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For Greek Cypriots, the past six weeks have been a bit like a passionate one-night stand followed by a disturbing sense of guilt in the morning.

In the final week of April, when the Turkish Cypriot authorities opened the border for the first time in nearly 30 years, jubilant Greek Cypriots rushed north across the border — and Turkish Cypriots eagerly went south — to get a look at the other half of their divided island.

Since then, all Cypriots have been able to wander the streets on the once forbidden side of Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe. They have been able to revisit the towns and villages on the opposite side they haven't seen for three decades, and those who lost their homes because of the division of the island were finally able to return to have a look at their houses — and even meet the families who have been living in them for decades.

For the Greeks heading north, the peak time was the Greek Orthodox Easter holiday weekend in May, when over 25,000 Greeks crossed the U.N. buffer zone every day. That's impressive for a country of only around 660,000. But now, the overall number of Greek visitors to the north has shrunk to only about 3000 a day.

In many ways, the dimming of the initial enthusiasm is only natural for both communities; you cannot live in rapturous elation forever. Furthermore, the two communities have been separated for decades, and people have family, friends and livelihood all on their own side, so there's little real pressing need to cross the border.

Greek Cypriots have an additional reason: some of them are feeling a kind of guilt about their visits. Guilt, because visiting the northern side of the island — and showing a passport to do so — in some sense means recognising the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), run by the long-detested Rauf Denktash and a base for tens of thousands of mainland Turkish troops ever since Ankara's invasion of Cyprus in 1974. And recognising that entity, and with it the division of their island, is something that Greek Cypriots along with the rest of the world — apart from Turkey — have steadfastly refused to do since the TRNC was formed in 1983.

So, many Greek Cypriots are worried about what they have done. Have they fallen into a recognition trap? Some Greek Cypriot politicians warned of this when the border first opened, but at the time, their admonitions for the public not to cross the newly opened line seemed out of touch with the spirit of the times to the revelling masses.

Why spoil the party, asked some commentators, these are momentous times? Denktash, they figured, was on the back foot, suddenly and unexpectedly opening the border to improve his image internationally after rejecting a comprehensive U.N. peace deal brokered by Kofi Annan earlier this year. The deal had exposed Denktash's weakness when tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots marched in support of it, seeing it as the north's only hope of entering the E.U. along with the south in 2004. The opening of the border seemed to be one of the last acts of a dying regime, an act that should logically and inevitably lead to a Berlin-style crumbling of the wall, the pullout of Turkish troops, the collapse of the TRNC and the unification of the island. It was time to party like it's 1989.

Now, in the harsh light of morning, Greek Cypriots realize that opening the border was not the great seismic shift many had hoped for. It now seems an isolated event, and perhaps nothing further will change in Cyprus until after elections in the north at the end of this year, or maybe not even until 1 May 2004, when Cyprus joins the E.U. and Turkey finds itself in the uncomfortable position of being both an applicant to the E.U. and occupier of a small slice of it.

The initial joy at the border opening and the anticipated imminent collapse of the hated northern regime allowed Greek Cypriots to overcome their anxiety for a time, but that time is now gone. The physical border may be open, but the crossings are fewer and fewer, because the mental boundaries remain closed.

• ANDREW STROEHLEIN | Nicosia
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