Three members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP) are hospitalised after scuffles with Turkish forces that broke out on Friday morning inside the buffer zone near Pyla.
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.
The peacekeepers were manhandled by personnel in Turkish Cypriot police and military uniforms, a witness told Reuters.
Turkish Cypriot bulldozers are seen in videos moving UN trucks, cement bollards and barbed wire in the United Nations-administered buffer zone.
Turkish #occupation regime bulldozing United Nations peacekeeping force vehicles near Pyla in #Cyprus this morning, trampling on international law as they have done for the past 50 years. pic.twitter.com/X1dZgXpIFs
— Cyprus in Finland (@CyprusinFinland) August 18, 2023
According to Reuters, the incident occurred in an area known as Sector 4, under the control of a Slovakian military contingent. It was reinforced by British peacekeepers.
Friday’s incident was condemned by the United States, Britain and France, three of the five permanent members of the U.N. 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 the opposing 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 UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, UNFICYP, said.
(With information from Reuters)
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