UN Security Council renews mandate of peacekeeping mission on Cyprus for 12 months

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) – The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission on Cyprus (UNFICYP) for another year.

''In view of the prevailing conditions on the island it is necessary to keep the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) beyond 31 January 2023,'' and to extend its mandate until Jan. 31, 2024, the resolution said.

It said that the lack of an agreement furthers political tensions and deepens the estrangement of both communities, risking irreversible changes on the ground, and reducing the prospects of a settlement.

The 15-member Security Council also asked the UN secretary-general to submit two reports, this July and next January, on progress towards reaching a consensus starting point for meaningful results-oriented negotiations leading to a settlement.

The force, one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions, has been stationed on the island since 1964.

After the vote, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement slamming the move, as no consent was sought from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

- Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkiye, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.