Turkey announces the reopening of the Varosha military enclave in Cyprus

Turkey continues to cause concern to the international community. Following the tensions with Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, it is now preparing to reopen the coastal neighbourhood of Varosha in the north of the island, an area that has been sealed off as a military zone for 46 years and is considered a key area in the Turkish-Cypriot conflict.

The UN Security Council called on Turkey on Friday to reverse its decision to reopen this enclave. In a statement agreed by the 15 member states, the Council expressed its concern about the announcement in Ankara and urged to avoid "unilateral actions that could raise tensions in Cyprus".

The Security Council's statement came on Friday after a closed-door meeting requested by the Cypriot authorities, who consider that the Turkish movement violates UN resolutions on the issue.

The UN's highest decision-making body reaffirmed the status of Varosha in several of its resolutions, and considered inadmissible any attempt to populate Varosha with people other than the area's former inhabitants.

Varosha beach is located near the port of Famagusta, the main tourist centre of Cyprus before it was abandoned after the Turkish occupation of the north of the island in 1974, and has been sealed off as a military zone for 46 years.

While over the years Famagusta has regained its original number of inhabitants, some 40,000, although not the original ones, the area of Varosha was closed off with a fence and wires by the Turkish armed forces.

The reopening, which has triggered a trail of criticism at all levels, was announced from Ankara by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, together with the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (RTNC), Ersin Tatar, candidate in the Turkish Cypriot presidential elections next Sunday.

The dispute comes at a time of particular tension over Turkey's exploration in Mediterranean waters that are sovereign or overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Greece and Cyprus and which the European Union considers illegal.

The conflict between Turkey and Cyprus began in the mid-twentieth century and continues to affect the territory and population of the island. The territorial dispute has involved the intervention of different international powers. Mainly Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, in addition to the United Nations.

Since the colonisation of the island by the British Empire this conflict has remained unresolved following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the region. It turns out that in 1878 the Ottoman Empire ceded the island's administration to the British through the Istanbul Convention.

Since WWII, Cypriots have fought for the right to self-determination. But not all citizens wanted the same resolution, the relations with Turkey and Greece divided the population. This triggered a civil war between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots that ended in 1974 by dividing the north and south of the island with different ethnic populations. In the north, the population is related to Turkey and in the south to Greece.

The Greek Cypriots aimed at independence from the United Kingdom and union with Greece. On the other hand, the Turkish Cypriots refuse to live under the Greek administration and have requested the division of the island for self-management.

The British, for their part, seeing that it was not worth continuing the fight, sought to condition their withdrawal by achieving the greatest advantages that would enable them to maintain a presence in the eastern Mediterranean.

The conflict had international implications beyond the island, involving Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom, powers which, during the Zurich and London agreements, provided a legal basis for Cypriot independence.

The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have also been close observers of the development of the conflict. Hostilities between the two communities reached an inordinate intensity in the 1960s. As a result, in December and January 1963, the United Nations deployed a mission to monitor the fighting in the Tylliria region.

Following the coup d'état of the Colonels in Greece (21 April 1967), the union of Cyprus with France became a credible possibility. Because of this, the Turkish army occupied the northern part of the island, where the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was eventually established, unilaterally declaring its independence and the partition of the island.

Although this proclamation lacks international recognition it still gives the international community a lot of headaches.

The island's territory is currently divided. To the south of the so-called Green Line (a military boundary separating the opposing sides established and maintained by the UN), the area inhabited by the Greek Cypriot community is the home of the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, which has even obtained membership of the European Union.

In the north, the Turkish Cypriot population, which is close to Turkey, continues to fight for self-determination. Tomorrow, crucial elections will be held in the area. In which the separatists and those close to Greece will decide on the future of the region.