Turkish Cypriot president receives senior UN official amid road construction dispute

By Mehmet Kemal Firik

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) – Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar received on Monday a senior UN official, who is paying a three-day visit to the island nation amid a dispute over a road construction.

Tatar and Miroslav Jenca, UN assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, met in the capital Lefkosa for talks, which lasted one and a half hours at the presidential building.

Colin Stewart, the head of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, and Ergun Olgun, the Turkish Cypriot president's special representative, also attended the meeting.

Jenca's visit came after UN peacekeepers on Aug. 18 intervened in road construction work to link the Turkish Cypriot village of Pile in the buffer zone with the rest of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Tatar said he informed Jenca that the "Pile-Yigitler road construction plan is a humanitarian project and was born out of necessity."

Tatar told Jenca that UN peacekeepers' move to prevent the construction of a "humanitarian" road connecting the Pile and Yigitler villages is "unacceptable."

The UN official, for his part, told reporters: "We hope that there will be common ground in the future for the resumption of peace talks that benefit the entire people."

Jenca, who will be in Cyprus between Aug. 27 and 29, held a separate meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides early on Monday.

The road expansion is strategically important for residents as it will give them more options to reach Pile, where Turks and Greek Cypriots live together.

Residents of Pile will be able to travel shorter distances and will not have to pass through British bases when crossing to the Turkish side when the 11.6-kilometer (7.2-mile) construction and repair work ends.

The first 7.5 km (4.66 mi) of the road will pass through the village of Yigitler, and the second 4.1 km (2.55 mi) will pass through Pile.

The Greek Cypriot administration and the UN, however, oppose to the project.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz