Cyprus

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The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months — until on 31 July — expressing serious concern about several issues, including the continued violations of the military status quo along the ceasefire lines.

[…] With the backdrop of a continued lack of progress toward the resumption of formal negotiations between the sides, cooperation on the island remained limited, notwithstanding the sustained dialogue between the leaders’ offices through the United Nations in Cyprus.

Cyprus signed a deal Thursday for Israel’s military to build an electronic surveillance system, monitoring activity along the UN-patrolled Green Line across the divided Mediterranean island.

[…] UNFICYP has been understudied by the peacekeeping research community, which has been more focused on multidimensional missions. … In the current context of a paralyzed Security Council, lessons from missions created during the Cold War are increasingly important, as is the study of interposition forces as a potential conflict prevention mechanism. A new EPON report on the UN presence in Cyprus tries to fill that gap, while also looking at the interaction between peacekeeping and peacemaking in the country.

This report assesses the extent to which the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) along with the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus (OSASG) – also called the mission of the Good Offices – is achieving its mandate enshrined in Resolution 164 of March 1964. In 2024, the UN Missions in Cyprus will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their presence in the country, and it seems timely to analyse their impact and effectiveness over the years.

The UN Security Council has condemned the decision by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots to reopen a residential section of an abandoned suburb and called for “the immediate reversal” of this unilateral action, warning that it could raise tensions on the divided Mediterranean island.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled out a reunification of Cyprus and is calling for a two-state solution, a move that threatens to escalate tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish leader made the comments while attending commemorations marking the 1974 Turkish invasion of the now-divided island.

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