UN move to extend Cyprus peacekeeping has no value for us: Turkey

ANKARA

Turkey on July 29 said that the U.N. Security Council’s extension of the mandate of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force on the Island of Cyprus (UNFICYP) has "no meaning and value for us."

"Unfortunately, this resolution, which is full of inconsistencies and disconnected from realities, ignores once again the will of the Turkish Cypriot people," said a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement.

This came after the U.N. Security Council approved the extension of the peacekeeping mission on the Island.

The ministry emphasized that it "fully supports" the statement made by the Foreign Ministry of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on the resolution.

"It is against the UN’s own rules and principles that the TRNC authorities’ consent was not taken for the extension of the mandate of UNFICYP.

We expect the U.N. to rectify this situation and to conclude an agreement with the TRNC authorities as soon as possible so that the UNFICYP’s presence on the TRNC territory would not be questioned," it said.

The statement underlined that it is "outlandish and unrealistic" that the resolution "attempts to dictate" the Turkish Cypriot people the settlement parameters, which were tried and failed, by referring to 30-year-old Council resolutions.

"There will never be a just, lasting and sustainable settlement on the Island if the Security Council will not secure the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people that they gained in 1960 and continues to turn a blind eye to the realities on the Island by treating the Greek Cypriot administration as the only legitimate representative of the Island despite the crimes it committed in 1963 and to reward the perpetrator and punish the victim," it added.

The Foreign Ministry also called on the U.N. Security Council and the international community to focus on "reaching a settlement based on the realities, instead of serving the status quo on the Island."