Statement of the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the unfounded statement of UNFICYP concerning Çayhan Düzü

The statement issued today (13 April 2026) by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), portraying Çayhan Düzü—an area that lies entirely within the territory and under the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus—as “buffer zone” and alleging that our security forces conducted unauthorized activities therein, is unacceptable. We strongly protest this approach.

With this statement, UNFICYP has, once again, clearly demonstrated that it does not respect the principle of impartiality. UNFICYP’s unfounded allegations targeting the Turkish Cypriot side do not contribute to restoring the already eroded credibility of UNFICYP in the eyes of the Turkish Cypriot People. We strongly condemn the stance of UNFICYP which refrained from clearly identifying the perpetrators in its previous statement regarding the attack carried out against our citizens at Yiğitler Burcu Park on the anniversary of the establishment of the EOKA terrorist organization, while using a defamatory and biased tone when issues relating to the Turkish Cypriot side are concerned.

UNFICYP, while calling for respect for its own mandate and authority, does not demonstrate the same level of sensitivity in return. We therefore call on UNFICYP- which is only permitted to operate in our country solely as a gesture of our goodwill—to exercise the necessary sensitivity in its approach. In this context, it clearly has become an unavoidable necessity that the relationship model UNFICYP maintains with the Greek Cypriot side on the basis of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) needs to be established with our country as well. Such an arrangement should be concluded on a legal and equal basis and in line with our longstanding requests on this matter.