NICOSIA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkish fighters flew over Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, on the anniversary of the declaration 35 years ago of a Turkish Cypriot breakaway state, Cypriot authorities said Thursday.
A Cypriot government official strongly deplored the overfly, saying it hikes tensions as the United Nations (UN) is working to secure an agreement for the resumption of peace negotiations.
Turkey occupied the northern one-third of Cyprus in 1974, in reaction to a coup engineered by the military rulers of Greece, and later on Nov. 15, 1983 set up a breakaway entity called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The action was strongly condemned by the UN Security Council in a resolution which said the breakaway state was considered to be non-existent and called on all countries to abstain from recognizing it.
Turkey dismissed the call and has since kept up the so-called state with the presence of 40,000 troops and by financing its subsistence.
A delegation led by Turkey's first Vice-President Fuat Oktay attended a military parade along with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in the occupied Turkish part of Nicosia, during which two F-16 planes of the Turkish air force flew over the crowd.
Ankara's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the anniversary as a happy occasion and vowed continued support.
He also said those who expect Turkey to disavow guarantee and intervention rights in Cyprus and withdraw Turkish troops "should wake up from their dream."
"We never had such a policy and will neither have such a policy in the future," Cavusoglu said.
The refusal of Turkey to abandon guarantee rights it obtained under a 1960 treaty establishing Cyprus as an independent state was blamed by Greek Cypriots for the collapse of an international conference presided over by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in July, 2017.
At the conference, Guterres had called for the end of guarantee and intervention rights ceded to Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom, and for the establishment of a "normal" Cypriot state.
A UN envoy is expected to start a new round of efforts soon by talking to Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Akinci to get them agree on the terms of reference for the resumption of negotiations to reunify Cyprus in a federal state.
Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou denounced the declaration of a breakaway state by Turkey and urged it to set aside its secessionist logic.
He said Anastasiades is working along the line of ending the occupation of Cypriot territory and called on the Turkish Cypriot leadership to show the necessary political will to agree on the modalities of renewed negotiations.
