The U.N. Security Council called on Turkey and Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus on Thursday to close a beach in uninhabitated Varosha.

The U.N. Security Council called on Turkey and the illegally Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus on Thursday to close a beach in uninhabitated Varosha that was opened this week and avoid any unilateral actions “that could raise tensions on the island.”

Varosha´s Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled as Turkish troops advanced in 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Since then, the area had been placed under Turkish military control, cordoned off and left to the ravages of time.

About 150,000 Greek Cypriots were displaced from their homes in the summer of 1974, never to return.

The Security Council adopted a resolution in 1984 which said any attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its original inhabitants is “inadmissible.” It called “for the transfer of that area to the administration of the United Nations.” A 1992 resolution reaffirmed the 1984 resolution and called for Varosha to be put under control of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Cyprus – but that has not happened.

The U.N.´s most powerful body on Friday reaffirmed “the status of Varosha as set out in previous U.N. Security Council resolutions” and reiterated “that no actions should be carried out in relation to Varosha that are not in accordance with those resolutions.”

Just after the Statement by the President of the Russian Permanent Representative, Amb. Vassily Nebenzia, on Varosha, Mr Andreas D. Mavroyiannis Permanent representative of the Republic of Cyprus to the United Nations, spoke on the situation in the country.

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