United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is a United Nations Peacekeeping Force that was established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 186 in 1964 to prevent a recurrence of fighting following intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of law and order and to facilitate a return to normal conditions. Major General Erdenebat Batsuuri (Mongolia) is the current Force Commander of UNFICYP, appointed in 2024, and preceded by Ingrid Gjerde (Norway).
Initially, UNFICYP consisted of military and civilian contingents drawn from Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. However, over its long history the Force has been the subject of various UNSC resolutions and reorganisations, and currently comprises contingents from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
As of 2024, the Mission has a strength over 800 military personnel and 69 police officers. The mandate for UNFICYP was last renewed on 31 January 2025 and extended until 31 January 2026.
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is a United Nations peacekeeping force that was established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 186 in 1964 to prevent a recurrence of fighting following intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of law and order and to facilitate a return to normal conditions.
Following the 1974 Greek Cypriot coup d'état and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) extended and expanded the mission to prevent the dispute turning into war, and UNFICYP was redeployed to patrol the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus, and assist in the maintenance of the military status quo. Since its establishment, the force has also worked in concert with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and representatives of the two communities to seek an amicable diplomatic solution to the Cyprus dispute.
On 5 December 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended a further six-month extension in the mandate of the UN mission that has been deployed on the island for over four decades. Mr. Annan said that while the situation remained "calm and stable with no major violations of the ceasefire lines," he regretted the continued stalemate in the political process and the "missed opportunities" over the past 10 years.
Up to and including 26 March 2025, UNFICYP has suffered 184 fatalities, with 145 of these being due to an accident or illness.
UNFICYP is headquartered from the Blue Beret Camp next to the abandoned airport of Nicosia. The current force commander is Major General Erdenebat Batsuuri of Mongolia, (UNFICYP) Force Commander of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Upon UNFICYP's arrival on the island, the national contingents were each assigned a sector, which mostly coincided with the boundaries of the civil districts:
When, in October 1973, the Irish contingent was withdrawn from Cyprus in support of the United Nations Emergency Force during the Yom Kippur War, the Austrian contingent was relocated from Paphos District (which was subsequently absorbed by the British contingent) to Larnaca District to replace them, with the Western half, which had previously been patrolled by the British contingent, absorbed into the Austrian sector.
Canada in UNFICYP – From 15 March 1964 to 15 June 1993, Canada maintained a battalion-sized contingent of peace-support troops in UNFICYP. During this period, the Canadian contingent went through 59 rotations and some 25,000 CAF personnel completed six-month tours on the island. With Denmark, Ireland and Finland, Canada was one of the four original contributors of troops to UNFICYP, committed by the government of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson on 12 March 1964. The lead elements of the initial rotation of the Canadian contingent arrived on 15 March 1964, followed by a brigade headquarters, the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment, and a Reconnaissance Squadron from The Royal Canadian Dragoons mounted in Ferret scout cars that were transported to Cyprus by HMCS Bonaventure. By 1993, when Canada withdrew its combat arms contingent from UNFICYP, every infantry battalion of the Regular Force had deployed to Cyprus at least once, and Regular Force artillery and armoured regiments had reorganized for infantry duties to take their turns. The current contribution are small numbers of staff officers on one-year rotations. The operation name “Snowgoose” dates from July 1974, when the Canadian contingent in UNFICYP — originally made up of 1 Commando, Canadian Airborne Regiment, and the Airborne Field Squadron (the combat engineer element of the Canadian Airborne Regiment) — was rapidly augmented by 2 Commando and 3 Commando in response to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus that began on 20 July 1974.
As of 31 May 2012, the total strength (military personnel and civilian police) of UNFICYP was 926 individuals. The 858 military personnel were from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Hungary, Paraguay, Peru, Serbia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
On 31 October 2019, Ghana began contributing to the peacekeeping forces in Cyprus.
UNFICYP's military personnel are mostly divided up into national contingents, with each major contingent being responsible for one of the buffer zone's three remaining sectors. The Argentine contingent includes soldiers from the Argentine military forces, including the Argentine Army and the Argentine Marines, as well as from Brazil, Paraguay and Chile; whereas the Slovak contingent includes soldiers from Croatia.
In addition to the main sector contingents, there are several other military units under UNFICYP command, including:
There are 69 civilian police officers supplied by Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Montenegro, the Netherlands. In addition, UNFICYP has 147 civilian staff members, 39 of whom were internationally recruited and 108 locally recruited.
