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Greek Cypriot Soldier Jailed in Turkish Cypriot Area
A military court in the Turkish Cypriot area has sentenced 21-year-old Greek Cypriot soldier Giorgos Kasianides to 20 days in jail for "illegal entry" into a military area in northern Cyprus, local media reported Saturday.
Turkish soldiers seized Kasianides early on Sunday when they found him in the Turkish Cypriot side of the divided Cypriot capital Nicosia. Kasianides was in uniform, but carrying no weapons.
So far there is no information about why or how Kasianides went to the Turkish Cypriot side.
Reports said the Turkish Cypriot court took Kasianides' age into account in reducing the sentence from a maximum of two years.
UNFICYP (U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus) spokeswoman Sarah Russell said permission had been granted for Kasianides' family to visit him in the jail Friday afternoon.
Cyprus has remained divided into the Turkish Cypriots-controlled north and the Greek Cypriots-dominated south since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in the wake of a failed coup seeking union with Athens.
Turkey has since then maintained 35,000 troops in northern Cyprus, where the Turkish Cypriots declared unilaterally in 1983 a breakaway "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," recognized only by Ankara.
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