Efforts to restore the status quo in the buffer zone at Pyla and Agios Dometios areas continue, United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) Spokesperson Aleem Siddique has told CNA.
“The is nothing new to report. The situation remains unchanged”, he said when asked about the violations of the status quo in the buffer zone in both areas by the Turkish occupation forces.
He noted that UN peacekeepers “remain present in both locations and are conducting regular patrols to prevent tensions”.
“Efforts to restore the status quo are continuing”, he concluded.
On November 27 the Turkish occupation forces entered the buffer zone, which is UN-controlled land separating the northern Turkish occupied areas from the southern government-controlled part of the country, in the area of Agios Dometios, and installed on an uninhabited residence there, a rotating camera and an antenna.
Two days later, UNFICYP took action to stop a new violation of the buffer zone in the same area, after men of the Turkish occupation army entered the buffer zone in a military vehicle.
These incidents follow another violation last August, when Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews illegally working on a road that would encroach on a U.N. controlled buffer zone in the area of Pyla, in the Larnaca district.
The international community, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, condemned August’s attack. Later on, an understanding was reached which provides that a single urban development area would be created, which would ensure the harmonious coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in the area of Pyla. Works, that begun based on this understanding, were temporarily halted to resolve complaints by some Turkish Cypriot land owners, who believe that their plots are affected.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 illegal Turkish invasion. Numerous peace talks under the UN aegis with the aim to reunite the island under a federal roof failed to yield results. The latest round of talks took place in the summer of 2017 in the Swiss resort of Crans Montana.
