Türkiye’s Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz on Tuesday criticized the stance of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) regarding the construction of the Pile-Yiğitler road…
Yılmaz said that UNFICYP’s attitude contained double standards and severely undermined the neutrality of the Peacekeeping Force’s mandate on the island.
“While the UN Peacekeeping Force should display a neutral attitude on the island, it has played a significant role in escalating tensions and exceeded its authority and responsibilities by going beyond its designated area,” said Yılmaz.
He emphasized that Türkiye will not turn a blind eye to the violation of the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot people.
In a post on social media, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said at the unjust physical intervention carried out by UN Peacekeeping Force soldiers in the UN buffer zone to obstruct expansion and repair work on the Pile-Yiğitler road, which aims to facilitate and ease the access of TRNC citizens to and from the TRNC, is unacceptable and illegal.
Yılmaz highlighted that Ankara views the unilateral and unfair approaches of international institutions as a deliberate and ill-intentioned attempt to disregard the inherent rights of the TRNC state and the Turkish Cypriot people.
He also pointed out that the UNFICYP had previously allowed the construction of roads such as Larnaka-Dikelya-Ayia Napa and Pile-Voroklini, on Turkish Cypriot land which had been expropriated by the Greek Cypriot administration.
Yılmaz underscored that the UNFICYP’s opposition to the construction work by the TRNC government and its attempt to obstruct construction equipment with their vehicles openly supported chaos and polarization.
“The displayed attitude contains double standards and severely undermines the neutrality of the Peacekeeping Force,” he said.
He noted that the UNFICYP played a significant role in escalating tensions on the island, exceeding its authority and responsibilities by going beyond its designated area.
Pointing out that the TRNC is an independent and sovereign state, Yılmaz indicated that Türkiye will not tolerate the violation of the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot people and will support all efforts of the TRNC state to seek its rights on international platforms.
Referring to an earlier statement by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the issue, the Turkish Vice President said that they considered the attempt to convene the UN Security Council to issue a condemning statement against the TRNC as a wrong move.
“Even considering the statement for discussion is an unacceptable situation,” he said, calling on UN officials to respect the territorial integrity of the TRNC, to change their stance that would further damage their ‘reliability and neutrality,’ and to engage in direct dialogue with the TRNC as soon as possible.