Agence France-Presse reported, citing Cypriot media, that a Turkish coastguard vessel fired warning shots at a Cyprus police boat on patrol for undocumented migrants near the line of control of the island's north coast on Friday.
The event occurred at a time when tensions on the island are high, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to visit the Turkish Cypriot north next week to commemorate Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
The Turkish coastguard was observed by the Cypriot vessel 11 nautical miles from Kato Pyrgos, a small fishing port just west of the UN-monitored armistice line separating the government-held territory from the breakaway north, according to the Cyprus News Agency.
The coastguard cutter was inside Cypriot territorial waters around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) when the incident occurred, according to Cyprus police spokesman Christos Andreou.
According to him, the boat was on a routine patrol to look for irregular migrants in the area, which is a major transit point for migrants arriving from Turkey.
“Seeing the Turkish coastguard's intentions, the patrol boat's three-member crew tried to avoid any incident and headed toward the fishing shelter at Kato Pyrgos,” he said.
“The marine police boat received warning shots from the Turkish coastguard at a distance of four nautical miles from the shelter.
“The Turkish coastguard then left for the occupied territories” (of northern Cyprus) because they were only a short distance from the shoreline, he claimed.
Tensions are rising ahead of Erdogan's visit to the island next week when he will take a provocative tour of the abandoned beach resort of Varosha, which was emptied of its Greek Cypriot population during the Turkish invasion.
Since the government proclaimed a "state of emergency" in May in response to an influx of Syrian refugees who crowded its receiving centers, Cyprus police have increased both land and maritime patrols.
Most migrants, according to Nicosia, enter government-controlled areas illegally through the UN-monitored buffer zone from the breakaway north.
‘Extremely challenging scenario'
For four years in a row, Cyprus, the European Union's most easterly member state, has had the highest proportion of asylum claims per capita in the union.
Nicosia has urged the EU for assistance in stopping irregular migrant flows from Turkey from reaching Cyprus, similar to an agreement reached with Greece in 2016.
“Despite the Cypriot authorities' enormous efforts to manage the disproportionate migratory pressures, we remain in an extremely difficult situation,” Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told reporters in June.
The island's separation by a 180-kilometer ceasefire line, he claimed, "creates unique conditions for the development of irregular migration."
In Cyprus, he noted, the proportion of applicants and beneficiaries of international protection amounts to 4% of the population.
“Unfortunately, the increasing irregular arrivals, particularly of Syrian nationals, by sea or land through the Green Line during the first months of 2021 indicate an alarming trend,” he stated.
“The main challenge for Cyprus is the continuation of large-scale migration flows from Turkey.”
