NICOSIA, August 2. /TASS/: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades’ office said on Monday it has received Russian President Vladimir Putin’s letter of response to the Cypriot leader’s messages concerning the situation around Varosha, an abandoned southern quarter of the Cypriot city of Famagusta.
"We deem unilateral actions in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 550 and 789 inadmissible," the office quoted Putin’s letter.
According to the Cypriot presidential office, Putin said in his letter he had "read attentively" the Cypriot president’s message of May 14 that had followed an informal meeting on the Cypriot settlement in Geneva, as well as the July 5 message expressing concern over the possible change of Varosha’s status-quo and the risks of frustrating efforts towards a comprehensive, lasting and fair resolution of the problem.
The Kremlin press service however said nothing about Putin’s letter to this effect.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 22 that Moscow was against any unilateral changes to the status of part of that closed district.
Earlier, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar announced at a military parade in the Turkish part of Nicosia that part Varosha’s territory, located in the neutral zone of the island, would be demilitarized and allocated for the use of Greek Cypriot private owners. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the parade, welcomed this decision, claiming that it would benefit all sides.
However, under a UN Security Council resolution of 1984, Varosha must remain intact until the return of descendants of the Greek Cypriot owners who were evicted in 1974. Another resolution of the UN Security Council seeks the return of this district under the control of UN peacekeepers (it is de-facto under the control of Turkish troops). In defiance of these two documents, on October 8, 2020, the authorities of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus opened access to the coastal part of Varosha’s northern neighborhoods to tourists.
