Cypriot intercommunal violence

The issue of Cyprus' accession to NATO is an old but very bitter one due to the mistakes made and the distortions it reveals in political culture.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus for a year and urged all parties including rival Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to take steps "to de-escalate tensions in and around the buffer zone" dividing the Mediterranean island.

Ankara is maintaining a harsh stance in relation to Cyprus, as seen by its reaction to an arson attack on a mosque in Limassol and its posture at the buffer zone in the Pyla area when Turkish Cypriots attacked members of the UN peacekeeping force.

The UN mission in ethnically divided Cyprus said Thursday it will block construction by Turkish Cypriots of a road that would encroach on a UN-controlled buffer zone and likely raise tensions on the Mediterranean island nation.

Turkey pledges to use “all means” for the security of the Turkish Cypriots

Speaking at a TV interview, two former hitmen of the Greek Cypriot terror organization EOKA have confessed to killing some 68 Turks and "throwing them into a pit" in the 1960s.

"We killed 10 Turks for each lost Greek Cypriot," Neoptolemos Leftis and Athos Petridis, who are in their 80s today, told the Omega TV on May 26.

The Greek PM, King of Jordan and the Cypriot President agreed to coordinate co-operation on political, economic & security issues

He called on the Greek Cypriots to take back their properties

A defense agreement signed between France and Greek Cyprus is against the 1960 treaties that provide equilibrium between Turkish and Greek Cypriots on the island and poses a risk for the already fragile stability and security, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement over the weekend.

Turkey on Feb. 11 dismissed claims that it had accepted ending the guarantorship system for Cyprus, under which Turkey stands as a guarantor for the island.

"News reports in the Greek Cypriot press alleging that Turkey has accepted ending the guarantorship system for Cyprus are not true," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.