The United Nations has confirmed an incident that occurred today at around 11am.30 this morning inside the buffer zone, in the Deneia area, which was entered by soldiers of the occupation army in order to evict a Greek Cypriot farmer who went there to work. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, for its part, states that it is monitoring and handling the whole matter.
The spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Alim Siddiq, when asked about this, told Cypriot news agency that "we can confirm that there was an incident involving a local farmer and Turkish forces inside the buffer zone today".
He added that "the incident was settled peacefully and will be reported in the reports on the (UN Mission in Cyprus) to the UN Security Council in due course".
Mr. Siddique said that "UNFICYP continues to be in contact with both sides to ensure that calm is maintained along the buffer zone."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Demetris Demetriou[/B] told CNA, in response to a question, that "the issue is known to us, is being monitored and is being handled.We are in contact with the peacekeeping force to manage the issue," he added.
The commune mayor of Deneia, Christakis Panagiotou, told CNA that "last week there was an intervention by settlers living in Vlora and Filia with their animals in areas within the buffer zone cultivated by Greek Cypriot farmers who had planted carob trees". "The settlers put in their animals which destroyed the carob trees, about 2,000 in number."
He added that "today a Greek Cypriot farmer went to the area to see how to replant the trees. This time Turkish soldiers, whose outpost is 200-300 further in, in the occupied territories, went with guns and bullets and threatened him that if he did not leave they would kill him," he pointed out.
He noted that "the United Nations was alerted and with our advice the Greek Cypriot farmer and his employees left the area."
"We reported the case to the United Nations, the Foreign Ministry, the army," he said, adding that the incident was also witnessed by Greek Cypriot soldiers from an outpost between Deneia and Akaki.
Source: CNA
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