The United Nations peacekeeping power within the ethnically divided Cyprus says it should block highway development by breakaway Turkish Cypriots that might encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone
ByMENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Related Press
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The U.N. mission in ethnically divided Cyprus stated Thursday it should block development by breakaway Turkish Cypriots of a highway that might encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone and certain increase tensions on the Mediterranean island nation.
The world physique plans to “block or frustrate development of the highway by non-violent means,” stated Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping power, referred to as UNFICYP. The highway would violate the forces’ mandate of sustaining the established order contained in the buffer zone, he added.
Work started earlier within the day on the highway to attach the village of Arsos within the Turkish Cypriot north with the combined Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, simply south of the buffer zone and contained in the Greek Cypriot south, the place the island’s internationally acknowledged authorities is seated.
The highway would give Turkish Cypriots direct entry to Pyla by circumventing a checkpoint on the fringes of a British army base, one in every of two bases that the U.Ok. retained after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
Greek Cypriots understand the highway development as a transfer with a army goal at a delicate spot alongside the buffer zone spanning 180 kilometers (120 miles).
Sustaining the established order of the buffer zone is enshrined within the U.N. mission’s mandate since 1974, when Turkey invaded within the wake of a coup mounted by Greek junta-backed supporters of union with Greece.
The U.N. says there have been quite a few infringements of the buffer zone by each side through the years. However this highway development is seen as “an try at a really critical violation of the established order,” based on Cyprus authorities spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis.
Letymbiotis added that the Cyprus authorities is working with the U.N. peacekeepers to thwart the highway development.
The Cypriot authorities has been pushing laborious to restart moribund negotiations to resolve the island’s division and warned that development of the highway would entail “detrimental repercussions” on efforts to renew talks and on Turkey’s relations with the EU.