in-cyprus 18 August 2023 - by Stelios Marathovouniotis
“Foreign Minister” Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu has reiterated that the unauthorised road project crossing the buffer zone in Pyla will proceed, describing it as “a humanitarian initiative, devoid of any ulterior motives.”
Asked to comment on the assault of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers who tried to block the construction, Ertuğruloğlu was quoted by Turkish Cypriot media saying that the UN are “playing with time” and stressed that the “road project will proceed.”
As reported, Ertuğruloğlu argued that the “improvement and expansion” of the Arsos-Pyla road “would enhance the lives of Turkish Cypriot residents in the region who have been left at the mercy of the Greek Cypriots, the UN, and the bases.” He clarified that the goal isn’t to “take land” but rather to carry out a humanitarian project.
“We have prepared a road project to facilitate the entry and exit of the Turkish Cypriot people from Pyla to the ‘trnc,’ enabling them to meet their needs in a normal manner. Under the condition that we won’t step onto the British Bases’ territory, we’ve designed a road on lands we consider ours and the UN considers a dead zone. In summary, we’re going to redevelop an existing, old road,” he stated.
Ertuğruloğlu said that this isn’t a military-driven move or a land occupation, but rather a “humanitarian project to improve the lives of Turkish Cypriots living isolated in Pyla, feeling abandoned on the Greek-Cypriot side” and accused the UN of employing a delaying tactic to prevent the project’s implementation.
“Aside from supporting the Greek Cypriots,” he claimed that the UN “does nothing else in Cyprus.” He added that the UN “didn’t oppose the passage of the Larnaca-Ayia Napa road through the dead zone or the use of Turkish territories in the past.”
He added that the UN’s sole concern is to avoid being blamed by the Greek Cypriots. “The UN is playing with time,” he asserted, adding that the peacekeeping force “is not a friendly organisation towards the Turkish Cypriots. We won’t play their game—the road project will proceed, period.”
The incidents:
Scuffles broke out between UN peacekeepers and Turkish Cypriot security forces in Cyprus on Friday over unauthorised construction work in an area under UN control.
According to Reuters, peacekeepers were manhandled by personnel in Turkish Cypriot police and military uniforms, a witness said. Turkish Cypriot bulldozers had moved UN trucks, cement bollards and barbed wire in the United Nations-administered buffer zone splitting the island.
The incident occurred in an area known as Sector 4, under control of a Slovakian military contingent. It was reinforced by British peacekeepers.
A spokesperson for the UN mission said three peacekeepers were seriously injured and required hospitalisation.
“One was kicked to the ground,” the spokesperson, Aleem Siddique, said.
No shots were fired, however.
Friday’s incident was condemned by the United States, Britain and France, three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
“These actions are completely unacceptable and undermine the ability of the UN to fulfil its peacekeeping mandate,” their embassies said in a joint statement.
The controversy is centred around plans by Turkish Cypriot authorities to build a road traversing the territory which the United Nations says is under its control.
The incident occurred in the area of Pyla, known as Pile in Turkish and which is located on the eastern end of the buffer zone. The 180 km corridor of land patrolled by the United Nations slices Cyprus east to west between opposing Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides.
Turkish Cypriot authorities are planning to build an 11.5 km road linking Pyla to a neighbouring community which lies in breakaway north Cyprus.
The United Nations had already expressed concerns over the move which disturbs the zone’s status quo. It had been in talks with Turkish Cypriot authorities over their plans, and work had started without the requisite agreement from the UN, Siddique said.
“UNFICYP calls on the Turkish Cypriot side to respect the mission’s mandated authority inside the UN buffer zone, refrain from any actions that could escalate tensions further and to withdraw all personnel and machinery from the UN buffer zone immediately,” a statement from the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, UNFICYP, said.
UNFICYP is one of the oldest active peacekeeping missions worldwide, first dispatched to the island to quell violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s.
(With information from Reuters)
