In ethnically split Cyprus, buffer zone tensions persist after decades, a UN official says

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in ethnically divided Cyprus says more than five decades on, tensions persist along a 180-kilometer (120 mile) buffer zone that separates breakaway Turkish Cypriots from Greek Cypriots in island’s internationally recognized south. Colin Stewart told a ceremony Monday marking the 60th anniversary of the force’s deployment in Cyprus that peacekeepers record “hundreds of incidents” every month. The force was first deployed in March, 1964 but Cyprus’ ethnic division solidified a decade later when Turkey invaded in the immediate aftermath of a coup aiming at uniting the island with Greece.