UN marks 'unwanted milestone' of 60-year peacekeeping mission in Cyprus

In the shadow of the once-glamorous Ledra Palace Hotel, which lies on Cyprus's dividing Buffer Zone, a memorial has been unveiled to mark 60 years of UN peacekeeping on the island.
It was called an "unwelcome milestone" by UNFICYP's Chief of Staff, Colonel Ben Ramsay, who said: "I would hope that there aren't another 60 years of UNFICYP."
Speaking to Forces News, he said that it was too long for a peacekeeping force to endure, with the absence of war not meaning that there is peace.
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[@lib556]

Canada played a significant role for 30 yrs. I'm glad that one of your interviewees mentioned us. It was the Canadian contingent (the Canadian Airborne Regt) that was in Nicosia in 1974 during the coup and defended the airport. Two were killed and 30 wounded. My father served in Cyprus in 1968 and 1980. I, in turn, served there in 1988.

[@davidgaston738]

i was in that war all the way through it; our little patrol rescued many people from certain death over the whole of the island and saw the desolation of destruction and all it entailed at night we camped and by morning frightened ravaged people would be there and we NEVER FAILED

[@budte]

I was there also from I believe 1964 for two years...though as the 5 year old son of a REME soldier. Have good memories of the beaches and the now unrecognisably built-up Fig tree bay.

[@nobby3542]

I completed a 6 month UNFICYP tour in 1980. Based at Nicosia Airport in the UN Workshops. We repaired the UN vehicles. 44 years on and the UN Force is still there!

[@RJM1011]

Same as blocking Sweden you can always relay on Turdkey to let you down !

[@jackholler3572]

Supporting terrorists are not Turkish thing. It is your thing. And we let you down on that. Now go away

[@toxichuman208]

Bla bla

[@berkovsky49]

Sweden joined NATO a week before when you wrote that comment Grow up

[@peabase]

​@@berkovsky49 In Sweden's case, Turkey accepted the ransom, US F-16s. Here, an acceptable ransom hasn't been agreed on yet.

[@blacksmith67]

In the photo of Scouts her father, Nick Cacoyannis, is the only one who doesn't have his arms crossed. Instead he has his hands together in the same pose that he does during the interview all these decades later.

[@janesda]

Who is funding this mission and at how much per year?

[@Richard-pe4cx]

WELL THEY KEPT THE 2 SIDES APART job done

[@davidsharonturrell6249]

I have been to Cyprus many times you can cross the green line from the south to the north or visa versa no problem .

[@trevorhart545]

@@davidsharonturrell6249NOT the locals the Turkish Army and STOPPING the Greek Army from landing

[@ahmetdagdelen6180]

Just an intelligence unit of Western capital

[@user-vx6tq7ko2b]

Op Tosca?

[@darachmilner561]

Most of the soldiers in the old footage are Irish Army

[@ubiquitousubiquitous3843]

Irish Army with the Brits stood behind in support

[@peabase]

It's uncanny that my late dad served with Irish peacekeepers in Cyprus, and myself with the Irish in Lebanon. By a stroke of coincidence, an Irishman that I befriended had his dad serve in Cyprus, too. Brothers in arms in two generations.

[@peabase]

@@ubiquitousubiquitous3843 REMFs do the support stuff, yes.

[@ubiquitousubiquitous3843]

@@peabase 😂 Irish are the epitomes of REMFs avoiding any actual conflict and still relying on the Brits today to defend their airspace. Irish military certainly don’t have a great history or a battle tested one at that

[@wilbur948ie]

Strange not a mention of Turkeys invasion in 1974 which resulted in Turkeys annexation of Northern Cyprus.

[@rogerfrith7551]

It wasn't an invasion at all. It was to stop the Greek policy of ethnically cleansing Cyprus of it's Turkish Cypriot population!

[@trevorhart545]

OR the previous attempt by Greece to annex ALL of Cyprus and Exclude Turkish Cypriots from any Government job. The Greeks demanded that the local Cypriot Defence Force excluded Turkish Cypriots AND ALL Officers to be trained by the Greek Army. Nino, a Greek Cypriot nearly 80 now told me that back in 1975.

[@wilbur948ie]

​@@trevorhart545I was in RAF in Cyprus 1974.Greeks did not allow Turks to buy building Materials and most made their own Blocks for home building.Turks treated same way Israel treats Palestinians.

[@Ramzi1944]

​@@wilbur948ieThank you for sharing

[@ahmetdagdelen6180]

Annexation? Cyprus is not part of Turkey. I think you need to learn what the word annexation means. Yes, Turkish soldiers pushed Greek Cypriots towards the south. What should they have done? They did not drop bombs on the Greeks who fled to the south. It has nothing to do with what Israel is doing in Gaza. We all know what Eoka did to Turkish civilians. We know about the Greeks who kill children and throw them into the bathtub. Whatever. There are 2 states on the island. The world will eventually accept the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus soon or later.

[@minuteman4199]

The fact that it's been going on for 60 years shows how pointless it was as a "peace keeping mission".

