The Turkish Cypriots have begun construction of a road that they want to go through the UN controlled buffer zone that divides Turks and Greeks. The UN has objected to this, arguing that it will destabilize the fragile peace that has been maintained for decades. Turkish Cypriot forces attacked UN peacekeepers, seriously injuring three peacekeepers. The Cypriot Turks also used bulldozers to drive out UN vehicles. According to Al-Monitor:

Turkish Cypriot forces “manhandled” UN peacekeepers, while Turkish Cypriot bulldozers moved UN trucks, cement structures and barbed wire in Sector 4 of UN zone. Three peacekeepers were seriously injured, but no shots were fired, Reuters reported.

The UN mission in Cyprus said its peacekeepers were physically attacked as they tried to block “unauthorised construction work” near Pyla, the only village where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live alongside each other.

The Greek City Times reports that the Turkish Cypriots want the road to connect the “Turkish Cypriot village of Arsos in the north with the Greek Cypriot village of Pyla, located south of the buffer zone within the Greek Cypriot south.” This buffer zone region is where the internationally recognized government of the island is located. If the Turks encroach on this buffer zone, it will shatter the already brittle peace, and make the reality of war between Greek and Turk very close. The buffer zone’s status quo has been maintained under the U.N. mission’s mandate since 1974 when Turkey did a military intervention in the region after a coup attempt by Greek junta-backed supporters pushed for union with Greece. Turkish intervention caused a divide in the country, between the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government and a Turkish state that is only recognized by Turkey. Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AKP party, expressed his defense for the creation of the road and condemned what he called the “unacceptable” attitude of the UN peacekeepers. “The attitude of the UN peacekeeping force serving in Cyprus … was unacceptable and extremely wrong,” Celik wrote on Twitter, now rebranded as X. He stated that the UN’s position “aimed at pleasing the Greek Cypriot side” and “has damaged the reputation” of the UN mission in Cyprus. Turkey argues that the road has no ill-will behind it, but is to make it easier for the Turks of Pyla to go the Turkish side of the country. Pavlos Marinakis, a representative for the government of Greece, stated today:

Greece and Cyprus will be together in this self-evident battle of legitimacy and law . We are not going to tolerate such behaviors and of course we have a series of public condemnations at the world level from the United States of America, officials of the European Union. We will continue in this direction in order to defend the self-evident rights of the Republic of Cyprus and the rule of law”,

The Mediterranean is like Eastern Europe — an atmosphere filled with flammable gas that will combust into a violent conflagration at any moment. In other words, war between Greek and Turk is inevitable.