Twenty-one years today since the opening of the barricades and Jeni Duzen refers to statistics from the "Ministry of Tourism", according to which, the crossings to and from the occupied territories from April 23, 2003 until today, totaled 155 million.
According to the IGP, the report added that crossings, which ranged between 4-6 million per year in the early years, increased to 13 million in 2019, just before the pandemic.
In the years 2020-2021, due to the restrictions of the pandemic, there was a decrease and the crossings amounted to 3-4 million.
In 2022 the number of crossings reached 13 million again. Finally, in 2023, a total of around 15 million crossings took place. In the first month of 2024, almost 2 million crossings took place.
It is also reported that looking at the change of crossings by community at crossing points in Cyprus over the years, it is found that in the early years, the percentage of Turkish Cypriots was quite high compared to Greek Cypriots and citizens of other countries, but this has changed in recent years. years and Greek Cypriot crossings increased to 43% of total crossings.
Looking at the data of the last 16 years, in 2008, 53% of the total crossings were made by "citizens of the Greek Cypriot Republic", 29% by citizens of other countries and 19% by Greek Cypriot citizens of the Republic of Cyprus. As of 2022, the crossings of "citizens of the cyprus" decreased to 29% of the total crossings, while the percentage of citizens of the Republic of Cyprus among the total crossings increased to 43%.
In addition to the devaluation of the TL, it is said that Greek Cypriots more often go to the occupied territories for shopping played a role in the increase in crossings.
On the other hand, during the pandemic, when crossings were limited, the share of crossings by Turkish Cypriots in the total number of crossings increased significantly. This is due to the fact that the Turkish Cypriots, during the pandemic, were able to go to the areas controlled by the Republic to work, the newspaper writes.
Source: KYPE