Statement by Mr. Peter Iliichev, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, at the Security Council meeting on the situation in Cyprus
January 28, 2016The Russian Federation voted in favour of resolution 2263 (2016), on extending the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which plays an important role in the maintenance of peace and tranquillity on the island. We are in favour of intercommunity relations and negotiations.
However, we note that the document is seriously flawed because the sponsors of the resolution did not heed the opinions of a number of Security Council members, failing to reflect in the text an obvious fact, namely, that beyond the presence in Cyprus of the two Cypriot communities, there is also one additional player — Turkey — which maintains an enormous military presence on the island and whose true relationship with the settlement of the Cyprus issue is still not clear. This is attested to, for example, by the fact that the Turkish air force regularly violates Cypriot air space. We are convinced that such actions have a negative impact on the atmosphere in which the negotiations are taking place, harm civil aviation in the region and should be curtailed.
We are in favour of the Cypriot parties finding a negotiated solution that is in line with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the Security Council resolutions and which would respond to contemporary geopolitical realities. In that context, we note that the existing security mechanisms, namely, systems of external guarantees for Cyprus, are a relic of the colonial era and have no place in the twenty-first century.
