Zypern
Zypern | EuropaAktuelle Einsätze
UNFICYP
UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UN-Geführt)
Mandatiert seit: 03/64
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Efforts to reunite Cyprus are approaching a decisive moment, a top UN official has said, as he urged leaders on both sides to show political courage and warned civil society groups: “It’s now or never.” In a week marking 60 years since the arrival of a UN peacekeeping force on the eastern Mediterranean island, Colin Stewart, the UN’s special representative in Cyprus, said time was running out to settle the decades-long dispute.
The Federal Cabinet has decided to participate in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) with the deployment of up to 15 police officers.
The Security Council — acting unanimously today — decided to renew for another year the long-standing United Nations peacekeeping presence in Cyprus, while stressing the need to avoid any unilateral actions that could raise tensions on the island and undermine the prospects for a peaceful settlement.
[…] During the reporting period, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides maintained their divergent positions regarding the way forward on the Cyprus issue. While the leaders came together twice during the reporting period, they did not engage in substantive discussions, and public confidence in the prospects for a possible peace process remained low.
New friendship declaration signed in Athens suggests both countries - bitter foes in the past – have opted for dialogue at a time of acute geopolitical turbulence.
Greece and Turkey are at odds over territorial claims in the Aegean Sea, energy exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus, among other issues.
The UN chief has condemned an assault on Friday by Turkish Cypriot security forces against ‘blue helmets’ serving with the peacekeeping force on the divided Mediterranean island. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement that several members of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) had been injured while UN vehicles had also been damaged inside the buffer zone that divides the Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south.
[…] Incidents, often minor and localized, from both sides, continued to escalate to the political level, further fuelling the divisive rhetoric and in turn hampering efforts towards a resumption of dialogue. The mission and its leadership were frequently caught between opposing narratives and a lack of political will to prevent tensions on the ground from escalating.
Cyprus and Turkey have traded harsh words on their frozen conflict, in a sign recent elections on both sides changed little. The "open wound" of Turkey's 50-year old occupation of northern Cyprus formed the centrepiece of Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides' speech at the European Parliament on Tuesday (13 June).
Greek and Turkish Cypriots have moved farther apart since a failed summit in 2017, hampering cooperation in several important matters and increasing tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. Hopes for reunifying Cyprus are faint at present, but the parties can still work toward more modest goals.