We will not tolerate such behaviour, Greece's Government Spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis has said about an incident on Friday where Turkish Cypriot personnel attacked UN Peacekeepers who were trying to prevent unauthorized road construction work in the buffer zone in Pyla, Larnaca district.
Marinakis spoke on Saturday of an 'unprovoked attack against UN peacekeeping forces' and a 'blatant violation of the status quo.'
'Greece and Cyprus will stand together in this battle,' he noted, adding that 'we will not tolerate such behaviour.'
On his part, SYRIZA parliamentary spokesperson Nikos Pappas referred to 'extremist demands and practices which cannot be tolerated,' noting that the 'effort to reach a solution in the Greco-Turkish problems does not signify letting go of international law.'
In a press release, Greek communist party KKE said that the decision of the Turkish occupying forces to go ahead with 'non authorised construction work' for a road and the attack against UN forces 'seek to create faits accomplis, to acquire territory in the buffer zone and to upgrade the 'pseudostate' which causes dangerous tension in the region.'
Members of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) were attacked on Friday morning while blocking unauthorised construction works by the Turkish Cypriot puppet regime inside the buffer zone near Pyla.
The government of Cyprus, the UN and various countries have condemned the incident.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
Source: Cyprus News Agency