POLITICS: Cyprus vows to thwart Turkish moves on Varosha

Cyprus has condemned Ankara’s plans to open the fence-off ghost town of Varosha saying it will do everything necessary to prevent it being populated by anyone other than by its legal residents.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the private CNN-Turk broadcaster: "Yes, there are preparations. Varosha will be opened."

Cyprus government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou issued a statement condemning these remarks saying that Turkey does not want the resumption of Cyprus talks while challenging the island’s sovereign rights to exploit its natural resources.

“We will not remain idle, the President and the Government will use all political and diplomatic means available to the Republic of Cyprus,” said Prodromou.

Varosha is the closed-off section of the Turkish occupied town of Famagusta, often described as a ‘ghost town, untouched since 1974.

UN Security Council resolution 550 (1984) considers any attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its original Greek Cypriot inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to UN administration.

Varosha was fenced off by the Turkish military in 1974 when they invaded the north of the island in response to an Athens-engineered coup attempting to unite Cyprus with Greece.

Once known as the "pearl" of Cyprus, Varosha has been abandoned for more than four decades.