. Then the torturous minutes began. It took 35 minutes to reach the traffic lights.

What happened next? Pure torture and a war of nerves. Those trying to reach the main road from the side streets got into severe arguments with those queueing up on the main road. People were so angry they could have killed each other. Some got out of their cars and started punching each other. I let a car coming from a side street pass, and those behind me reacted strongly. I was worried they would get out and punch me as well. It took us nearly three hours to get to the north.

Oh, my strange country. What are we dealing with here? Crossing from one side of my country to the other is torture. My fellow citizens trying to reach the check point are almost killing each other. This is really too much, too much…

Because of what I’m about to say, it may seem like I’m simplifying the issue by reducing it to the check points but because of what happened, one cannot think otherwise… Of course, our struggle for a solution in Cyprus will continue… However, on the other hand, I would say that expecting a solution in Cyprus from a mentality that doesn’t even open new check points (which we might consider as the easiest thing to do), that doesn’t even set up a road tax office in other check points despite its promises, that doesn’t care in the slightest about people’s suffering, is like waiting for tears from the eyes of the dead… So, the thing we always call difficult is still very difficult—and even more so…

This article was originally published on 14.02.2026

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