Cyprus protests air space violations by Turkey

Cyprus‘ Permanent Representative at the UN Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis protested in a letter to the UN Secretary General, dated 25 October, new violations of Cyprus‘ national air space and the Nicosia FIR by Turkish military aircraft, recorded from 4 August to 13 October 2006.

In his letter, which was circulated at the UN as an official document on Thursday, Mavroyiannis expressed the government’s strong protest for the violations and called for their immediate cessation.

He also said that Turkey‘s policy of persistently breaching international law and defying international rules and regulations gravely jeopardised the safety of international civil aviation and the stability of the region.

Mavroyiannis noted that ”Turkey’s systematic attempts to undermine the sovereignty and unity of the Republic of Cyprus by promoting an illegal secessionist entity, arrogating, inter alia, to itself the right to control part of our airspace, further complicates the efforts to build trust and confidence between the two sides and resume negotiations.”

”Such actions are yet further evidence of Turkey‘s sole objective, namely to consolidate the existing division of the island and sustain its military presence in Cyprus in perpetuity, he concluded.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.