Turkish Cypriots deny ‘attack’ on farmers in buffer zone, say farmers entered north

The north’s ‘foreign ministry’ on Tuesday night denied claims that Turkish soldiers had attacked Greek Cypriot farmers in the buffer zone village of Mammari, west of Nicosia, stating instead that the farmers had illegally entered the north.

“Greek Cypriot farmers once again attempted to cultivate land in the TRNC without permission, this time by entering our border with their vehicles three kilometres west of Yerolakkos,” it said.

It made reference to an agreement forged between the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) and the Turkish Cypriot authorities in 1988 defining “the conditions under which agricultural activity can be carried out in the buffer zone”, and said this agreement “clearly defined the areas where both Turkish and Greek Cypriot farmers could engage in agricultural activities”.

“The Greek Cypriots violated this agreement, and furthermore, crossed the Turkish Cypriot border line, entered the territory of the TRNC, and seriously endangered the safety of our police and military personnel by driving their tractors towards them when they tried to stop them,” it said.

It added that “the Greek Cypriot administration in southern Cyprus is systematically attempting to extend its ‘authority’ into the buffer zone, seize land in the buffer zone, and gain an advantage there”.

This, it said, is being done through “various methods”, including “farming, hunting, the unauthorised construction of roads which pass through the lands of Turkish Cypriot property owners, and the construction of universities, cinemas, and shopping malls”.

The latter two points were made in reference to the University of Central Lancashire campus near the buffer zone village of Pyla, near Larnaca, and the Nicosia Mall, built in the buffer zone south of the abandoned Nicosia airport.

“Despite our numerous verbal and written protests and objections to the UN over the years, Unficyp has remained silent for many years regarding the Greek Cypriot administration’s violations of the buffer zone and the territory of the TRNC, and by failing to stop these violations, it has emboldened the Greek Cypriot side,” it said.

It then decried “the UN security council’s failure to fulfil its duty of neutrality” to Cyprus, and added that this “once again gave opportunities to the Greek Cypriots”.

“Its approach of taking no measures against the Greek Cypriot administration’s border violations and, moreover, continuing to perpetuate violations of the buffer zone by the state, has been strongly protested at the UN, as in the past,” it said.

The Greek Cypriot farmer at the centre of the incident, named Gavriel Yerolemou, had claimed on Tuesday that more than 20 Turkish soldiers and police officers had attempted to arrest him and his father while they were working in their field.

He added that stones had been thrown at him and his father, and that he had been grabbed by the throat.

His father, Yerolemos Yerolemou, had told the Cyprus Mail that he had been “simply tending to our fields”.

“The police officer grabbed my son by the neck. They were throwing stones at my tractor and pulling on different parts of the vehicle trying to damage it,” he said.

Later on Tuesday, President Nikos Christodoulides had described the incident as “an act of piracy” and said that he had also made representations to the UN.

“We are taking this quite seriously. The primary consideration was the safety of locals,” he said.