UNFICYP military strength as of April 2024:
The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus is a demilitarised zone, patrolled by UNFICYP, that was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and de facto partitions the island into the area controlled by the Government of Cyprus (which is the de jure government for the entire island save for the British Sovereign Base Areas) in the south and that under the illegal Turkish occupation in the north. The zone runs for more than 180.5 kilometres (112.2 mi) along what is colloquially known as the Green Line and has an area of 346 square kilometres (134 sq mi).
The zone stretches for 180 km from the western part of near Kato Pyrgos to the east just south of Famagusta. It cuts through the center of the old town of Nicosia, separating the city into southern and northern sections. There is also a buffer zone around the Kokkina exclave in western Cyprus. The width of the zone ranges from 3.3 metres (11 ft) in central Nicosia, to 7.4 kilometres (4.6 mi) at the village of Athienou. There is no buffer zone along the common border between the eastern British Sovereign Base Area and the area under the Republic of Cyprus control or Turkish Army control.
The buffer zone is home to some 10,000 people and there are several villages and farms located within. The village of Pyla is famous for being the only village in Cyprus where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live side by side. Other villages are Dhenia, Mammari, Athienou and Troulli while Lymbia lies partially within the zone.
Turkish forces built a barrier on the zone's northern side, consisting mainly of barbed-wire fencing, concrete wall segments, watchtowers, anti-tank ditches, and minefields. This line is also referred to as the Attila Line on some maps, named after the Turkish code-name for the 1974 military invasion: Operation Atilla. The closed off zone has become a haven for Cyprus' wildlife, an example of an involuntary park.
The annual cost for maintaining UNFICYP is estimated at $57,390,000. This includes the voluntary contribution by the Government of Cyprus of one third of the cost of the force and the annual amount of $6,500,000 contributed by the Government of Greece. Turkey does not directly contribute to the force's budget. The operational cost of UNFICYP just during the period from 16 June 1993 to 31 October 2010 was US$2.91 billion.
UNFICYP's neutrality mandate dictates the erasure of signs, flags, and emblems in spaces under its authority.
The fact that a third of UNFICYP's budget is covered by one party to the conflict (RoC; i.e., the Greek Cypriots) and one Guarantor (Greece) calls into question the UN's neutrality and constitutes “a conflict of interest" One interlocutor acknowledged that the way the budget of UNFICYP is organized "opens [UNFICYP] to criticism." One added: "How can we be impartial if we take part of the budget from one side?"
In January 2022, around a handball match between Cyprus and Turkey in the qualification for the 2024 European Championship, the decision of the Greek Cypriots not to allow a Turkish player who had tested positive with Covid-19 to be brought to Northern Cyprus with all the safety measures taken was criticized by the de facto TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry also criticized the UNFICYP for not playing a "facilitating role" to in the Turkish team's request, claiming "UNFICYP has moved away from the principle of neutrality, which is one of the most fundamental elements of peace operations, and has become a symbol of the status quo that serves the interests of the Greek Cypriot side." The player was eventually flown to Turkey instead.
Soydemir noted that "not the organization but the individuals can be affected by this approach and their neutrality might be hampered naturally."
In July 2018, the Turkish Cypriot president, Mustafa Akinci, called for a separate State of Force Agreement (SOFA) between Northern Cyprus and UNFICYP, and sent a letter to the UN Security Council for the reassessment of the UNFICYP's mandate and stated that UNFICYP continues to cooperate with the authorities of Northern Cyprus absent a legal basis and specified that Northern Cyprus stood ready to prepare a document with the UN dealing with all aspects of their relations.
In October 2022, UNFICYP was given an ultimatum by Northern Cyprus (the de facto administration in the north) demanding it recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or to leave the 2 bases it currently has in the north. Ersin Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus, stated that in line with the Brahimi Report of the UN, the consent of Northern Cyprus for the stationing of UNFICYP is a must. Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, the foreign minister of Northern Cyprus, stated that the deadline for the ultimatum for requesting the approval of Northern Cyprus for the operations of UNFICYP in Northern Cyprus is the end of October 2022.
On 28 September 2023, Turkey called for a written agreement between Northern Cyprus and UNFICYP regarding relations between the two. Turkey said "An agreement is necessary to delimit the functions of UNFICYP vis a vis its interactions with Northern Cyprus. The attitude and practice of double standards by UNFICYP regarding the sovereignty of the TRNC and regarding the most fundamental humanitarian needs of Turkish Cypriots, are incompatible with UNFICYP’s obligation to remain neutral and they damage its prestige. In this context, it was noted that once again the need has arisen for the activities of the peacekeeping forces in the TRNC to be placed on a legal basis through a written agreement with the authorities of the TRNC. Turkey will continue to guarantee security and peace for Turkish Cypriots in the context of Turkey’s rights emanating from international law and treaties."