Turk Cypriots Say Road Project Disputed by UN Is ‘Essential’

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Turkish Cypriot chief Ersin Tatar on Saturday described as “important” the development of a street which has triggered uncommon pressure with United Nations peacekeepers on the divided island.

Scuffles broke out on Friday between U.N. peacekeepers and Turkish Cypriot safety personnel when peacekeepers tried to stop roadworks beginning in an space the U.N. says is a part of a buffer zone below its jurisdiction.

Turkish Cypriot authorities say the peacekeeping pressure, often called UNFICYP, overstepped its boundaries.

“It’s unlucky that an try was made by UNFICYP to hinder the event of the street being carried out by a civilian contractor, inside the sovereign territory of the TRNC,” Tatar stated in an announcement to Reuters, referring to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a breakaway state recognised solely by Ankara.

Turkish Cypriot authorities wish to construct a street that will give residents of Pyla/Pile, a village within the U.N. administered buffer zone, direct entry to territory below Turkish Cypriot management.

The U.N. says that slightly below half of the 11.5 km route falls inside the territory it administers.

Friday’s incidents triggered a refrain of condemnation from the U.N., Britain, the European Union and america. In an advisory to its nationals, america embassy in Nicosia “strongly inspired” its nationals to rethink plans to journey to north Cyprus over the weekend.

Cyprus was cut up in a Turkish invasion in 1974 following a short Greece-inspired coup. A U.N. buffer zone separating opposing Greek and Turkish Cypriots is about 180 km (112 miles)lengthy east to west. At its widest, it’s about 7.5 km large, and at its closest lower than 10 metres.

There was no development underway on Saturday, and peacekeepers remained within the space, which was “firmly” inside the buffer zone, a spokesperson for UNFICYP instructed Reuters.

Tatar, who’s president of the TRNC, stated the street was important for purely humanitarian grounds to deal with financial and transportation points for Turkish Cypriots dwelling in that village.

Pyla/Pile itself is residence to Greek and Turkish Cypriots and falls in territory surrounded by a patchwork of jurisdictions, from the U.N. buffer zone to British sovereign bases and to areas managed by opposing communities.

At current, individuals from the world desirous to journey to north Cyprus need to cross a checkpoint within the British bases, then one other checkpoint managed by Turkish Cypriot authorities.

A Turkish Cypriot demand for a street to facilitate journey from Pyla/Pile to the close by neighborhood of Arsos/Yigitler has been longstanding. The Turkish Cypriot venture would greater than halve the journey, Tatar stated.

(Reporting By Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul and Michele Kambas in Nicosia; writing by Michele Kambas; modifying by Clelia Oziel)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.