The Animal Party on Friday expressed its outrage over barbed wire installed along parts of the buffer zone in the Nicosia district, due to the danger it poses to innocent animals and will join local residents to protest during a planned demonstration on Sunday,.

“The death barbed wire has another aspect and we are forced to highlight it. It butchers and murders innocent animals that have done nothing wrong and destroys the natural wealth and environment of our country,” the party said.

The local residents of Astromeritis, Peristerona, Avlona, Akaki, Deneia Mammari and the surrounding areas have set up an initiative group since the government installed electric and barbed wire fences along parts of the buffer zone in its attempt to deter illegal or irregular immigrants from crossing into the government-controlled areas from the north.

“The state must stop implementing ‘imaginative’ solutions to stop illegal or irregular migrants, to the detriment of our own country, its residents, rational living of people and animals and (ultimately) to the detriment of our national problem, since you are essentially ‘giving away’ the neutral zone by placing razor wire and barbed wire there. With such tactics we ourselves may eventually put the dichotomous limit on the territories of our homeland (de jure). All territories are the territories of the Republic of Cyprus and we cannot make any concessions on that,” it continued.

The local protest is scheduled for Sunday 25 September at 10.30 am.