The UN Security Council was due to convene today to discuss developments in Pyla, an ethnically mixed village on the divided island of Cyprus, where UN peacekeepers were manhandled and injured by Turkish Cypriot security forces Friday as Turkish Cypriots worked to build an unauthorized road in the area that is under the UN’s control.
The UN’s special representative in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, is expected to brief the Security Council on the latest developments via video link before it gathers in New York amid growing worries of an escalation.
Turkish Cypriot security forces were unlikely to have acted without Turkey’s blessing, raising questions about how sincere Ankara is about easing tensions in the eastern Mediterranean and a loudly heralded reset with its longtime rival Greece.
The move drew swift and sharp rebukes from the UN. In a joint statement, Turkey’s NATO allies the United States, Britain and France said that threats to UN personnel and property constituted “a serious crime under international law.”
