UN says its position on Varosha unchanged, Kasoulides asks to meet Stewart (Update 2)

Unficyp will raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open another stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, the Unficyp spokesman said: “The UN’s position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely”.

According to reports, the stretch being cleared on the Golden Sands beach in Varosha for commercial use is around 600 metres long.

“Our stance on the matter is guided by the relevant Security Council resolutions,” Siddique said, adding that access to some parts of the area remains limited to the general public.

Later on Friday, government spokesman Marios Pelekanos also chimed in on the matter and said that Cyprus will make official representations to the UN following the latest developments. “Each country has to look after its own interests and that is why we will make resolutions whenever we see that our rights are violated,” he told state broadcaster CyBC in a televised interview.

Speaking after Pelekanos, Famagusta mayor Simos Ioannou urged for Cyprus to respond to Turkey’s provocations. “We should stop acting as the good boy of Europe and claim what belongs to us.

“The Famagusta municipality has already sent three written complaints to the UN Secretary General and we are making efforts to meet the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The foreign ministry also said it is “deeply concerned”. “We will make official representations to both the UN and the EU,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides will make a direct appeal on the issue to the head of Unficyp Colin Stewart and has requesteda meeting on Monday.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Kasoulides said that he intended to meet Stewart to remind him that Cyprus has responded to his request for certain actions for the benefit of the Turkish Cypriots, therefore “we demand a similar response from the other side, and not what we witnessed by the occupation forces,” he added.

Occupied municipalities have also slammed the decision of extending the Varosha beachfront, saying that “the lukewarm reaction shown by the international community to the latest Turkish provocations is unacceptable and must be changed as soon as possible.”

The latest to join the choir of condemnation was the Parliament, with House President Annita Demetriou saying in a statement that the development in Varosha constitutes a highly unacceptable provocation, as well as an act of shameless defiance of international law in violation of all relevant United Nations resolutions.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this new attempt to create a new fait accompli against the people of Famagusta and the whole of Cyprus,” the statement said.

“We will never stop fighting and we will employ every aspect of parliamentary diplomacy for a united Cyprus on the basis of the UN resolutions and for the return of the city of Famagusta to its rightful inhabitants and owners,” the statement said.

On Thursday, President Nicos Anastasiades also strongly condemned the clearing of the new stretch of beachfront, vowing to alert the international community to this latest Turkish provocation.

“I have been briefed officially from those monitoring developments there…we shall not leave this new provocation to go unnoticed, and we shall make all the necessary demarches,” Anastasiades said.

In July 2021 Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar announced the partial lifting of the military status in Varosha