Greek Cypriot farmers told the Cyprus Mail that Turkish soldiers and police attacked them in the United Nations buffer zone near the village of Mammari on Tuesday, throwing stones and trying to detain them while they worked in a field, Turkish Minute reported.
Cyprus Mail cited farmer Gavriel Yerolemou as saying that more than 20 Turkish soldiers and police officers attempted to arrest him and his father about 300 meters from a Turkish outpost. “They were throwing stones at us, they grabbed me by the throat and tried to arrest us,” Yerolemou was quoted as saying.
According to the Cyprus Mail report, the incident began when a soldier tried to remove keys from the farmers’ parked vehicle, after which more armed personnel arrived and surrounded the area. Yerolemou said an officer tried to climb onto his father’s tractor and fell off as the tractor moved away, while officers shouted commands in Turkish and English, including “stay” and “arrest.”
The Cyprus Mail said a Greek Cypriot soldier watching from higher ground described three Turkish soldiers first approaching the farmers, followed by a car arriving near a watchtower and five police officers getting out and trying to detain them. Three United Nations vehicles reportedly arrived later and parked about 300 meters away as the confrontation continued.
The report said Turkish soldiers later tried to seize the tractor and that its windows were broken during the clash, while United Nations personnel remained at a distance. Another farmer, Christodoulos Christodoulou from nearby Denia, was quoted as calling it “the worst incident we have encountered in the last five to six years.”
The United Nations told the Cyprus Mail it was examining testimony and footage as part of an investigation.
President Nikos Christodoulides condemned the incident as “an act of piracy” and said Cyprus had raised the matter with the United Nations.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish military intervention followed a coup backed by Greece. A United Nations peacekeeping mission patrols a buffer zone that separates the Greek Cypriot-run Republic of Cyprus in the south from the Turkish Cypriot-administered north, which is recognized only by Turkey.
