The Cypriot government has penned a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres complaining of more than 500 violations of the island’s airspace in the three months between the beginning of March and the end of last month.

Cyprus’ permanent representative at the UN Maria Michael wrote the letter, and said she wished to draw Guterres’ attention to “the recent violations of Cyprus’ national airspace, international air traffic regulations in the Nicosia flight information region, Cyprus’ territorial waters, and the illegal use of closed ports and airports in Cyprus”.

These alleged violations, she said, were carried out “by the air and naval forces of Turkey”.

“A total of 520 aerial and 23 naval violations were recorded during this period,” she said, before adding that of those 520 reported airspace violations, 103 were carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles, typically combat drones, while 196 were carried out by “Turkish armed military fighter aircraft”.

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She added that as well as those reported airspace violations, “the Turkish occupying forces continue to violate the military status quo on the island on an almost daily basis”, while also “further strengthening its military infrastructure in the occupied areas”.

“These actions demonstrate once again Turkey’s ongoing violation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of the Republic of Cyprus and are in contradiction with the United Nations charter and international law,” she said.

Additionally, she said, they “highlight the persistent aggressive behaviour of the occupying power” and “seriously undermine the sense of security of all Cypriots”, while also “impeding efforts aimed at creating conditions favourable to the resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus problem”.

The letter concluded with a detailed record of the alleged violations, with reports that Turkish unmanned aerial combat vehicles of the types Bayraktar TB2, Bayraktar Akinci TAI Anka, and TAI Aksungur, as well as AS-532 military helicopters and F-16 fighter jets had all been in Cypriot airspace during the three-month period.

At sea, the letter said, the Kilic class corvette the TCG Tufan, the TCG Atak, and the TCG Zipkin, the Tuzla class patrol boats the TCG Karatas and the TCG Kdz. Eregli, the amphibious warfare ship the TCG Osmangazi, the landing ship the TCG Bayraktar, and the submarine the TCG Inonu all found themselves in Cypriot waters.

The Kilic class corvette TCG Imbat and the naval submarine TCG Gur, both of which visited Cyprus in April, were not mentioned in the letter.

Cyprus was the scene of heightened military activity after the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone in March, with Greece, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all deploying naval or aerial assets to its vicinity.

Turkey initially deployed six F-16s to the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport, with those jets being joined by Hisar-A surface-to-air missiles, while it is also understood that Bayraktar Akinci and Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat drones are stationed at the Gecitkale (Lefkoniko) aerodrome.

More recently, the Cypriot government accused the Turkish Cypriot authorities of “interference” with communications between air traffic control and aircraft carrying ministers from Greece, France and the Netherlands to a summit of European Union defence ministers on the island earlier this month.

The Turkish Cypriot authorities denied this, with Turkish Cypriot air traffic controllers’ trade union leader Kursad Hudaverdioglu telling the Cyprus Mail that the allegation constitutes “a completely politically motivated, misrepresentation of a news story”, and that “the matter has nothing to do with harassment”.