Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday called for dialogue and said he had contacted the United Nations in the aftermath of an incident in the buffer zone earlier in the week in which Greek Cypriot farmers were attacked by Turkish soldiers as they were believed to have illegally entered the north near the village of Mammari.

He also lamented that “the Greek Cypriot leadership immediately issued accusatory statements with unacceptable wording” after the incident came to light.

“In the last days of 2025, violations carried out by Greek Cypriot farmers in the buffer zone, and even beyond it, caused tension… We immediately requested reports on the matter and contacted UN officials. We ensured that dialogue was established between our authorities and the UN on this issue,” he said.

He added that in doing this, his aim was “to prevent such tension-increasing incidents from occurring”.

“The way to do this is for the UN to strictly implement all agreements to date and for the dialogue mechanisms to function effectively. In our view, the task of the leaderships is to strengthen the preventative dialogue mechanism and refrain from words which will poison the atmosphere and statements which will increase tension,” he said.

To this end, he said that one of the proposals included in his ten-point package presented to President Nikos Christodoulides last year was “the establishment of a mechanism to facilitate direct dialogue between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot security forces.

“The aim was to ensure that contact could be established without delay in case of any problems,” he said.

The Greek Cypriot farmer at the centre of the incident, Gavriel Yerolemou, said on Tuesday that more than 20 Turkish soldiers and police officers had attempted to arrest him and his father while they were working in their field.

He added that stones had been thrown at them, and that he had been grabbed by the throat.

Later on Tuesday, Christodoulides had described the incident as “an act of piracy” and said that he had also made representations to the UN.

The north’s ‘foreign ministry’ responded by saying that “Greek Cypriot farmers once again attempted to cultivate land in the TRNC without permission”.

It said that the farmers had violated an agreement signed in 1988 regarding the use of farmland in the buffer zone and “seriously endangered the safety of our police and military personnel by driving their tractors towards them when they tried to stop them”.