A new incident occurred in the dead zone in Cyprus between Greek Cypriot farmers and Turkish soldiers. As the community leader of the village of Denia, Christos Panagiotou, told the Cyprus News Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been informed of the incident and promised to visit the area while the National Guard is also aware of the matter.
Mr. Panagiotou reported that at 6:00 in the morning, a farmer went to the area to cultivate his fields and members of the UN peacekeeping force also went there.
“The United Nations soldiers approached the farmer and urged him to leave the area because it is dangerous and the Turks would arrest him,” said the community leader, noting that when he went to the site, the farmer had almost finished his work.
“When the farmer told the UN men that he had been cultivating the field for 15 years, they asked him why he did not go to the outpost that the Turks had set up to protest,” he added, noting that the UN said they had those instructions and that they had information that ” soon the Turks will come to arrest the farmer “.
As the Mayor of Denia reported, “in half an hour, Turkish soldiers descended with trucks, but the farmer was nearing the end (of his work) and it was difficult to arrest him because he was locked inside his tractor. The farmer finished his work and left.”
In addition, Mr. Panagiotou said that the farmer went there again in the afternoon together with other farmers, because their fields are there. “We don’t know how they will react”, he noted, which is why he is in communication with the farmers “because we don’t know what will happen”. According to the Head of the Community, “on Tuesday afternoon the Turks deployed new soldiers”.
Mr. Panagiotou stated that “as soon as the farmers went to the area to cultivate their fields, the Turks also came down with a military vehicle, from which a few soldiers disembarked, and then proceeded inside the dead zone and hid behind some bushes.”
The Turks, he continued, are in their posts and in the bushes, 50 metres away. “There is also a crew of a Greek Cypriot television station that is recording the images for documentation purposes,” he noted.
also read
