ISTANBUL: Turkey’s ruling party spokesperson criticized the United Nations peacekeepers on Saturday for obstructing the construction of a contentious road in the buffer zone that separates Cyprus, denouncing their stance as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘extremely wrong’.
A confrontation was triggered on Friday between Turkish Cypriot forces and UN peacekeepers in Pyla village when the peacekeepers tried to block the construction of the road that Turkey deemed essential.
The confrontation occurred on Friday between Turkish Cypriot forces and UN peacekeepers in Pyla, an ethnically mixed village in the UN-patrolled area between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet in the north.
The UN mission on the East Mediterranean island reported that its peacekeepers were physically assaulted by the Turkish Cypriot forces when they attempted to halt ‘unauthorized construction work’ near Pyla.
Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling AKP party, defended the construction of the road and strongly criticized the ‘unacceptable’ conduct of the UN peacekeepers.
Celik expressed on Twitter, now rebranded as X, that the behavior of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus was ‘unacceptable and extremely wrong.’ He pointed out that this attitude, ‘aimed at pleasing the Greek Cypriot side, has tarnished the reputation’ of the UN mission in Cyprus.
