Turkish invasion of Cyprus

Turkish and Greek Cypriots delivered audio and video archives and paintings that have historical value, to the United Nations on Sept. 3 in accordance with a restoration process.

Representatives from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities exchanged art works and audiovisual recordings in the buffer zone on Tuesday.
A statement issued by the United Nations Spokesperson in Cyprus, on behalf of the Technical Committee on Culture, said an exchange of art works and audiovisual recordings took place on Tuesday in the United Nations Protected Area.

Cyprus will resort to the European Council to preempt plans by Turkish Cypriots in the occupied north of the island to develop the fenced-off town of Varosha.

Officials from Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) took an inspection tour to closed Varosha, an abandoned city in the northern part of the divided island of Cyprus, on Aug. 23.

By Lefteris Charalambopoulos

By coincidence 11 August, 1996, was a Sunday, as it was this year.

Cyprus once again divided was commemorating the coup and the Turkish invasion -violence, occupation and partition.

At the time, associations of Greek-Cypriots motorcyclists took an initiative to make a big anti-occupation march-drive.

Turkey's perspective remains the same on the Cyprus issue as it was 45 years ago, Turkish National Defense Minister said on Aug. 10.

Ahead of Friday's crucial meeting between Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar issued new threats against Nicosia Thursday, saying that no one should "test our strength, our force, as the price will be heavy."

In a further escalation of tensions with Cyprus, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has ruled out any possibility that Ankara will give up its guarantor status on the island and said that it will continue its illegal drilling activities there.
Turkey, Akar said, is a guarantor power on Cyprus and "will continue to use this right as it has in the past."

The Turkish Cypriot government is speeding up efforts to turn Varosha, which has remained abandoned and uninhabited for 45 years, into a major tourist destination.

In an address to Greek soldiers stationed on Cyprus on Tuesday, on the second day of an official visit, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared "any transgressive behavior" against Cyprus would not go unanswered.

"We live in a turbulent time, full of challenges and instability," Mitsotakis said in a speech at the Malounda army camp of the Hellenic Forces in Cyprus (ELDYK).