[@lachlanchester8142]

The peace has been kept for 60 years? I don’t see how that means it hasn’t worked

[@1anre]

Interesting Island that has no plans on reconciling as both sides keep festering the wounds. If only this world had a time machine to stop all this from happening I the first instance. A decade plus ago I was there and it looked nothing like they indigenes on both sides cared alot about making it work again.

[@imisstoronto3121]

What was motive behind Turkeys invasion of Cyprus??

[@lib556]

In response to a coup and the attempted assassination of the President by radical factions of Greek Cypriots. Turkey cited their duty to protect ethnic Turks as the pretext.

[@raymondvella7560]

There was a rumour that the Greeks and Greek Cypriots were going to amalgamate Cyprus into Greece.

[@marknewcombe2488]

As Craig Fairbrass so eloquently puts it. MISSON FAILED!

[@BIBIWCICC]

Sadly this has been completely undermined by the UK supporting the killing of some 200 UN staff by Israel. The weapons used were also in some cases British weapons. Beware of volunteering to work for the UN or you might be in a blue on blue situation.

[@villigutvilligut4201]

Самые бесполезные вооруженные силы на планете. После британских, конечно.

[@wheeler71]

👎👎

[@rogerfrith7551]

The UN celebrates 60 years of 'Jollies' in the sun more like!

[@trevorhart545]

During the Turkish Invasion the British Army faced Turkish Tanks, even got shot at IF that is your idea of a Jolly then????

[@DaDaW9762]

Come on dude, various peacekeepers have died in Cyprus, especially at the beginning and the early years.. I openly admit, my 2011 tour of Cyprus was a jolly, I earned my wages during two stints of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.. But some of these blokes did their part as well as facing EOKA terrorists earlier in the 1950s.

[@mikewingert5521]

UN tours….a waste of time…..Op Grapple 3…..😴😴😴😴😴

[@lachlanchester8142]

Op nobody asked

[@gw2891]

I was on Op Grapple 1 😮

[@mikewingert5521]

@@gw2891 ….I was based at Split in the North Port; worked the port and airport…..May - Nov 93…..lived on an RFA ship; I had a cabin. Loved every second of the tour. Best tour of my career…..

[@gw2891]

@@mikewingert5521 I went to Split (lovely place tbh)from Gornji Vakuf stayed on a Navy ship can’t remember the name of it I have a photo somewhere. Went to club called Hollywoods on a Friday which was levelled the next night 😳

[@mikewingert5521]

@@gw2891 Never heard of Hollywood’s; obviously never got rebuilt after being flattened lol. All the old names; TSG, The Metal Factory at Banja Luka……

[@buzzmeanytime]

Sounds pretty but without weapons to keep the peace all that peacekeeping talk is just talk. there’s Law and then there is order. Weapons are the order.

[@lib556]

Our contingent (Canada) was always armed for self-protection. That said, the rules were extremely tight. Soldiers only had a 20 rd magazine (ours was the first rotation to use the brand new C7 rifle - M 16 which had 30 rd-capable mags. I don't know what they were allowed for our C1s -FALs - between 1964 and 1988). As an officer, I was issued a pistol and was only allowed 10 rds. Every morning I had to count out my rds in front of the CQMS as I loaded my one mag. At he end of the day, I had to count them back in again to prove I hadn't loosed off any random shots. Mags were only allowed on weapons as an escalation. Contrast this with the UN mission in Yugoslavia just a few yrs later where soldiers rotating in were given a sand bag with hundreds of rds and frag grenades. You have to keep in mind that there are usually two distinct streams of soldiers serving on a UN mission: a peace keeping force and UNMOs (unarmed military observers). The former tend to be more overt and loud. They are typically based on a battalion (usually 500 men), are armed for self-protection, including machine guns, and drive around in armoured vehicles painted white. The latter operate in small teams. They are unarmed and drive around in white SUVs. Their small, unarmed status gives them much broader access in the AO.

[@buzzmeanytime]

UN peacekeepers? Remember what happened in Mogadishu? That wasn’t no peacekeeping. That was a slaughter forget being unarmed.

[@TC-qd1zw]

How come Greece and Turkey can be members of the EU, which prohibits members been in conflict

[@daveanderson3805]

Turkey isn't a member of the EU. I think that you meant to say that both Greece and Turkey are members of NATO. Unfortunately Turkey occupies a strategically very important part of the world, so we have to tolerate Turkey

[@MKCupra]

Turkey is not in the EU...

[@RJM1011]

Turdkey is NOT in the EU at this time !

[@TC-qd1zw]

@@RJM1011 I presume you mean Turkey. What a Turkey you are.

[@jackholler3572]

​@@daveanderson3805Turkey tolerating allll those two faced hypocrisy and double standarts. But this support to terrorists was too much. I think you should be grateful to Turkey to tolerating you.

[@kaanyagzer8536]

Please be polite and don't mock our minds. We do not believe that U.N forces are impartial ... We do not trust so call peacekeepers and we don't want to see U.N colors around. The political climate is not right to send those blue "bugs" away, for now atleast ... but we are patient, we can wait until the all pieces find their place. Until that day comes... keep doing whatever nonsense you can and entertain us. ByE! Sign : A Turk!