Jul 23, 2021
The UN Security Council has demanded “the immediate reversal” of a unilateral decision by Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leaders to reopen the island’s abandoned suburb of Varosha.
Once a tourism hub, Varosha has lain empty and mostly fenced-off since the 1974 invasion that split Cyprus.
On Tuesday, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar announced that a 3.5 square kilometre section of the ghost town would revert from military to civilian control.
Tatar said Greek Cypriots that fled could reclaim their properties through the Immoveable Property Commission (IPC).
But the move provoked an immediate backlash from Greek Cypriots, who see it as a bid to pressure them into selling off their properties.
On Friday, the UN Security Council issued a presidential statement on the matter, approved by all 15 member states.
“The Security Council condemns the announcement by Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaders on July 20, 2021, on the further reopening of a part of the fenced-off area of Varosha,” it read.
“The Security Council expresses its deep regret regarding these unilateral actions that run contrary to its previous resolutions and statements.”
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The Republic of Cyprus (82% of whose population is Greek) was founded in 1960 as a result of one of the earlier and most important anti-colonial struggles against the British Empire, which followed Nasser’s revolution in Egypt and preceded the Algerian Revolution. Cypriot independence was never accepted by Great Britain, the US and Israel, as the Zionist movement wanted to found Israel in Cyprus, while Cyprus is a part of Greater Israel in all its maps. In order to overthrow Makarios and destroy Cyprus, the CIA and NATO’s Gladio Network imposed a military dictatorship on Greece in 1967. In 1974, Henry Kissinger instructed the Greek junta to engineer a coup d’ etat in Cyprus, and then asked the Turkish Prime Minister to intervene there. The Cyprus coup and subsequent invasion is thought to be one of Kissinger’s four greatest crimes.
