Türkiye condemns UN peacekeeper’s attack on Turkish soldier in Northern Cyprus

The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces have recently engaged in certain attitudes and behaviour in Cyprus that could harm the principle of neutrality, which it should protect with sensitivity, said Türkiye’s Defence Ministry sources.

A ministry source condemned an attack by a peacekeeping soldier on the Turkish mission in the island.

“In September 11, a dispute arose as United Nations Peacekeeping Force personnel attempted to enter the area where Turkish Security Command personnel were present,” the source said.

“A member of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces hit a member of the Security Forces Command during this altercation.”

“It is assessed that the disproportionate reaction may be an effort to appear sympathetic to the Greek Cypriot side, and to put the Turkish side in a difficult position.”

Türkiye has been criticising the West for its biased approach to the conflict in the island of Cyprus, which has been divided in two, with Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south.

Here’s a closer look at the latest incidents of biased approaches of the international community and the US which contributed to TRNC’s isolated status.

The lifting of arms embargo

Four years ago, the US Congress passed the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act in 2019.

By provisioning military assistance to the Greek side through the act, the US started to take the side of GCA and showed its opposition to the two-state solution, Aylin Unver-Noi, professor at Halic University tells TRT World.

This is where the major change in the US foreign policy regarding Cyprus started according to her.

The act paved the way for an alliance between the US, Greece, Israel and the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA) while ignoring the rights of Türkiye on hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Tampering with the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, the move was accompanied by Washington lifting defence trade restrictions on the GCA for the 2023 fiscal year.

First, the US went for the partial lift of the arms embargo in 2020, allowing exports, re-exports and transfers of defence articles.

Two years later, it completed the process at the cost of losing whatever little semblance of neutrality Washington claimed to have on the Cyprus conflict. It expanded the scope of this decision, by turning it into a full lift.

Every year, it assesses if the Greek Cypriot Administration complies with the conditions for the arms embargo lift.

Lastly, on August 18 2023, the lift was extended for one year for the fiscal year of 2024, starting to be effective from 1 October 2023, as declared by the US Department of State.

Following the decision, the Turkish foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the US’ stance on the issue.

Calling it an intervention that undermines the regional power balance, the Turkish foreign ministry says such moves hamper the process of finding a fair settlement to the dispute.

"We would like to take this opportunity to remind that together with the TRNC, we have repeatedly pointed out how the various destabilising steps recently taken by the US in the region at the expense of the Turkish Cypriot side undermine the neutral position on the Island of Cyprus,” the ministry says.

What came next: aggravating arms buildup in the Eastern Mediterranean

The lifting of the arms embargo is part of a pattern that leads to disruption of the balance as further arms buildup squarely favours the Greek Cypriot side in the region.

Two weeks after the full lift in September 2022, the US decided to include GCA in a Pentagon Military Partnership Program.

Condemned by TRNC and Türkiye, it made another cooperation in the field of defence and security.

At the start of 2023, the first Bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement between GCA and the US was signed.

Bringing joint military exercises and joint military training between the two sides, opened the way for provocative steps toward the armament.

As the latest, in April 2023, the attack submarine belonging to the US anchored at a port of GCA, Limassol.

It led to another instability on the part of TRNC and Türkiye, as the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides visited the submarine and GCA’s defence minister Michalis Giorgallas’ words pledging to buy weapons from the US.

However, the US’ open support for the Greek side is not a new thing. Since 1990, there has already been a defence cooperation agreement between the US and Greece, one of the guarantor states of the Island.

Embodied in these moves, Unver-Noi emphasises that the US’ taking side with Greek Cypriots does not help the Cyprus peace deal and damages the stability in the region by activating this frozen conflict.

It also risks further escalation of tensions between Ankara and Athens, she adds.

Harming two-state solution

The Turkish Cypriot side and Türkiye defended a two-state solution, which would permanently divide the Island between Turkish and Greek Cypriots having equal sovereignty rights.

However, the settlement efforts since 1974 by the UN have been based on a federal solution, proposing reunification of the island.

In the first phase of the settlement negotiations, there was very small progress, due to the Greek Cypriots’ rejectionist attitude. Ironically, the rejected plan was also a product of the Greek Cypriot side.

As the first one, the referendum held in 2004 as a part of the Annan Peace Plan failed, with 75.38 percent of the Greek Cypriots voting against the plan for a federal solution. Turkish Cypriots looking for a peaceful settlement voted in favour of the plan, with 64.91 per cent.

Secondly, the Greek Cypriots left the settlement negotiations at the Crans-Montana summit in 2017.

Unver-Noi says that the US and the EU turn a blind eye to this reality, the Greek side’s rejectionist approach to the settlement plan of the UN, and “continue to punish Turkish Cypriots”

The failing process led to a major policy shift on the part of the Turkish Cypriot side, starting to strongly favour a two-state solution.

However, the latest extension of US’ lifting of the arms embargo on GCA further harms the efforts for a peace deal in Cyprus, Unver-Noi adds.

As stalemate persisted in the peace process through these moves, Matthew Bryza, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan tells TRT World that “The decision to extend the lifting of the arms embargo reinforces the status quo because it is another example of the US government treating the Greek Cypriots, as a recognized state and treating the Turkish Cypriots, differently, as an unrecognised entity.”

Snubbed by the international community and misrepresented as ‘Turkish-invaded territory,’ the current status quo surrounding TRNC causes a confidence crisis on the part of Türkiye, says Abdullah Agar, Lecturer at Bahcesehir University and security expert.

The fact that the Greek Cypriot Administration of Cyprus was the only recognised entity and was the member state of the EU as the sole representative of the Island excludes Türkiye from the peace process and fosters biassed approaches in solving the conflict, he adds.

Recent biassed stance on Turkish Cypriots

As the TRNC’s road extension project between Pile and Yigitler villages followed by the attack of UN Peacekeeping Forces, tensions erupted on a UN-regulated buffer zone called the “Green Line” in late August.

As one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, along with the UK and France, took a hostile stand against TRNC’s road construction efforts.

The road construction is a form of municipal work, which the TRNC aims to bring services to its own citizens to prevent the passivation of Turkish Cypriots living in Pile, Agar says.

The Pile-Oroklini road and a university were already constructed respectively in 2004 and 2012 by the Greek Cypriot side.

The project aims to improve the living conditions of Turkish Cypriots with respect to the Greek Cypriots.

To overcome this biassed approach to the Cyprus issue and to build a common framework for peace on the Island, the rights of Türkiye and Turkish Cypriots must be preserved in line with the basic premises of international law, the right to equality and mutual respect, Agar adds.