A plethora of military violations by Turkish occupation forces in northern Cyprus aim at forging further de facto situations as well as undermining on-going UN efforts at kickstarting settlement negotiations, the permament representative of Cyprus Ambassador Maria Michail said in a letter to Secretary General Guterres, days before the start of the General Assembly in New York and as President Christodoulides is said to meet Guterres in ten days.
Michail referred in detail to Turkish violations of Cyprus airspace and territorial waters from March 2023 to June 2024, recording more than 2 thousand such actions in the air and 137 violations of internationally recognised nautical regulations.
This includes the use of UAV’s and military exercises violating the country’s sovereignty. It is also noted that the militarisation of the occupied territories as well as the buffer zone, continues, undermining security and peace negotiations efforts.
‘Multiple military violations are aimed at creating new de facto conditions and undermine both the people’s feeling of security as well as political efforts, revealing Ankara’s true intentions of maintaining occupation and endangering stability in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region’, Michail said.
The Cypriot ambassador underlined that Turkish aggressive rhetoric and action indicate the country’s blatant disregard of international law.
‘This is particularly visible in the Varosha area, where illegal interventions in the fenced off region continues unabated, despite Security Council appeals to reverse status quo violations and return the city to its legal inhabitants’, Michail added, pointing to the need for the UN to clearly show that there are no double standards in the UN charter implementation.
