mammari — Turkish troops attacked Greek Cypriot farmers in the buffer zone near Mammari on Monday, escalating tensions in the region. More than 20 Turkish soldiers and police confronted the farmers while they were working their field, which is approximately 300 metres from a Turkish military post.
Photo: in-cyprus.philenews.com
Gavriil Gerolemos, a young farmer involved in the incident, recounted a harrowing experience. He explained that as he and his father tended to their crops, they were suddenly surrounded by armed Turkish forces who began throwing stones at them. “They were throwing stones at us, trying to grab us by the neck and arrest us,” Gerolemos said, describing the aggressive tactics used against them.
The confrontation began when a Turkish soldier approached the farmers’ parked double-cab vehicle, attempting to remove the keys from the ignition. When the farmers intervened to stop him, more soldiers and police arrived, heightening the situation. Gerolemos added that a police officer attempted to climb onto the tractor driven by his father, further escalating tensions.
In a desperate attempt to escape, Gerolemos’s father accelerated the tractor, causing the police officer to fall off. “They were shouting at us in Turkish and English, ‘stay’, ‘arrested’, and things like that,” Gerolemos recalled, highlighting the urgency and danger of the situation.
Despite the presence of UN peacekeepers who arrived on the scene, their role was limited to merely observing and recording the incident. Gerolemos expressed concerns about the imbalance of power: “The situation was very dangerous; they were armed, and there were two of us and 20 of them. What else can you do except leave?”
Christodoulos Christodoulou, another farmer from Deneia, described the incident as particularly serious and noted the increasing frequency of such confrontations. “It was the worst incident we’ve seen in the last five to six years,” he stated. He emphasised the impact these events have on their families, saying, “We have families and babies, and we can’t have the Turks climbing on tractors every so often, breaking them. It’s unacceptable; we don’t know what to do.”
The incident resulted in significant damage to the farmers’ tractor, although the extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed. Following the altercation, the Foreign Ministry has been informed about the events, indicating the seriousness with which they are taken.
