UN says it would block street building that will encroach on a buffer zone in divided Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The U.N. mission in ethnically divided Cyprus stated Thursday it would block building by breakaway Turkish Cypriots of a street that will 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 building of the street by non-violent means,” stated Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping drive, referred to as UNFICYP. The street 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 street 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 street would give Turkish Cypriots direct entry to Pyla by circumventing a checkpoint on the fringes of a British army base, certainly one of two bases that the U.Ok. retained after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.

Greek Cypriots understand the street building 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 street building is seen as “an try at a really severe violation of the established order,” in line with Cyprus authorities spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis.

Letymbiotis added that the Cyprus authorities is working with the U.N. peacekeepers to thwart the street building.

The Cypriot authorities has been pushing onerous to restart moribund negotiations to resolve the island’s division and warned that building of the street would entail “unfavourable repercussions” on efforts to renew talks and on Turkey’s relations with the EU.