Tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots have demonstrated in northern Nicosia in support of a United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus after 28 years of partition. As many as 50,000 people - more than a quarter of the population of the breakaway region - took part, according to police and diplomats. Protesters were calling on veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to drop his opposition to the UN proposals, which have a deadline of 28 February for acceptance. This would pave the way for the north along with the more prosperous south to be admitted to the European Union next year. Opinion polls suggest a large majority of Turkish Cypriots support UN efforts for re-unification. Schools and shops were closed and demonstrators were bussed in from other towns in the north of the island which is economically and politically dependent on Turkey. Waving banners saying "Give peace a chance" and "We want to be prisoners no longer", participants took to the streets of the divided capital.

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