Turkey blasts UNSC decision to extend Unficyp mandate

Turkey’s foreign ministry has characterised the decision by the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus as “unfair and unrealistic”.

“The failure to obtain the consent of the TRNC when extending the UN mandate is contrary to established UN practices. It is also a violation of the guaranteed rights of the Turkish Cypriot people. Our country will fully support the steps announced by the authorities of the TRNC to correct this injustice”, the announcement from the Turkish foreign ministry said.

According to the ministry, “the decision of the Security Council is, as always, an unfair decision cut off from reality”. It said the decision ignores the Turkish Cypriot people and their guaranteed rights and “ignores the inhumane and illegal isolation of these people”.

It also deemed references on the fenced-off areas of Varosha as unrelated to the facts. The UN mandate renewal made reference to a previous resolution calling on the Turkish side to reverse changes to the abandoned down that have been implemented since October 2020.

The Turkish foreign ministry said it fully supported the Turkish Cypriot ‘government’ on opening Varosha.

“The references to Varosha in the decision are irrelevant to the facts. Turkey will continue to fully support the steps of the TRNC authorities with respect for property rights in Varosha,” it added.

“It is an inconsistent and contradictory approach that the Council is trying to impose a model of a solution that no longer reflects the will of the Turkish Cypriot people for a solution, which has been tested for almost half a century and has not yielded results,” the Turkish foreign ministry continued.

This approach does not serve the solution, but the continuation of the status quo, it added.

“We reiterate our call to the Security Council and the international community to focus on the realities on the island and to affirm the guaranteed rights of the Turkish Cypriot people, that is, their sovereign equality and equal international status,” it concluded.