The foreign ministry sent a letter to the UN peacekeeping force Unficyp on Thursday asking for an immediate postponement of works taking place at the Cetinkaya football pitch in the buffer zone, it said in a Twitter post.

On Wednesday Unficyp spokesperson Aleem Siddique told the Cyprus News Agency that any suggestion that the status of Cetinkaya pitch ‘Taksim’ has changed, was wrong and misleading.

Siddique also said that “the site would be used for football practice only, as it has been used in the past, with strict regulations in place to manage its use and protect its status within the buffer zone.”

The area remains inside the buffer zone, under the control of Unficyp, he noted commenting on reports in the media concerning the works by ‘youth and sports ministry’.