Government protest over Denktash Strovilia visit

By Jean Christou

THE GOVERNMENT is preparing a written protest to the UN Secretary-general and the Security Council after Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash visited the disputed village of Strovilia on Saturday evening.

Denktash went to the village with a full media entourage and was briefed by Turkish soldiers manning the controversial checkpoint.

“The government sees the presence of Mr Denktash in Strovilia as an additional provocation concerning the issue,” Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told his daily briefing yesterday. “The government is protesting to the UN Secretary-general and the Security Council about the new provocation and demanding the return of the status quo in the Strovilia area. There will be a written protest by the Foreign Ministry.”

On July 1, Turkish troops moved their positions forward by 300-400 metres towards the fringes of the Dhekelia SBA in order to block UN access to the north.

The move was in retaliation at the Security Council’s alteration of Unficyp’s renewal mandate, which removed mention of the Turkish Cypriot side’s approval of the force.

In addition to hindering Unficyp movements across the line, the Strovilia move put the village of Strovilia, home to three Greek Cypriot families, behind Turkish lines.

Papapetrou said the government considered Denktash’s visit on Saturday as a provocation and that the protest to the UN would demand a return to the status quo in the area. He said the government wanted the issue tabled at the Security Council.

Papapetrou said that a return to the original situation would be a measure of the credibility and status of the UN in Cyprus. But requests, demands and protests by the UN to the Turkish Cypriot side have so far remained unsuccessful.

Unficyp chief of mission Zbigniew Wlosowicz said yesterday the UN was doing all it could both on the island and through UN headquarters in New York to have the restrictions lifted.

“I want to assure you that we ha have been trying to do all that we could in order to change that. And I am still hoping we will be able to change it, ” he said after a meeting with President Glafcos Clerides. “We are trying to get back to the normal way of operating and the situation known before June 30. It does not make our life easy.”