The Future of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in a Settlement of the Cyprus Conflict

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of this thesis is to forecast the future outcome of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) based on the Annan Plan and the Boutros Boutros Ghali Set of Idea for Cyprus settlement; presenting an overview of its effectiveness and transition from the past to the present. UNFICYP operation in Cyprus started in 1964 with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 186 (1964) mandating it to carry out a peacekeeping mission. This mission was to control the situation which came as a result of the constitutional change that the then Government of the Republic of Cyprus wanted to implement and which put the Turkish Cypriots on the disadvantageous side in the framework of the 1960 Republic of Cyprus. Since then UNFICYP has been in Cyprus keeping peace and ensuring that the violent uprising of the past did not re-occur again. There is a belief in some quarters that it is the task of UNFICYP to make peace and settlement in Cyprus, however, this falls within the mandate of the UN Secretary General and other officials of the UN who represent the UN in the Cyprus peace talks. The responsibility of UNFICYP is to engender a peaceful environment for peacemaking. To effectively carry out its functions, UNFICYP has gradually metamorphosed from being just a traditional peacekeeping force to a modernized peacekeeping organization. The Annan Plan provided for a peacekeeping force too, but it should have another acronym different from UNFICYP in order to play a complementary role in the implementation of the Cyprus settlements. Keywords: UNFICYP, Annan Plan, UN, Future, Effectiveness. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………