Cyprus protests over Turkish airspace violations

Cyprus has once again protested to the United Nations Secretary General the recent violations of the international air traffic regulations and the national airspace of the Republic by military aircraft of the Turkish Air Force.

The violations were recorded between 4 December 2006 and 31 January 2007, the Cyprus News Agency reported.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Cyprus Charge d’affaires Andreas Hadjichrysanthou outlined the incidents of violations by the Turkish military, noting that such action continues to gravely jeopardize flight safety and perpetuates insecurity and apprehension on the island.

“I would like to strongly protest over the aforementioned violations and hereby appeal for their immediate cessation. Turkey‘s policy of non-observance of rules and regulations governing international aviation continues to gravely jeopardize flight safety and perpetuates insecurity and apprehension on the island”, said Hadjichrysanthou.

He also pointed out that “such provocative and irresponsible actions can be explained only by the well known Turkish practice of politically exploiting any possible opportunity in order to promote Turkey’s constant objectives of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus, and of upgrading the status of the legally invalid ”Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.

“It is high time for Turkey to realize that such irresponsible behaviour has no other effect than to negatively affect the good political climate that is necessary for the implementation of the 8 July 2006 agreement”, the Cypriot charge d’affaires concluded.

The letter circulated as an official UN document.