The Greek
Cypriot administration has accepted an offer of assistance from Turkey
to help fight a wildfire raging for the last three days in the island’s
Troodos Mountains.
A statement from the Greek
Cypriot administration on the evening of June 21 confirmed that the
Turkish Forestry Ministry, in coordination with Turkish Cypriot
President Mustafa Akıncı, offered two extinguisher helicopters and a
firefighting airplane.
The offer was accepted by Greek
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, state-run Anadolu Agency
reported, adding that Anastasiades accepted the offer on grounds that
the Turkish aircrafts were “a part of the firefighting force from
Israel, Greece, U.K., France, Italy and the European Union which have come for help.”
Though
some 20 firefighting aircrafts from foreign countries had also joined
in efforts to extinguish the fire, reportedly the fire was not yet under
control.
The blaze on the Mediterranean island began on June
19, just one day after firefighters managed to extinguish another huge
fire at Argaka on the island’s northwest coast.
Police said they
arrested two people suspected of starting the earlier fire. They said a
12-year-old boy was suspected of starting the Evrychou blaze while
playing with a lighter.
Turkish Forest and Waterworks Minister
Veysel Eroğlu said earlier on June 21 that Turkey was keeping two
firefighting helicopters and one airplane ready in case Greek Cyprus accepted their offer to help.
Anastasiades said Akıncı had conveyed Turkey’s offer of help, as Ankara has no direct lines of communication with the Greek Cypriot government.
Akıncı’s
presidential spokesperson, Barış Burcu, said June 20 that Akıncı had
called Anastasiades on June 19 and offered to supply Greek
Cyprus with aircrafts to help put the fire out, according to a
statement issued on the presidential office’s website on June 20. Burcu
said Anastasiades thanked Akıncı and said he would reconsider the offer
if attempts to put the fire out where inadequate.
The island has
been divided since 1974 when Turkey intervened in the north following a
coup attempt to unite the island with Greece.
Peace talks were
relaunched in May 2015 between Akıncı and Anastasiades and both of the
leaders have expressed their will and determination that a deal was
possible within 2016.
The United Nations’ Good Offices announced
on June 21 that Anastasiades had requested to postpone the leaders’
meeting between him and Akıncı scheduled to take place on the same day
in Nicosia due to the fires, to which Akıncı had “expressed his full
understanding and support.”
In a separate statement issued on
June 21 by his office, Akıncı expressed his condolences for the loss of
two firefighters who died while trying to tackle the ongoing forest
fires.
The two firefighters were killed when their vehicle slid
down a 20-meter gully on June 20. A third firefighter remains in
critical condition with head injuries suffered in a separate accident on
June 19 when his truck overturned.
‘Talks for solution should not be open-ended’
During
a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavuşoğlu, Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said on
June 22 that he believed talks for a solution on the island should not
be “open-ended.”
“We have been negotiating for 50 years but we are facing a Greek Cypriot side that intends to continue negotiations for another 500 years,” Ertuğruloğlu said.
He said the Greek
Cypriots must understand that Cyprus is not a “Hellene island” and
abandon their “national line of trying to subdue Turkish Cypriots.”
“When they [the Greek
Cypriot administration] do this then it is of course possible that we
could reach a deal by the end of this year,” he said, while adding that
the latest developments from the Greek Cypriot side “have not shown such a will.”
The fire is one of Greek
Cyprus’ largest forest fires ever, having scorched around 15 square
kilometers of trees and countryside. Almost 500 firefighters, soldiers
and volunteers have been trying to contain it amid a heat wave with
temperatures surging to over 40 degrees Celsius.
Andreas Christou, a spokesman for Greek
Cyprus’ forestry department, told The Associated Press that crews were
focusing firefighting efforts on a front that was moving toward the
villages of Kannavia and Agia Eirini, some 40 kilometers southwest of
the capital of Nicosia.
A Cypriot government official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because he wasn’t
allowed to publicly discuss the matter, confirmed that Cyprus had also
asked Russia for assistance.