The UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus was first established 1964 to prevent communal violence between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. Ten years later, in 1974, the mission expanded further — to its current form.
At the time, the Turkish military had invaded Cyprus in response to a coup on the island. Peacekeepers deployed to maintain a fragile ceasefire. To this day there are still over 1,200 personnel deployed to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, UNFICYP.
On the line to explain why this peacekeeping force is still needed after all these years is Peter Yeo, President of the Better World Campaign and Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation. Peter Yeo is a veteran observer of UN peacekeeping missions, who recently visited the mission in Cyprus
We kick off discussing the history of the mission before having a broader conversation of its still relevant work after all these years.
