ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s international minister accused the United Nations of abandoning its neutrality on Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Safety Council criticized building work by Turkish Cypriots contained in the buffer zone dividing Cyprus and condemned their assault on U.N. peacekeepers.
In an announcement issued Monday, the Safety Council described the development of a street as a violation of the established order that’s opposite to council resolutions. The assertion got here on the finish of emergency closed consultations by the council’s 15 members.
Offended Turkish Cypriots final week punched and kicked a gaggle of worldwide peacekeepers that blocked crews engaged on a street that might encroach on the island’s U.N.-controlled buffer zone. The street is designed to attach the village of Arsos, within the Turkish Cypriot north, with the multi-ethnic village of Pyla, which is contained in the buffer zone and abuts the Greek Cypriot south.
“We imagine that with this transfer, the United Nations has misplaced its neutrality,” Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan informed reporters throughout a joint information convention together with his Bulgarian counterpart.
Fidan maintained that Greek Cypriots had been allowed to go forward with related street building initiatives.
“The street constructed by Greek Cypriots in the direction of the Greek inhabitants in Pyla was by no means subjected to obstruction and condemnation by the United Nations,” he mentioned. He accused the U.N. of performing “like a hawk” to dam the Turkish Cypriots’ undertaking.
Earlier, the Turkish International Ministry issued an announcement rejecting the U.N. Safety Council’s condemnation, which is alleged was “divorced from the realities on the bottom.”
Talking after a Cupboard assembly late Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to as the U.N. peacekeepers’ motion “unacceptable” and accused the pressure of bias towards Turkish Cypriots.
Cyprus was divided alongside ethnic traces in 1974 following a Turkish invasion that was triggered by a coup geared toward uniting the island with Greece. Solely Turkey acknowledges a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence within the Mediterranean nation’s northern third the place Turkey maintains greater than 35,000 troops. Though Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, solely the Greek Cypriot south — the place the island’s internationally acknowledged authorities is seated — enjoys full membership advantages.
Since 1974, a U.N. peacekeeping pressure generally known as UNFICYP has supervised the de facto cease-fire and maintained a buffer zone between Turkish and Turkish Cypriot forces within the north and Greek Cypriot forces within the south.
The Safety Council welcomed the halt in building by the Turkish Cypriot facet and the elimination of apparatus and personnel. It referred to as on each side to indicate flexibility and assist efforts by the U.N. envoy “to barter mutually agreed improvement within the space involved.”
The street would give Turkish Cypriots direct entry to Pyla by circumventing a checkpoint on the northern fringe of a British army base, considered one of two bases that the U.Ok. retained after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
The Cyprus authorities perceives the street’s building as a transfer with a army function at a delicate spot alongside the buffer zone, which spans 180 kilometers (112 miles).
Cyprus’ International Ministry mentioned Tuesday it was happy with the U.N. Safety Council assertion over what it referred to as “a brand new, severe army breach” of the buffer zone.
The ministry mentioned threats and violence towards UN peacekeepers had been a “crime beneath worldwide legislation” and that Cyprus stands in full solidarity with the UN mission on the island.
“The robust response of the worldwide neighborhood constitutes a transparent response to the unfounded claims of the Turkish Cypriot management and Turkey and sends a powerful message that such actions is not going to be accepted,” the ministry mentioned.
Turkey has described the street as a “humanitarian” undertaking for the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot residents of Pyla.