CYPRUS: US warns Turkey not to open up fenced-off Varosha

Washington is firmly against Turkey’s plans to open up the ghost-town of Varosha to people other than its original Greek Cypriot inhabitants.

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides that Washington shared his concerns that any unilateral actions to reopen Varosha would not be conducive to the resumption of peace talks.

Pompeo said such a move by Ankara would run contrary to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 550 and 789.

A well-informed source in Washington said that Pompeo was responding to a letter sent by Christodoulides on September 13.

“The United States looks to all parties to respect these resolutions and will deliver this same message clearly to Turkey” Pompeo says in his letter, according to the same source.

The top US diplomat underlined that the United States believes that a bizonal, bicommunal federation offers the best chance for the people of Cyprus to have a more peaceful and prosperous future.

Pompeo notes that Washington continues to encourage all stakeholders to refrain from actions or rhetoric that increase tensions in the region and calls on both sides to take significant steps to improve bicommunal relations.

The once thriving wealthy resort of Varosha was fenced-off by Turkish occupation troops in 1974 and remains a ‘ghost town’ to this day.

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